Shawnee graduate Amanda Demko won her second straight NJAC 400 title Tuesday at Ocean Breeze, and she moved into the No. 8 spot on the all-time TCNJ list in the process.
Last spring, as a College of New Jersey freshman, she won the 400 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference outdoor championships at Ramapo in Mahwah in 57.91, leading a 1-2-3-4 TCNJ sweep.
On Tuesday, in her first NJAC indoor meet, Demko ran 57.68, finishing six meters ahead of junior teammate Maria Grill, who was 2nd in 58.55.
Demko, who has freshman eligibility indoors, broke her indoor PR of 57.98, which she just set a week and a half earlier in Boston. She set her outdoor PR of 57.46 in April at the Quaker Invitational at Franklin Field.
At the NJAC meet, Demko also ran on TCNJ’s winning 800-meter relay team along with Ashlyn MacLure, Valandra Riggins and Maria Grill. That group ran 1:43.09, No. 2 in school history behind the 2003 team, which ran 1:42.88. Demko was also 5th in the 200 in 25.98.
TCNJ won its 4th consecutive team title with 217.166 points, winning by 73.466 points over Rowan, which finished with 143.7.
Demko earned All-America honors last spring after running the 2nd leg on TCNJ’s 5th-place 1,600-meter relay team at NCAA Division 3 Nationals in Greensboro. TCNJ’s 4-by-4 has run 3:56.54 this winter with Demko in the lineup.
The top 20 competitors in each indivudual event qualify for NCAA Indoor Nationals, scheduled for March 11-12 in Winston-Salem, N.C. Demko is listed at No. 20 on the TFRRS [Track an Field Race Reporting System] but she’s listed at 58.45, which appears to be some sort of conversion from a banked track to a flat track but nobody really seems to know and it’s not explained anywhere.
In any case, Demko has two more chances to improve her time before nationals – the Fastrack Last Chance at Ocean Breeze Friday and the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships [AARTFC] in Rocheseter March 4-5.
At Shawnee, Demko had an indoor PR of 58.54 from the 2020 Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze and an outdoor PR of 58.66 from 2019 Group 4 sectionals at Washington Township.
Here’s a detailed look at the all-time TCNJ indoor 400 top-10:
55.63 … Samantha Gorman [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], Boston University Last Chance Qualifier, 2020
56.68 … Brittny Boyd [Hackettstown], NCAA Division 3 Championships, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., 2006
57.18 … Megan Gasnick [Park Ridge], David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Boston University, 2020
57.21 … Joy Spriggs [South Brunswick], David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Boston University, 2015
57.43 … Tiffany Clark [West Orange], New Jersey Athletic Conference, 168th Street Armory, New York, 2003
57.46 … Jianna Spadaccini [Butler], New Jersey Athletic Conference, 168th Street Armory, New York, 2010
57.66 … Jessica Bonelli [Gloucester Catholic], New Jersey Athletic Conference, 168th Street Armory, New York, 2006
57.68 … Amanda Demko [Shawnee], New Jersey Athletic Conference, Ocean Breeze, 2022
57.83 … Meryl Wimberley [Colts Neck], ECAC, 168th Street Armory, New York, 2011
57.99 … Shannon Lambert [Lenape], David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Boston University, 2019
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 