Paul VI senior Mike Mazero won the 300-meter dash at the Wayne Letwink Memorial Winter Championships Saturday with the No. 5 time in state history.

Mazero ran 34.39 at Ocean Breeze, breaking the Paul VI school record of 35.08 set in 2017 by Antonio Tarantino on the same track on Staten Island, N.Y.

The 300, once contested at every indoor meet, is only run sporadically now, but Mazero won the race over a field of 91 entrants, edging Nick Givan of Union Catholic by a quarter of a second. Givan was second in 34.65.

In his last race at the 300-meter distance, Mazero ran a PR 36.03 at Ocean Breeze two years ago.

His time is No. 14 nationally, according to MileSplit’s U.S. performance list. It’s also No. 14 in state history.

Mazero also placed 3rd in the 55-meter dash with another personal best of 6.65. His previous PR was a 6.71 two years ago at Ocean Breeze. That’s No. 3 in South Jersey so far this year, behind Kingsway junior Damon Dukes Jr. [6.60] and Willingboro senior Miles Allen [6.61]. RV senior Masai Byrd has also run 6.65.

Here’s the all-time New Jersey sub-35 list:

33.26 … Mario Heslop [Franklin Twp.], 2018
33.50 … Zyaire Clemes [Trenton], 2014
33.62 … Taylor McLaughlin [Union Catholic], 2015
33.79 … Jade Smith [Camden], 2002
33.94 … Amir Brock [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2017
33.96 … Adian Sanderson [Ewing], 2004
34.04 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], 1984
34.05 … Akeem Lindo [East Orange], 2017
34.12 … Najee Glass [St. Peter’s Prep], 2012
34.20 … Isaiah Gill [Plainfield], 2009
34.23 … Shamali Whittle [Hamilton North], 2022
34.25 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
34.35 … Jordan Jimerson [Union Catholic], 2013
34.39 … Mike Mazero Paul VI], 2022
34.51 … Gary Satterwhite [Rahway], 1985
34.52 … Brandon Moorer [Seton Hall Prep], 2016
34.3h … Garrett Kroner [Indian Hills], 2006
34.59 … Jessie Legister [Montclair], 2020
34.62 … Zachery Hill [Matawan], 2018
34.62 … Naija Omari [St. Benedict’s Prep], 2013
34.67 … Andrew Burt [Lacey Twp.], 2009
34.83 … Royce Reed [Bridgeton], 1995
34.85 … Isaiah Sanchez [St. Benedict’s Prep], 2019
34.87 … Daniel Duncan [North Plainfield], 2020
34.90 … Christian Kildal-Brandt [Mendham], 2015
34.91 … Kevin Sembrat [Rahway], 2018
34.7h … Damien Miles [Teaneck], 2008
34.98 … Richie Luzzi-Liggins [St. Peter’s Prep], 2019

And here’s the all-time South Jersey sub-36 list:

33.79 … Jade Smith [Camden], 2002
33.94 … Amir Brock [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2017
34.04 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], 198
34.25 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
34.39 … Mike Mazero Paul VI], 2022
34.83 … Royce Reed [Bridgeton], 1995
35.08 … Alex Reber [Cherry Hill East], 2011
35.08 … Antonio Tarantino [Paul VI], 2017
35.14 … Dennis Davis [Edgewood], 1999
35.15 … Ahmad Brown [Holy Spirit], 2020
35.19 … Jade Smith [Camden], 1999
35.38 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 2018
35.42 … Alex Dessoye [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2016
35.45 … Terrell Lane [Highland], 2009
35.45 … Tarence Walker [Pleasantville], 2016
35.47 … Zach Murray [Haddonfield], 2019
35.55 … Elias Rivera [Millville], 2020
35.67 … Curtis McIntyre [Bridgeton], 1992
35.86 … Zion Fearon [Clearview], 2019
35.97 … Brian Brown [Paul VI], 2017

Former Cinnaminson teammates and current Duke teammates Austin Gabay and Mike Ungvarsky destroyed their mile PRs in a smoking hot race n Virginia Saturday.

Gabay ran 4:07.49 and Ungvarsky 4:08.54 at the Doc Hale Virginia Tech Elite Invitational at Rector Field House in Blacksburg, Va. 

Although they placed 5th and 6th overall, they were 1st and 2nd in the second of three sections.

Both Cinnaminson graduates big-time negative-split the race.  

Gabay was out in 2:05.39 and came back in 2:02.10 with a 60.17 final 400, and Ungvarsky was out in 2:06.84 and closed in 2:01.70 with a 60.80 final lap.

Gabay’s previous PR was a 4:10.83 last month at the Howie Invitational on the same track. Before this indoor season, his PR was 4:16.02 for 1,600 meters, when he won the 2019 outdoor state Group 2 title at Central Regional in Bayville. That’s equivalent to 4:17.50 for a full mile. He has run 1,500 meters in 3:46.10 outdoors, which is equivalent to about a 4:04.19 full mile.

Ungvarsky has been more of a 3,000 / 5,000 guy than a miler. He hadn’t raced a mile since January of 2018, when he ran 4:22.70 in a meet at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. That was his only previous college mile. His fastest time in high school was 4:23.16 for 1,600 meters at 2017 Group 2 sectionals at Delsea, equivalent to a 4:24.69. 

Collingswood graduate Keven Kevelier, a Monmouth freshman, hit a huge high jump PR Saturday in Boston.

Kevelier cleared 6-7 at the Bruce Lehane Scarlet and White Invitational at Boston University. That’s a massive improvement over his previous PR of 6-4 3/4, which he just set last month in a meet at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse. At Collingswood, Kevelier had indoor and outdoor PRs of 6-4.

Kevelier and junior teammate Rickie Casazza both cleared 6-7, with Kevelier placing 5th on fewer misses. They now share the No. 1 spot in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this year. Kendell Mosley of South Florida won the competition at 6-9.

Kevelier passed at 5-9 1/4 and 5-11 1/4 and entered the competition at 6-1 1/4, which he cleared on his first attempt. 

He then cleared 6-3 1/4 and 6-5 on his second attempts, the 6-5 clearance setting his first PR of the day. He cleared 6-7 on his third try before missing three attempts at 6-9. 

The multi-talented Kevelier has also tripled jumped 46-10 1/4 this winter, which is No. 1 in the MAAC, an indoor PR and No. 8 in Monmouth indoor history. 

He jumped 47-5 1/4 at the 2019 outdoor Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington in Mansfield Township and then just missed that outdoors this past spring when he hit 47-3 in a meet at Rider in Lawrenceville. That’s No. 7 in Monmouth history outdoors.

According to the heat sheets, he’s not scheduled to triple jump in Boston this weekend.

Lenape graduate Shelby Whetstone ran the 800 leg on Rutgers’ school-record distance medley Friday.

Rutgers ran 11:27.79 at the 2022 Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., placing a close second to the host school, which ran 11:27.29.

The previous record was 11:37.65, set by Julie Culley, Sherry White, Erin Johnson and Belmax DeJesus at the 2003 ECAC Championships in Boston.

Lou Milahe from Princeton High led off for Rutgers, followed by freshman Charlee Crawford from St. Georges Tech in Newark, Del., on the 400 leg and Whetstone  on the 800. North Hunterdon graduate Alex Carlson, who set a Rutgers mile record of 4:36.70 last week, anchored.

Rutgers’ time is No. 20 in NCAA Division 1 and No. 2 in the Big Ten, behind Indiana’s 11:05.53 last weekend.

The official results do not list splits, and Rutgers’ women’s track web site hasn’t been updated in a week and doesn’t even mention the performance, so I have no splits, but hopefully they pop up somewhere at some point.

Whetstone, a red-shirt sophomore, ran 2:10.55 outdoors at Lenape when she won the state Group 4 title at Franklin High in 2019. 

Cherokee graduate Jack Shea, a Northern Arizona junior, won the 3,000 at a home meet Friday with an indoor lifetime best.

Shea ran 8:27.95 at the Ron Mann Classic at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff, winning by 60 meters over senior teammate Aldo Marquez, who was second in 8:37.51. 

Shea’s previous indoor 3,000 PR was an 8:35.33 in February of 2019 at the Big Sky Championships at Breeden Fieldhouse on the Montana State campus in Bozeman, Mont.

His 3,000 overall PR is an 8:23.17 at the 2018 Baldy Castillo Invitational at Sun Angel Stadium at Arizona State a couple hours down I-17 in Tempe. 

Shea ran 4:19.36 and 9:19.44 at Cherokee, was the 2016 South Jersey Group 4 XC champion and ran 15:46 at Holmdel.

Sydne Nance, a senior at New Jersey Institute of Technology from Rancocas Valley, ran an indoor 400 PR at the Metropolitan Indoor Championships Friday at Ocean Breeze.

Nance ran 57.39 and placed first of 21 runners. She finished nearly a full second ahead of 2nd-place Jazmyn Lewis of FDU, who ran 58,.23.

Her previous indoor PR was a 58.41 at the “ASUN” Championships at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., in February of 2019.

Nance ran within 61-100ths of a second off the NJIT indoor school record of 56.78, set in 2017 by Elisabeth Paulina at the “ASUN” Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Nance’s overall PR is 56.92 from the spring of 2019 at the ASUN Championships in Jacksonville.

The outdoor school record at the Newark school is listed on NJIT’s web site as 57.72, but Nance ran faster than that two years ago so who knows.

What is the ASUN you may ask? I wondered the same thing, so I went to their web site – https://asunsports.org/landing/index – and it literally doesn’t say anywhere on the site what the heck ASUN stands for. I searched for 10 minutes and gave up. If you can find it, lemme know because I sure couldn’t! But at least we’ve got a Bellarmine baseball preview! 

Anyway, the 3rd-place finisher in Nance’s race was St. Peter’s freshman Diamond McLaughlin, a graduate of Absegami. McLaughlin ran 58.76, breaking her indoor PR of 59.44 from last weekend at the Great Dane Classic at Ocean Breeze. Her lifetime best is 57.63 outdoors at the 2019 state Group 3 sectionals at Delsea.

In 6th was St. Peter’s freshman Jasmine Pope from Pennsauken, who ran an indoor PR 1:00.67.

Cinnaminson graduate Kamron Kobolak, a junior at Rutgers, recorded a huge shot put PR over the weekend at a meet in Boston.

Kobolak threw 54-7 1/2 at the Battle of Beantown at Boston University.

His previous indoor PR was 52-6 at the Wagner Invitational at Ocean Breeze earlier last month, and his lifetime best was a 52-11 at an outdoor meet at the University of Maryland in College Park this past March.

Coming into this indoor season, Kobolak’s PR with the 16-pound ball was 52-4 3/4 from last year’s Big Ten Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.

Kobolak’s throw in Boston is No. 5 in Rutgers indoor history.

Kobolak also has a PR of 160-10- 3/4 in the discus from a meet in Jacksonville last April.

Remember when we wrote earlier this month about Eastern graduate Jewel Ash running a 400 PR in her first race of the indoor season? https://sjtrackblog.com/2022/01/26/eastern-grad-jewel-ash-runs-huge-400-pr-and-2-all-time-for-charleston-southern/

That PR did not last long.

Ash, a freshman at Charleston Southern, destroyed her PR for the second time in two weeks on Saturday when she ran 55.04 at the Bob Pollock Invitational at Clemson.

Two weeks earlier on the same track, Ash ran 55.61 at the Clemson Invitational, shattering a PR of 57.32 that dated back to the 2018 outdoor state Group 4 meet at Franklin Township. As a 400 hurdler, Ash rarely runs the flat 400.

But that 55.04 is No. 2 in school history and fastest since 2009, when Dionne Gibson set the school record of 54.60 at the New Balance Invitational at the Armory.

Her time is No. 2 this year in the Big South Conference, behind only North Carolina A&T’s Delecia McDuffie, who ran 54.95 in the same race as Ash ran her 55.04.

Ash already holds the school record in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles with her 59.50 at the Big South Meet this past spring. But judging by the way she’s dropping her flat 400 time, that 59.50 could very well go by the wayside this spring. 

Hopefully Ash also gets a chance to go after the school record in the outdoor 400. Gibson ran 54.39 at the 2008 Georgia Tech Invitational.

Ash is also No. 6 in school history outdoors in the 100-meter hurdles with her 14.14 at the Big South Meet.

Ash also ran the leadoff leg on Charleston Southern’s 1,600-meter relay tam that ran 3:49.73 this past weekend, No. 3 in school history indoors.