Hammonton junior Emma Peretti recorded the four-best discus throws of her life and placed 8th at the 126th annual Penn Relays Thursday morning.
Peretti entered the competition with a PR of 120-5 from last year’s Atlantic County Championships at Buena and a season best of 119-9 from last weekend’s Woodbury Relays.
But after a foul on her first throw, she finished the first round with throws of 123-1 and 128-11 to qualify for the finals, where she opened with a 122-6 and a 124-3.
Peretti averaged 124-8 on her four legal throws, so her average throw Thursday was more than four feet beyond her lifetime best coming into the meet.
Cedricka Williams of Holmwood Tech in Jamaica won the event with a throw of 177-2. Williams and Peretti were the only competitors with four throws of at least 122 feet.
Peretti’s 128-11 is the top throw by any South Jersey discus thrower at Penn in nine years, since the 2013 meet, when three hit 130 feet – Cherokee’s Jessica Woodard was 3rd [156-5], Kingsway’s Tara Daniels 9th [131-10] and Millville’s Ashleigh Weems 10th [130-1].
Peretti was the top New Jersey finisher. She finished behind three girls from Jamaica, three from Pennsylvania and one from Virginia.
Her throw is No. 5 in Atlantic County history and only two feet out of third.
146- 5 … Kim Warren [Atlantic City], 2006
143- 3 … Mercedes Hicks [Atlantic City], 2006
130-9 … Michaela Pomatto [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2021
129-0 … Julia Bannan [Holy Spirit], 2021
128-11 … Emma Peretti [Hammonton], 2022
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 