The Clayton girls ran the fastest time by a South Jersey 1,600-meter relay team in 20 years Friday and placed 6th in the Penn Relays Championship of America.
Clayton ran 3:44.67, No. 3 in South Jersey history and No. 12 in state history. It’s the fastest time by a South Jersey school since Willingboro ran 3:44.64 in 2002.
The Clippers finished behind only three schools from Jamaica and one each from Maryland and New York.
Unfortunately, full splits are not available, but Bridge Program seniors Ariel Sharpe, Arianna Sharpe and Amirah Sharpe along with Kelsey Thomas shattered the Gloucester County record of 3:47.39 that they set on Thursday at Penn to qualify for the Championship race.
The only schools in state history to run faster are Union Catholic (four times), Columbia (three times), Willingboro (twice) and Montclair and Plainfield (once).
Clayton’s time is No. 6 in the U.S. this year according to the MileSplit national database. Both of Willingboro’s times in 2001 and 2002 came at Nationals, so it looks like Clayton’s time is the fastest ever run by a South Jersey school at Penn.
Here’s the all-time state sub-3:45 list:
3:35.90 … Union Catholic, 2015
3:38.92 … Union Catholic, 2017
3:40.36 … Columbia, 2013
3:41.03 … Montclair, 1998
3:41.19 … Columbia, 2014
3:42.54 … Columbia, 2010
3:42.59 … Union Catholic, 2016
3:42.97 … Union Catholic, 2019
3:43.3h … Plainfield, 1981
3:43.94 … Willingboro, 2001
3:44.64 … Willingboro, 2002
3:44.67 … Clayton, 2022
3:44.9h … Columbia, 1980
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 