Pennsauken ran the fastest 800-meter relay in the state so far this year Saturday, winning the Group 3 race at the Woodbury Relays in 1:28.84.

Pennsauken was the fastest of two schools to run sub-1:30 at Woodbury on Saturday. Kingsway won the Group 4 race in 1;29.66 with Evan Corcoran, Damon Dukes Jr., Mathis Alexander and sophomore Benny Liles Jr,

For Pennsauken, senior Naddir Paige, junior Premier Wynn, sophomore Elijah Jennings and junior Bryce Tucker finished 25 meters ahead of 2nd-place Timber Creek, which ran a fast 1:31.81 of its own.

This is the sixth time in the last seven years Pennsauken has run sub-1:30, not counting the cancelled 2020 season. Pennsauken set its school record of 1:27.68 at the Willingboro Relays in 2016.

Pending acticity in other meets around the state Saturday, Pennsauken’s time is No. 1 in New Jersey for the time being.

Some 13 schools went sub-1:34 at Woodbury, with Deptford edging Willingboro in a fast Group 2 race:

1:28.84 … Pennsauken [Group 3]
1:29.66 … Kingsway [Group 4]
1:30.36 … Deptford [Group 2]
1:30.48 … Willingboro [Group 2]
1:31.81 … Timber Creek [Group 3]
1:32.08 … Washington Twp. [Group 4]
1:32.43 … Sterling [Group 2]
1:32.96 … Paul VI [Group 2]
1:33.01 … Pleasantville [Group 2]
1:33.16 … Glassboro [Group 1]
1:33.67 … Millville [Group 4]
1:33.73 … Winslow Twp. [Group 3]
1:33.83 … Audubon [Group 1]

Here’s a look at the all-time Camden County 800-meter relay list:
1:24.49 … Winslow Twp., 2003
1:24.90 … Camden, 2004
1:26.05 … Camden, 2000
1:26.68 … Camden, 1997
1:27.38 … Paul VI, 2016
1:27.52 … Woodrow Wilson, 1996
1:27.68 … Pennsauken, 2016
1:27.84 … Winslow Twp., 2002
1:27.90 … Winslow Twp., 2008
1:27.98 … Camden, 2002
1:28.01 … Camden, 1999
1:28.02 … Edgewood, 2000
1:27.9 ….. Edgewood, 1985
1:27.9 ….. Winslow Twp., 2008
1:28.0h … Edgewood, 1984
1:28.0h … Edgewood, 1985
1:28.0h … Camden, 2001
1:28.0h … Winslow Twp., 2004
1:28.29 … Cherry Hill East, 2012
1:28.35 … Timber Creek, 2014
1:28.37 … Camden, 2005
1:28.38 … Paul VI, 2018
1:28.42 … Pennsauken, 2005
1:28.47 … Pennsauken, 2017
1:28.52 … Timber Creek, 2013
1:28.4h … Woodrow Wilson, 1986
1:28.4h … Edgewood, 2001
1:28.65 … Camden, 2000
1:28.84 … Pennsauken, 2022
1:28.7h … Edgewood, 1982
1:28.7h … Edgewood, 1982

Haddon Heights and Cinnaminson hooked up in a titanic distance medley battle Saturday at the Woodbury Relays, with Haddon Heights coming out on top and both schools running sub-10:30.

Haddon Heights ran 10:27.31 and Cinnaminson 10:28.95 in the Group 2 race, the fastest times by any South Jersey Group 2 schools since Haddonfield ran 10:10.62 to place 5th at the 2016 Penn Relays.

Both are school records.

It looks like Haddon Heights’ previous school record was actually its 10:37.44 from Armory Nationals last month. Cinnaminson’s previous ‘case!s the school record was a 10:35.3 in 2007.

This is the first time two schools have broken 10:30 in the race at the Woodbury Relays since 2015, when Rancocas Valley [10:20.92], Cherry Hill East [10:23.98] and Eastern [10:29.56] all did it in the Group 4 race. They’re the fastest Group 2 times at Woodbury since 2013, when Pleasantville ran 10:24.40. It’s the first time two schools ran sub-10:30 in Group 2.

Heights and Cinnaminson ran neck-and-neck virtually the entire race.

The 1,200 legs were handled by Colin Patterson for Heights and Tyler Schill for Cinnaminson, with Schill giving Cinnaminson a slight lead with a 3:10.44 and Patterson runing 3:10.72.

Chris Hunter ran a 51.25 split to give Heights the lead while Ryan Malinowski ran 52.78 for the Pirates.

Cinnaminson half-miler Derek Coceano, ran 2:00.71 and Haddon Township’s Matthew Iuvara split 2:01.69 to set up the anchor legs with Heights coming through the final handoff at 6:03.67 and Cinnaminson at 6:03.93.

Heights anchor Jack Bolling got out in 65.81 while Cinnaminson’s Alex Boyko ran his first lap in 65.78. Boyko continued to gain ground on a slower second lap with a 69.12 to Bolling’s 69.42.

Boyko’s 65.59 third lap to Bolling’s 66.29 made the race a dead heat going into the final lap.

Boyko split 64.43, but Bolling closed in 62.12 to secure the 10-meter win. Boyko came back in 2:10.02 and Patterson 2:08.41.

Here’s a look at where Cinnaminson and Heights stack up on their all-time county lists:

All-time Camden County DMR list
10:10.62 … Haddonfield, 2016
10:10.8y … Haddon Township, 1973
10:15.4y … Paul VI, 1976
10:15.5y … Highland, 1980
10:16.14 … Haddonfield, 2010
10:16.29 … Highland, 1991
10:17.3y … Haddonfield, 1979
10:19.4y … Haddon Twp., 1972
10:19.4y … Paul VI., 1974
10:19.67 … Haddon Twp., 2015
10:19.90 … Cherry Hill East, 2016
10:20.11 … Haddonfield, 2002
10:22.3y … Highland, 1979
10:22.9h … Paul VI, 1988
10:23.98 … Cherry Hill East, 2015
10:24.4h … Eastern, 1985
10:26.3y … Highland, 1979
10:26.90 … Camden Catholic, 2019
10:27.23 … Haddonfield, 2015
10:27.31 … Haddon Heights, 2022
10:27.9y … Haddon Twp., 1969
10:28.46 … Haddonfield, 2011
10:29.0h … Paul VI, 1990
10:29.56 … Eastern, 2015
10:30.1h … Paul VI, 1989

All-time Burlington County DMR list
10:00.9h … Willingboro, 1983
10:16.11 … Cherokee, 2001
10:18.74 … Shawnee, 1991
10:19.47 … Cherokee, 2012
10:19.5y … Holy Cross, 1971
10:20.92 … Rancocas Valley, 2015
10:20.98 … Northern Burlington, 2014
10:21.78 … Cherokee, 2000
10:23.1y … Holy Cross, 1972
10:26.3h … Cherokee, 1998
10:28.95 … Cinnaminson, 2022
10:29.41 … Cherokee, 2002
10:30.4h … Shawnee, 1989
10:30.64 … Northern Burlington, 2013

Senior Scott Hubbard’s 4:27 anchor gave Audubon a win in the Group 1 distance medley at the Woodbury Relays Saturday and the fastest time this year by a Group 1 school.

Hubbard split 4:27.74 and Audubon ran 10:52.25, the second-fastest time in school history.

Senior Makaio Kelii led off with a 3:20.64 split to give Audubon a lead they never relinquished. Sophomore Amauri Pimentel split 53.81 to hold the lead, and senior Clifford Gilmore ran 2:10.06 to set up Hubbard, who got out in 63.77 to build Audubon’s lead to over 100 meters and put the race away. Hubbard closed in 66.24.

Sophomore Peyton Shute anchored Pitman to second place in 11:13.94.

At the same meet where Woodstown’s Xavier Seals nearly broke Georgian Court’s 800 school record, Deptford’s Julian Rodriguez nearly broke the school record in the intermediate hurdles.

Rodriguez, a Georgian Court freshman, won the 400-meter intermediates in 55.87 Wednesday at the Shippensburg Mid-Week Invitational. That’s the No. 1 time in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference this year.

Nicholas Claudeo from Jackson Memorial set the school record of 55.50 seconds on the same track in Shippensburg in 2016.

This was only Rodriguez’s second collegiate intermediate hurdles race. He opened with a 57.26 the first weekend of April in a meet at Towson, Md.

At Deptford, Rodriguez was a quad winner at last year’s Group 3 sectionals at Delsea, winning the 110-meter highs in a PR 14.83, the intermediates in a PR 55.15, the pole vault at 13-0 and contributing a leg on the winning 1,600-meter relay team as Deptford won the team title.

Woodstown graduate Xavier Seals, a junior at Georgian Court, ran an 800 PR Wednesday in a meet at Shippensburg University in Central Pennsylvania.

Seals finished first in a field of 19 half-milers at the Shippensburg Mid-Week Meet with a time of 1:54.86. He won by a step over Shippensburg freshman Ryan Scicchitano, who was second in 1:55.02.

Seals’ previous PR was a 1:55.15 at a meet at his home track in Lakewood last May. He ran an indoor PR of 1:55.98 at the Armory in January.

Seals just missed the school record of 1:54.80 set in April 2019 at the Rider Invitational in Lawrenceville by West Orange graduate Chukwuebizie Anuamadi.

At Woodstown, Seals had a PR of 2:02.51 when he placed 3rd at the 2018 South Jersey Group 1 sectionals at Washington Township as a sophomore. He was a Salem County champ at both 800 and 1,600 meters and a top-10 finisher in the state Group 1 XC championships with a 16:51 at Holmdel County Park.

Lumberton’s Greg Foster of Lawrenceville School, who just missed Carl Lewis’s state indoor long jump record in March, opened up his spring season with a two-foot outdoor long jump personal best.

Foster jumped 25-4 ½ to win the Ocean Breeze Nationals in March, half an inch less than Lewis jumped at Easterns in 1979 at Jadwin Gym.

But Foster’s official outdoor high school PR coming into his senior year was a modest 21-6 at the MAPL Championships last May at the Peddie School in Hightstown.

He bloomsed over the summer, hitting 22-8 in July at a meet in Baltimore and then 23-6 in August, also at Peddie. But because those meets took place during the summer and weren’t a continuation of the outdoor season they don’t qualify for high school performance lists.

So Foster went into Wednesday with the unusual situation where his indoor PR was nearly four feet beyond his outdoor PR.

He took care of that at the Big Red Classic on his home track at Kueffel Stadium, where he hit 23-6 on his only legal jump. He opened and closed with fouls.

Foster also won the 100 in 11.24 and led off Lawrenceville’s winning 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:41.33.

Germantown Academy of Philadelphia and Blair Academy of Blairstown, Warren County, also competed at Lawrenceville Wednesday.

In what appears to be his first 400 in three years, Gloucester senior Steve Burkhardt ran the fastest time so far this spring in South Jerey Saturday at Cherokee.

Along the way, he broke a school record set 26 years ago by his father.

Burkhardt won the 400 at Fast Times at Cherokee High in 50.42, finishing six meters ahead of Robbinsville sophomore Maxim Rychkov (51.30), with Timber Creek sophomore Nasir Ali third in a PR of his own at 51.49. He ran 51.55 indoors.

According to his MileSplit profile, Burkhardt ran as a freshman but didn’t compete in track as a sophomore or junior. His 400 PR as a freshman in 2019 was 55.13 at Group 1 sectionals at Washington Township. That made him South Jersey’s 27th-ranked freshman quarter-miler.

So this was a PR of nearly five seconds.

Burkhardt is No. 2 in the state in the early going, behind only Lawrenceville senior Matt Baskin, who ran 49.23 at the Arcadia (Calif.) Invitational in March.

We didn’t want to make any assumptions, but not surprisingly the Steve Burkhard father who placed 6th in the 1996 South Jersey Group 1 sectionals in 51.8 – Paulsboro legend Fred Sharpe won the race in 50.1 – and then placed 5th at states in school-record 51.05 – is Burkhardt’s father.

Both Burkhardts also played football for Gloucester. The 1996 Burkhardt was an all-conference defensive back, and the 2021 version was an all-state running back for the Lions, surpassing 2,000 yards this past fall, and high school football stats are apparently much harder to find than high school track stats, but it looks like he rushed for over 4,000 yards in his high school career.

Eight South Jersey relay teams learned Monday they’ve earned lanes in the 126th Penn Relays next weekend at Franklin Field.

Acceptances for the invitational 3,200-meter relays and distance medley were announced Monday, one day after the deadline to qualify.

Penn accepts 35 boys and girls teams for two races in the small-school 4-by-8s and 35 more for two large-school races. The 11 fastest of the 70 schools in four races competein the Championship of America. The girls 3,200-meter relays are scheduled for Thursday morning at Penn, with the two small-school races at 9 a.m. and the large-school sections at 9:25 a.m. The boys 3,200-meter relays are scheduled for Friday morning, with the small-school races at 9 a.m. and the large-school races at 9:25 a.m.

The DMRs are one-race finals with 16 schools accepted for each race. The girls race is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. Thursday with the boys race at 4:25 p.m. Friday.

For the full 2022 Penn Relays schedule click here.

For the full list of individual and relay acceptances, click here.

Here’s a look at the South Jersey acceptances. Click the subhead for the official list of entries for that race.

GIRLS DISTANCE MEDLEY
Kingsway: The Dragons qualified for Penn with its 12:43.02 at the state Group 4 relays at the Bubble back in January. Kingsway hasn’t run a DMR since, but with junior anchor Aubrey Pierontoni, who ran 5:00.17 indoors at the Meet of Champions, Kingsway has untapped DMR potential. Junior Nicole Lipieta, who has run a 5:06 mile, is expected to run the 1,200, with senior Sumayyah Turner on the 400 and sophomore Cassidy Dunk the 800.

BOYS 3,200-METER RELAY
Large School
Pennsauken: The Indians nailed their qualifier Saturday when junior Premier Wynn, sophomore Ladanian McGrath and juniors Joel Oquendo and Bryce Tucker ran 8:06.83 at Fast Times at Cherokee High, the fastest time in the state this year. Pennsauken has a great chance to erase the school record of 8:03.33 set by Elijah Swain, Charles Brewer, Donovan Torres and Eric Butler at the 2011 Carl Lewis Relays in Willingboro.

Cherokee: The Chiefs finished just behind Pennsauken Saturday in 8:07.58 – No. 2 in the state this year – without one of their regulars, and the likely lineup at Penn will be sophomore Nick Kuenkel and juniors Thomas Bromley, Conor Jacob and Patrick Ditmars.

Small School
Cinnaminson: The Pirates have known they’re headed to Penn for a while. They knocked out their qualifier indoors at Armory Nationals, where they ran 8:07.47. While 8:06 or 8:07 usually doesn’t get you into the Large-School race, it’s a safe time for a Group 2 school trying to get into the Small-School division. Juniors Matt McCarron, Derek Coceano, Tyler Schill and Alex Boyko are expected to run for Cinnaminson.

GIRLS 3,200-METER RELAY
Large School
Cherokee: The Chiefs were U.S. No. 7 indoors with their 9:07.27 for 4th place at Armory Nationals, so they sure didn’t have to sweat out Monday’s deadline. Junior Kelsey Niglio, sophomore Kerry O’Day, freshman Megan Niglio and senior Nicole Clifford will race for Cherokee. The Chiefs will have one of the faster anchors in the field in Clifford, who ran 4:53.85 back in February to win the state Group 4 title at the Bubble.

Cherry Hill East: The Cougars, with freshman Kiley Walsh, senior Madison McNiff, junior Alexis Tepper and senior Michelle Barry, qualified with their 9:49.64 at Armory Nationals in February. They haven’t run a DMR since, so look for that time to come down signficantly. Tepper, East’s likely anchor, ran 2:19.12 at the Bubble in February.

Winslow Township: Winslow qualified in the same race as Cherokee and Cherry Hill East, with senior Victoria Campbell, senior Charly Dutton, junior Alana Henry and freshman Ava Milner running 9:55.42.

Small School
Haddonfield: Senior Jessica Goode, sophomores Audrey Naticchia and Anne Earp and junior Thea Spellmeyer ran 9:45.30 at Ocean Breeze Nationals indoors, punching their ticket to Penn.

Huge outdoor opener Saturday for Delsea grad Josh Awotunde coming off his 5th-place finish at World Indoors.

Awotunde surpassed 70 feet four times in the same meet for the first time in his life and recorded four of his 13-best throws ever at the USATF Golden Games at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the Mt. San Antonio College campus in Walnut, Calif.

Awotunde opened with a 67-10 ¼ before reeling off four straight 70-foot bombs, each one farther than the last: 70-0 ¼ on his second throw, 70-3 ½ on his third, 70- 10 ¾ and 70-11 ¾ on his fifth.

He had the lead until Darrell Hill hit 71-1 ½ on his fifth throw. Awotunde closed with a 69-3 ¼. His six legal throws 69-10 ½.

This is actually the first time the former South Carolina All-America has even had three 70-foot throws in the same series, and he had four. He actually had four of the top-seven throws of the competition.

Hill and Awotunde rank No. 1 and No. 2 among Americans so far this year and No. 3 and 4 in the world, behind only Italians Zane Weir and Nick Ponzio, who both threw PRs of 72-1 ¾ and 71-1 ¼ last month at the European Throwing Cup at Centro Nacional de Lançamentos, in Leiria, Portugal.

Awotunde is No. 15 in U.S. history with his 72-2 in Italy last September. He’s now reached 70 feet 14 times in eight meets.

Here is a look at all of Awotunde’s 70-foot throws, including all tertiary throws within a series. Note that full series information was never released in the results from last year’s Meeting Città di Padova at Stadio Colbachini in Padovad, Poland. So it’s possible he has additional 70-foot throws from that meet that we don’t know about.

Josh Awotunde All-Time 70-Foot Throws
72-2 … Meeting Città di Padova, Stadio Colbachini, Padovad, Poland, Sept. 5, 2021 [N/A] [place]
71-8 … U.S. Olympic Trials, Eugene, Ore., June 18, 2021 [6th throw] (5th place]
71-2 ¼i … World Athletics Indoors, Belgrade, Serbia, March 19, 2022 [3rd throw] (5th)
71-2 ¼ … Gyulai István Memorial, Székesfehérvár, Hungary, July 6, 2021 [4th throw] (3rd)
71-1 ½ … Golden Games, Walnut, Calif., May 9, 2021 [6th throw] [2nd place]
70-11 ¾ … World Athletics Indoors, Belgrade, Serbia, March 19, 2022 [5th throw] [2nd]
70-11 ½ … USATF Golden Games, Walnut, Calif., April 16, 2022 [5th throw) [2nd]
70-10 ¾ … USATF Golden Games, Walnut, Calif., April 16, 2022 [4th throw) [—]
70-6 ½ … Gyulai István Memorial, Székesfehérvár, Hungary, July 6, 2021 [6th throw] [—]
70-6 ¼i … American Track League, Louisville, Ky., Feb. 12, 2022 [3rd throw] [1st]
70-3 ½ … USATF Golden Games, Walnut, Calif., April 16, 2022 [3rd throw] [—]
70-2 ½i … American Track League, Louisville, Ky., Feb. 12, 2022 [1st throw] [—]
70-0 ¼ … USATF Golden Games, Walnut, Calif., April 16, 2022 [2nd throw] [—]
70-0 ¼ … World Athletics Indoors, Belgrade, Serbia, March 19, 2022 [2nd throw] [—]

By the way, an interesting interview with Josh was posted Sunday on a web site called MCThrows that gets into his preparation for various meets depending on the pre-competition routine meet officials put the athletes through. And now I can’t figure out what the “MC” stands for in MCThrows, but it’s a good story! Click here for that.

Talk about a breakthrough race.

Washington Township sophomore Dylan Giloley lowered her 100-meter dash PR more than a third of a second Saturday at Cherokee and recorded the fastest time this year by a South Jersey sprinter.

Giloley won the 100 at Fast Times at Cherokee High in 12.39, leading Cherokee sophomore Madison Van Haren and Atlantic County Tech senior Amiyah Stephens under 13 seconds as well. Van Haren ran 12.54 and Stephens 12.86.

Giloley had a promising freshman year and showed great range, placing 3rd in the 100 at Group 4 sectionals with a PR of 12.77, 3rd in the Olympic Conference meet at 200 meters in 26.19 and 6th in the Olympic Conference meet at 400 meters in 1:00.04.

She ranked 9th in the state among freshmen in the 100, 10th in the 200 and 15th in the 400.

And this was a significant breakthrough in Year 2.

Giloley, who did not run indoors this year, is now No. 2 in the state in the 100, behind only Howell senior Laura Gugliotta, who ran 12.33 at the A-North Divisional meet at her home track last weekend. Gugliotta won the state Group 4 title at 400 meters indoors.

It looks like Giloley is 3rd-fastest ever at Washington Township in the 100, behind only Jackie Dim, who ran 12.11 at the 2007 Group 4 sectionals at Egg Harbor, and Latoya Benson, who ran 12.18 at the 2000 state Group 4 meet at South Plainfield.

She’s the fastest Gloucester County sophomore since Iyanla Kollock of Our Lady of Mercy ran 12.31 to win the 2016 Cape-Atlantic League Championships at Bridgeton. Kollock later ran for Rutgers.

Interesting to note that 4th-place finisher Miyana Johnson, a Clayton freshman, ran 13.02 in her first lifetime 100. Johnson, 3rd in the 55 indoors at the state Group 1 meet, has the fastest time in the state this spring by a freshman.