Junior Patrick Ditmars ran a 1:58.09 anchor to lead Cherokee’s all-underclass 4-by-8 to a quick win at the Don Danser Relays at Lenape on Saturday.

Cherokee ran an unpressed 8:08.33, winning the race by about 300 meters.

Junior Thomas Bromley led off with a 2:02.62 split and had already built a 30-meter lead when he came through 400 meters in 58.28.

Junior Conor Jacob followed with a 2:03.32 split, and sophomore Nick Kuenkel, who missed most of XC and all of indoor with an injury, followed with a 2:0430 split in his first race since Oct. 2.

That set up Ditmars, the Burlington County XC champ this past fall, who went out in 56.34 running solo on his way to a 1:58.09 anchor.

It’s Cherokee’s fastest opening-weekend 4-by-8 since 1999, when Mike Urbanovich, Dave Sitzer, Mike Caputi and Aaron Boucher ran 7:59.3 at the 1999 Hall of Fame Relays in Maple Shade, the precursor to the Don Danser Relays. It’s also the fastest time at the meet since then.

 

 

Thomas Bromley 2:02.62

Conor Jacob 2:03.32

Nick Kuenkel 2:04.30

Patrick Ditmars 1:58.09

8:08.33

Haddon Township graduate Jake Aylmer turned in a huge 1,500 PR Saturday morning.

Aylmer won the 1,500 at the Ramapo College Invitational in Mahwah in 4:05.60, edging teammate Ronnie Melao by a stride. Melao was second in 4:05.93.

Aylmer closed in 62.07 for his final 400 and 2:08.54 for his final 800. His previous 1,500 PR was a 4:11.71 last spring in a meet at Rowan University in Glassboro. He ran 4:11.98 last month in his season opener at Rowan.

His time is No. 3 so far this spring in the Middle Atlantic Conference.

Stevens is an NCAA Division 3 school located in Hoboken. 

 

The Rowan men’s track team is No. 3 in the country in the initial NCAA Division 3 ranking, largely because of its javelin throwers.

The team rankings are determined on a weekly basis using a point system based on event-by-event rankings. So the more athletes a program has ranked near the top of the D-3 performance list, the higher that program will be ranked.

And Rowan? The Profs currently have the top throwers in the country, four of the top eight and five of the top 17.

Sophomore Greg Poloso of Wayne Valley and junior Dan McAleavey of Howell both surpassed 220 feet in Rowan’s season-opener, the Oscar Moore Invitational in Glassboro last weekend. Poloso won the event with a huge PR throw of 222-9 and McAleavey threw 220-2.

Both surpassed the Rowan new-jav record of 219-4 set in 1992 by Burlington City High graduate Mike Boone.

Rowan’s old-jav record is the legendary 273-2 by Hopatcong High graduate Mike Juskus at the NCAA Division 1 Championships at LSU in Baton Rouge in 1981. Juskus was a baseball player in high school (as well as football, wrestling and bowling) and never touched a javelin until he arrived at Rowan as a freshman. He wound up winning three NCAA Division 3 titles and two NCAA Division 1 titles (back when D-3 winners were invited to the D-1 meet).

Freshman Lane Owens from Ocean City ranks 6th nationally with his 198-3 at the Washington & Lee Carnival in Lexington, Va., last month, and junior Edgar Rosa from Paulsboro is 8th with a 193-11, also in Lexington. Sophomore Julio Lebron of Memorial of West New York threw 184-4 at the Oscar Moore Invite for 17th so far in D-3.

Poloso is a transfer from Rider, where he threw 204-8 as a freshman in the spring of 2019 – the No. 2 mark in school history (behind Anthony Ragusa, who threw 212-5 in 2019). He competed in one meet for Rider last spring and didn’t get a legal mark.

McAleavey’s previous PR was a 206-6 when he placed second at last year’s NCAA Division 3 National Championships in Greensboro, N.C.

Owens’ 198-3 came in his first college meet and marked a more than 10-foot PR. His best throw in high school was 187-6 at the 2019 South Jersey Invitational at Delsea.

Rosa was a JUCO All-America in the hammer, javelin and discus in the spring of 2019 and won the NJCCA Division 3 national title in the javelin at 182-2 at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, N.Y. His PR is 197-4 from the Fast Times Before Finals at Rowan last May.

And Lebron has a PR of 194-1 from a meet at Central Florida in Orland from the spring of 2019. He threw 193-7 last year and was also 2nd in the NJAC decathlon last spring with 5,038 points.

Kylie Anicic, a Kingsway graduate now a sophomore at Edinboro (Pa.) University, recorded a huge 1,500 PR and NCAA Division 2 provisional qualifier over the weekend in North Carolina.

Anicic ran 4:30.52 at the Charlotte 49er Classic at the Irwin Belk Center. The NCAA D-2 qualifying standard is 4:32.67.

It was her first outdoor race in nearly three years.

Anicic finished second to Genevieve Schwartz of East Tennessee State, the Southern Conference mile champ, who ran 4:26.29. Schwartz, a 4:46.05 miler, closed in 65.85.

After getting out in 55.86 for the first 300 meters, Anicic split 72.77, 72.63 and 69.27 for her last three laps, so she closed in 2:21.90 for her final 800.

Anicic’s time is the equivalent of a 4:52.16 mile. Her previous 1,500 PR was 4:36.42, which she ran while attending Towson (Md.) University in April of 2019 at the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton. Her mile PR is 4:58.38.

Her time is No. 3 in Edinboro history and No. 8 so far this spring season in NCAA Division 2.

Her last outdoor race was on June 21, 2019, when she ran 4:44.24 for 1,500 meters and placed 7th in the USATF Under-20 Championships in Miramar, Fla.

Anicic began her college career playing soccer at Temple before spending the 2019 indoor and outdoor seasons and 2020 indoor season at Towson. The 2020 season was wiped out because of COVID and after she transferred to Edinboro she was ineligible to compete until this past winter season.

Indoors, Anicic ran that 4:58.38 mile [No. 3 in Edinboro history], 9:43.39 for 3,000 meters [school record] and 16:48.19 for 5,000 meters [No. 3 in school history].

NCAA Division 2 nationals are scheduled for May 26-28 at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.

At Kingsway, Anicic ran 2:17.59 and 5:07.11.

Emily Hilt opened her 2022 outdoor season with a hammer throw bomb, a school record and the No. 6 throw in NCAA Division 3.

Hilt, a Rutgers Camden senior from Kingsway, threw 164-3 to win the Stockton Invitational Saturday in Galloway Township, breaking her hammer PR and previous school record of 155-1 set at the same facility at the Osprey Twilight Invitational last April.

It’s the best throw by any New Jersey Athletic Conference woman in the last 10 years. Year-by-year results on TFRRS (Track and Field Results Reporting System) only go back to 2013.

Hilt, who focused on the shot and discus at Kingsway, didn’t start throwing the hammer until last spring. Her first hammer competition was the Stockton Invitational a year ago this week.

On Saturday, Hilt also won the shot put with a 41-11 ¼ throw and was 3^rd in the discus with a 113-9.

Hilt was only eight inches off her shot put PR of 42-7 ¼, which she set last May at the Rowan Last-Chance Invitational in Glassboro. Her throw is No. 7 in Division 3 so far this spring.

Her discus PR is 119-4 from last spring’s NJAC Championships at Ramapo in Mahwah, and the school record is 121-11 set by Washington Township graduate Donna-Marie Kirk at the 2004 NJAC Championships at Stockton.

At Kingsway, Hilt threw 38-10 (and 40-8 ¾) indoors) and 127-7. She was a sectional discus champ and state medalist and sectional medalist in the shot.

Pennsville’s Zach Manorowitz set a long jump PR Saturday in his season opener with the No. 2 jump in Rider history.

Manorowitz leaped 24-8 ½ and placing 2^nd in the Rider 5-Way Meet. He fouled on five of his six attempts but PR’d on his one legal attempt with a legal 1.4 meters-per-second wind. His jump is No. 24 in NCAA Division 1 in the early going this outdoor season.

After passing twice, Fairleigh Dickinson’s Salif Mane jumped 24-11 3/4 on his final jump to win the event.

Earlier this month, Manorowitz finished his indoor season by winning the long jump at the 100^th annual IC4A Championships at Boston University with a 24-4 ½. He set his lifetime indoor-outdoor PR of 24-5 ¾ at the Armory last month when he won the Metro Atlantic Conference Championships.

He set his previous outdoor PR of 24-5 last May at the Metro Atlantic Championships at his home track in Lawrenceville.

The only jumper ahead of Manorowitz on the all-time Rider list is Pennsauken High School graduate Desmond Hamilton, who leaped 25-8 ¼ in a dual meet in 2007 and later transferred to USC.

Manorowitz is also No. 2 all-time at Rider indoors behind Hamilton West graduate Tyree Adams, who jumped 24-9 ¼ at the 2017 Metro Atlantic Conference meet at the Armory.

At Pennsville, Manorowitz had a high school PR of 21-6, which he set when he placed 3^rd at the state Group 1 meet at Franklin High School

Williamstown graduate Devin Bradham is still high jumping, and on Saturday – in only his second meet since graduating from Penn State in the spring of 2019 – cleared 6-10 ¼ at the Rider 5-Way Meet in Lawrenceville.

Bradham’s only other meet since college was at Thomas Edison Park in Edison last June, where he cleared 6-6.

Bradham’s 6-10 ¼ clearance is his best since May 25, 2019, when he cleared 7-1 at the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet in Jacksonville. It’s his highest clearance ever in his home state, a fraction higher than the 6-10 he cleared when he won the 2015 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield.

At Penn State, Bradham set his PR of 7-1 ½ at the 2019 Jim Thorpe Invitational in State College and then repeated that two weeks later at the Big Ten Championships in Iowa City, where he placed 5^th.

In all, Bradham cleared 7 feet five times in college and 6-11 or better in an additional five meets.

He ranks 7^th in Penn State history and is currently ranked 24^th among U.S. men.

Bradham is currently jumps coach at Rider.

Andrew Lodge’s crazy improvement from high school to college continued Saturday when he broke 22 seconds in the 200 for the first time.

Lodge never broke 23 seconds at Shawnee.

Lodge’s time is No. 3 in TCNJ history, behind four-time All-America Eric Green from Clifford Scott High in East Orange, who ran 21.34 twice in 2002 – in the trials and the finals of the NCAA Division 3 Championships in St. Paul, Minn., where he placed 4^th (the race was won by William Paterson’s Robert Hargrove from Vineland) – and Chris Medina of Monsignor Donovan in Toms River, who ran 21.85 at TCNJ’s own Last Chance Invitational in Ewing in 2012.

It was his first outdoor race ever for TCNJ and his first outdoor 200 in nearly three years.

Lodge’s time is No. 3 in TCNJ history, behind Eric Green, who ran 21.34 in 2002, and Chris Medina, who ran 21.95 in 2012.

That 21.93 is also No. 18 in NCAA Division 3 in the early going this year and No. 1 among NJAC sprinters.

At Shawnee, Lodge ran 24.29 as a freshman in 2016, 23.51 as a sophomore, 24.04 as a junior and PR’d with a 23.09 for 12th place in 2019 at the South Jersey Invitational at Delsea. He did run 50.88 in the 400, good for 2nd place in the County Open at Rancocas Valley behind Cinnaminson’s John Meekins.

At TCNJ, Lodge ran 22.83 indoors as a freshman in 2020 in a meet in Boston and also PR’d at 400 meters with a 50.18 at the same meet.

This past indoor season, he had a breakthrough in the 400, setting an indoor school record of 48.89 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at Ocean Breeze, taking 2nd behind Rowan’s Amara Conte, who ran 48.45, but he didn’t run the 200 at the conference meet (although he did lead off TCNJ’s 3rd-place 4-by-4).

He did lower his 200 PR to 22.46 in Boston, but he only ran the open 200 twice.

But this weekend he PR’d by more than half a second in his first outdoor 200 since the 2019 Olympic Conference Championships at Washington Township, where he placed 3rd in 23.19.

Delsea graduate Elisia Lancaster, a senior at Southern Illinois, opened her 2022 outdoor season with a PR in the hammer throw in a meet in Murray, Ky.

Lancaster threw 208-5 at the Margaret Simmons Invitational at Hamilton Field about a half mile from the Murray State University campus. Her previous PR was a 207-11 from last April at the Rock Chalk Classic in Lawrence, Kans.

Post-graduate Deanna Price, the American record holder, a two-time Olympic finalist and the 2019 world champion, won the event with a throw of 237-6.

Southern Illinois teammates Shauniece O’Neal and Lancaster placed 2nd and 3rd, O’Neal with a throw of 214-3 and Lancaster with her 208-5. They are the top two marks in Southern Illinois history and they rank No. 6 and No. 12 in NCAA Division 1 so far this spring.

Lancaster, who placed 10th at the NCAA Championships in Birmington two weeks ago in the weight throw, now ranks No. 12 among U.S. women.

Jewel Ash shattered her own Charleston Southern 400-meter intermediate hurdles school record Saturday, leading three South Jersey girls among the top seven finishers at the Raleigh Relays.

Ash, an Eastern graduate, won the event at North Carolina State’s Paul Derr Track in 59.22, breaking her own school record of 59.50 set last year when she won the event at the Big South Championships in High Point, N.C.

Two other South Jersey runners ran collegiate bests in the race. Princeton freshman Arianna Smith of Pennsville placed 4th in 1:00.51 and Penn freshman Aliya Garozzo from Paul VI ran 1:01.43 for 7th.

Ash’s time is No. 11 in NCAA Division 1 so far this year. This was her first intermediate hurdles race since her 59.50 in May.

These three women are no strangers. They’ve been racing against each other for years. At the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington, Smith won the intermediates, Garozzo was 4th and Ash was 6th as a junior.

On Saturday, Garozzo raced in the 1st of six 400IH sections, Smith in the 3rd and Ash in the final race.

Smith and Garozzo moved into the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the 2022 Ivy League list. Smith’s time is No. 8 in Princeton history, and Garozzo’s time is No. 7 in Penn history.