Millville’s Bryanna Craig, a freshman at Purdue, and Winslow’s Tionna Tobias, a junior at Iowa, finished 2nd and 3rd in the pentathlon Friday at the Big Ten Championships with both South Jersey athletes posting lifetime bests in the one-day, five-event challenge.

https://live.pttiming.com/?mid=5438

Craig took 2nd with 4,046 points, and Tobias was 3rd with 3,997 points. Indiana senior Hope Purcell won the event with 4,109 points.

Craig’s previous PR was 3,968 points at a meet last month in Louisville, and Tobias’s was 3,919 at a meet last month in Fayetteville.

Craig ran 8.79 in the hurdles for 954 points, cleared 5-8 in the high jump for 891 points, threw the shot put a lifetime-best 34- for 560 points, long jumped for 750 points and closed with a 2:15.09 for 891 points. She had the second-best performance in the field in the high jump and third-best in the 800.

Tobias ran 8.49 in the hurdles for 1,019 points, high jumped 5-4 ½ for 783 points, threw the shot 33-8 ¾ for 548 points, long jumped 19-5 ¼ for 825 points and ran an 800 PR of 2:20 for 822 points. She had the top performances in the hurdles and long jump.

Craig’s 4,046 is No. 4 in Purdue history and the highest score by a Boilermaker in 25 years – since Beth Reid scored 4,074 points at the 1997 Big Ten Championships in Iowa City. It’s also No. 26 in NCAA Division 1 and No. 2 among freshmen. Tobias’s score is No. 33 in Division 1.

Click to access Indoor_Top_10s.pdf

Tobias’s 3,997 is No. 3 in Iowa history, behind only Jenny Kimbro (4,269 in 2020) and Tria Simmons (4,200 in 2019).

Click to access 2830ea6a-top-10-performers-womens.pdf

Egg Harbor graduate Ahmad Brock an Collingswood’s Keven Kevelier, both sophomores at Monmouth, won conference titles Thursday in the Colonial Athletic Association Championships at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Brock jumped 47-0 ¼ and won the triple jump by nine inches over Jordan Spencer of Northeastern. Kevelier placed 3rd with a 45-8 ½ jump, and Eastern’s A.J. Brooks, a freshman at Monmouth, was 6th with a PR 43-6 ½.

Brock had four jumps of at least 46-6, including the winning 47-0 ¼ on his third attempt. His PR is 47-6 ½ from the Villanova Invitational last month at Ocean Breeze. The conference title was his first.

Kevelier has an indoor PR of 46-6 ¾, also from the Villanova Invite. He hit his outdoor PR of 47-7 ¼ last May at the Metro Atlantic Championships in Lawrenceville. Monmouth moved from the MAC to the CAA this year.

Brooks was triple jumping indoors for the first time in his life, it looks like. He focused on the hurdles in high school but did go 44-5 ¾ this past June at Group 4 sectionals at Washington Township.

Kevelier picked up his second conference title in the high jump with a 6-6 ¾ clearance on his first attempt. He and runner-up Rickie Casazza, a Monmouth senior, both cleared 6-4 ¾ and 6-6 ¾ on their first attempts and missed all three tries at 6-8 ¼. Kevelier got the win because he made 6-2 ¾ on his first attempt and Casazza cleared it on his second try. Kevelier won the MAC high jump last winter at 6-8 ¾.

The official results don’t show final team scoring.

Cherry Hill East graduate Maya Drayton, a junior at Georgetown, led all qualifiers in the 400-meter dash Friday at the Big East Championships>

Drayton ran a season-best 55.15 to lead all eight qualifiers into Saturday’s final. Next-fastest qualifier was Villanova’s Micah Trusty, who ran 55.38 just behind Drayton in the first of five heats at the Dr. Conrad Worrill Indoor Track and Field Complex at Gately Park in Chicago.

Drayton’s previous season best was a 55.62 last month in a meet at the New Balance Center in Boston. Her lifetime best is a 54.46 outdoors last May in the Big East Championships in Storrs, Ct.

She’s a nine-time Big East medalist but seeking her first conference title.

Just missing the cutoff of 56.91 was Pennsauken graduate Jade Pope, a sophomore at DePaul. Pope ran 57.21 and was the fastest non-qualifier.

The women’s 400-meter dash final is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. Saturday.

Drayton also qualified for the 200 final with a 24.34, which was 2nd-fastest in the trials.

Eastern senior Kadence Dumas is one of the most versatile runners in the state and a top-10 seed in three events at the Meet of Champions.

At Group 4 sectionals, Dumas won the 400 in 57.62 and placed 2nd in the 800 in 2:17.30 and the 1,600 in 5:12.76 – all three were PRs – and ran on Eastern’s winning 4-by-4.

At states, she dropped the 1,600 – four events in the state Group 4 meet is not realistic – and came up huge with another 800 PR, taking 2nd in 2:17.12, and a near-PR 58.00 for 3rd in the 400. She also anchored Eastern’s winning relay team as the Vikings placed 2nd to Piscataway with 30 points.

Eastern is the top seed in the 4-by-400 at Meet of Champions March 5 at Ocean Breeze with its 4:00.61 at states. Freshman Natalie Dumas, senior hurdler Johnay Stilley and iunior Lomaria Tengbeh also ran on Eastern’s 4-by-4.

In the 800, Dumas is the No. 4 seed behind Mainland’s Sofia Day [2:15.59], Union Catholic’s Kaleigh Gunsiorowski [2:16.49] and Freehold Township’s Emma Zawatski [2:16.92].

Her 2:17.30 is just shy of the Eastern school record of 2:17.15 held by Courtney McCrudden and is No. 11 on the all-time Camden County list. McCrudden, who was a member of the U.S. Junior National soccer team, ran 2:17.15 to win the 2000 state Group 4 race over Overbrook’s Tara DeBrielle (2:17.82) at Jadwin Gym.

In the 400, Dumas is the No. 7 seed with her 58.00, but the top nine seeds are all within a second of each other (57.26 to 58.21). Pennsauken freshman Sianni Wynn is the No. 1 seed at 57.26, and Ocean City junior Sophia Curtis (No. 6, 57.99), Timber Creek junior Chloe Jones (No. 9, 58.21 and Absegami senior Hannah Ross (No. 12, 58.44) all ran under 59 seconds at states. Eastern’s Natalie Dumas, Kadence’s sister, is the No. 16 seed at 59.22. Paul VI soph Anna Marie Brown (59.75) and Deptford junior Djassi Dean (59.82) also qualified with sub-60 times at states.

Also for Eastern, Stilley is the No. 8 seed in the hurdles with her 8.38 – Curtis is right behind her at 8.42 – but Stilley ran a PR 8.23 in the trials, No. 1 in South Jersey this year.

Senior Savana Dodd will also represent Eastern at the MoC after throwing 33-9 in the shot put and earning a wild card. Dodd won the Camden County meet last spring.

The link to download the complete Meet of Champions boys and girls performance list *.pdfs can be found here.

The NJSIAA has released the official performance lists for the 54th annual Meet of Champions, including auto qualifiers and wild cards.

Click here to download the *.pdf file.

The Meet of Champions is back at Ocean Breeze in Staten Island this year and is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

I’ll be posting all-time winners, all-time performance lists and lots of other cool stuff before March 5, but these performance lists are a good start!

Yashahya Brown is the best hurdler in New Jersey, and he proved it once again on Saturday.

Brown ran away with the 55-meter hurdles at the state Group 4 meet at the Bubble, winning in 7.37 – just 1-100th of a second off his lifetime best. He ran 7.36 a week earlier to win the South Jersey Group 4 sectionals.

https://nj.milesplit.com/meets/511414-njsiaa-group-championships-2023/results/875262#.Y_VuEC-B004

That was Brown’s first state title and considering he didn’t even qualify for state last spring – he was 7th at sectionals, just 3-100ths of a second out of medal contention – it’s sure been a sweat season for the Washington Township junior.

Brown won the Group 4 race by more than a fifth of a second over East Brunswick senior Chiemelie Anoskie, who was 2nd in 7.58. He’s only lost one hurdles race this year and that was to teammate Kanye Mills at the Bubble a few weeks ago.

On the MileSplit national list, Brown is No. 5 overall and the No. 1 underclassman. His 7.36 is fastest by a New Jersey underclassman since St. Augustine’s Sincere Rhea, now at Miami, ran 7.35 to win the Meet of Champions at the Bubble in 2018.

The only other hurdler under 7.50 at states was Willingboro junior Eric Foster, who had a huge breakthrough with a 7.46 win in the Group 2 race.

Brown had never broken 8.00 seconds before this year. He brought a PR of 8.05 from a meet in Collegeville, Pa., into his junior year season. He ran 7.65 and then 7.51 in his opener in December at the Armory, then ran 7.46 at Ocean Breeze and 7.44 at the Bubble before the 7.36 last week.

That’s No. 15 in South Jersey history and No. 2 in Gloucester County history behind legendary Sultan Tucker, who ran 7.18 en route to a 7.73 for 60 meters at the 1997 National Scholastic Indoor in Roxbury, Mass. (and later represented Liberia in the World Championships and Olympics and won a bronze medal in the 2002 African Championships in Tunis and Radès, Tunisia).

7.10 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 2019
7.18 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 1996
7.22 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
7.22 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], 2012
7.29 … Nate Harley [Pleasantville], 1996
7.29 … Danyne Brown [Camden], 1999
7.29 … Anthony Acklin [Triton], 2001
7.29 … Will Brown [Palmyra], 2006
7.31 … Anthony Vasquez [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2020
7.32 … Jon Dickey [Penns Grove], 1985
7.34 … Chais Hill [Highland], 2015
7.35 … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1990
7.36 … Yashahya Brown [Washington Twp.], 2023
7.39 … Rashad Baker [Wilson], 2000
7.39 … Isaiah Lewis [Winslow Twp.], 2020

Sterling graduate Marquise Young, a sophomore at Rowan, tuned up for the NCAA Division 3 nationals with a hurdles PR and a win at the NJAC meet Monday.

Young ran 8.11 over the 60-meter hurdles, edging freshman teammate Kwaku Nkrumah, who ran 8.21, a PR of his own (note that Nkrumah attended Teaneck High, where you’re “From the Backstretch” scribe ran a few years back!). Another freshman, Jason Agyemang from North Plainfield, was 4th in 8.52, and freshman Anaias Hughe of Willingboro placed 6th in a PR 8.53.

In all, Rowan piled up 27 points in the hurdles on its way to the conference team title at Ocean Breeze.

Young has won three straight NJAC titles – indoors last year and this year and outdoors this past spring. He placed 2nd to sophomore teammate Liam Davies outdoors as a freshman. Davies is no longer at Rowan.

Young’s previous PR was 8.18 last March at the AARTFC Championships in Rochester, which he won. He placed 9th in the trials at the NCAA Division 3 Championships in 8.19, missing the final by 2-100ths of a second.

He’s Rowan’s fastest hurdler since Bobby Cooks ran 8.01 in 2018 on his way to 2nd place at NCAA Division 3 nationals indoors and 3rd outdoors.

With his 8.11, Young is tied for 6th on this year’s NCAA Division 3 performance list. He also ran on Rowan’s relay team in Boston last week that ran the fastest 4-by-4 in NCAA Division 3 history.

Next for Rowan – ranked 10th in Division 3 – is the FastTrack Last Chance qualifier at Ocean Breeze on Friday, then the AARTFC Championships in Albany March 3-4 and D-3 Nationals in Birmingham March 10-11.

Congrats to Gabrielle Farquharson of Williamstown and Jaymes Dennison of Penns Grove for picking up relay wins at the 115th annual Millrose Games.

Farquharson ran for Rutgers and has PRs of 11.32 and 23.07 (22.91 wind-aided) and 21-5 1/2 in the long jump. Dennison was a two-time All-America at Iowa State and has an 800 PR of 1:47.63.

We’re a little late on this one, but it’s not easy figuring out accurate relay lineups sometimes and Millrose is notorious for posting incorrect team members in its official results.

But we’re going to trust the Garden State Track Club Facebook page for posting the correct lineups for the men’s distance medley and women’s 800-meter relay.

In the women’s 4-by-200, Garden State Track Club is listed as finishing both 1st in 1:36.30 and 2nd in 1:44.03, and Farquharson is listed as the 3rd leg on the winning team and the leadoff on the 2nd-place team. And while I guess that is technically possible it seems very unlikely.

According to GSTC’s Facebook page, Farquharson actually did run the 3rd leg on the winning team. Taylor Anderson of Uconn and Brooklyn Park, Minn., led off, Felicia Brown-Edwards from Tennessee and Lithonia, Ga., ran second and Haisha Bisiolu, a three-time New Jersey Meet of Champions winner from Union who ran at Cincinnati, anchored.

That team broke the meet record of 1:37.86 set in 2020 by a Garden State Track Club team that also included Farquharson and Bisiolu, along with Asha Ruth of Rutgers (couldn’t find her high school) and Rebecca Ochan of Highland Park and Georgetown.

GSTC’s 1:36.30 is No. 3 in the world this year behind two Germany performances. It’s not eligible for the U.S. list because at least one of the four runners competes for another country (apparently, Bisiolu competes for Nigeria).

Dennison apparently ran the 400 leg on GSTC’s DMR, which won the race in 9:57.58, finishing just ahead of a Shore Athletic Club team that included Jacob Dinerman and Luke Petela of Haddon Township.

For GSTC, Ryan McGorty from William and Mary via Chantilly High in Fairfax, Va., led off in 3:00.89, Dennison split 49.92, Robbie Guidicipietro of Wagner and Staten Island’s St. Joseph by the Sea High School ran 1:55.03 and Billy Hill from Franklin High and Rutgers anchored in 4:11.76.

A week after running the fastest 4-by-400 in NCAA Division 3 history, the mighty Rowan sprint collective continued its attack on the record book with the fastest 4-by-200 in Division 3 history.

Sterling’s Jah’mere Beasley and Marquise Young ran legs on Rowan’s 1,600-meter relay that ran 3:10.09 in Boston last week.

On Monday, Beasley was joined by sophomore Nana Agyemang of Parsippany, freshman Evan Corcoran from Kingsway and Amara Conte of Ferris High in Jersey City for the 4-by-200 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at Ocean Breeze, and that quartet ran 1:26.43, shattering the Division 3 record of 1:27.45 set last March by Highland’s Robert McKinney, Agyemang, Conte and Beasley at the AARTFC Championships at the Golisano Training Center at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y.

Rowan won the race by 25 meters over 2nd-place The College of New Jersey, which ran 1:29.29.

According to the USTFCCCA (United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches of America), which tracks these things, Rowan now has the four-fastest indoor 4-by-200 time in NCAA Division 3 history as well as No. 6:

1:26.43 … Rowan, 2023, NJAC, Ocean Breeze
1:27.45 … Rowan, 2022, AARTFC, Boston University
1:27.69 … Rowan, 2019, NJAC, Ocean Breeze
1:27.88 … Rowan, 2022, NJAC, Ocean Breeze
1:28.10 … Mount Union, 2023, All-Ohio, Wittenberg
1:28.27 … 2018, NJAC, Ocean Breeze

All splits aren’t available, but Conte – who earlier won the 400 in 48.15 – anchored in 21.32.

Rowan’s time is No. 3 in the world, according to the World Athletics web site and No. 1 among U.S. relay teams, bumping a 1:27.12 by Garden State Track Club at Millrose last week at the Armory with Rikkoi Braithwaite, Jabari Michael James Bias and Je’von Hutchinson.

Rowan won the team title 223 ½-169 ½ over The College of New Jersey. There’s nothing on the Rowan web site that might help me figure out how many conference titles the Profs have won. In fact, there’s nothing even mentioning the meet.

Rowan is ranked 10th in NCAA Division 3.

 

Burlington Township grad Sean Burtnett of The College of New Jersey, who never ran indoor track in high school, edged Washington Township grad Jake Kolodziej of Rowan to win his first NJAC title Monday at Ocean Breeze.

http://milesplit.live/meets/518935/events/11/results/F/M

Burtnett, a TCNJ junior, ran 1:56.11, leading four finishers within 30-100ths of a second across the line. Kolodziej was 2nd in 1:56.17, TCNJ freshman Thomas Blach was 3rd in 1:56.29 and TCNJ senior Roman Rychkov from Old Bridge placed 4th in 1:56.41.

Burnett, a 1:58 half-miler outdoors for the Falcons, is enjoying a breakthrough season for the Lions. He PR’d at 1:53.37 last week in Boston, No. 4 in school history and only two seconds off the school record of 1:51.32, set in 2006 by Notre Dame High graduate Jeff Zodda in Boston.

Click to access TCNJ_Top_10_All_Time_Performances_Men.pdf