Sincere Rhea ran the hurdles faster than he ever has Saturday. But with an asterisk.

Rhea, a University of Miami junior from St. Augustine and Maurice River Township in Cumberland County, won the 110-meter hurdles in his 2023 debut at the Hurricane Invitational on his home track in Coral Gables, Fla., in 13.72.

But the performance was aided by an assisting wind of 4.1 meters per second. Any race of 200 meters or less with a tailwind over 2.0 meters per second is considered wind-aided for record purposes.

Still, it’s No. 5 among U.S. men and No. 12 in the world regardless of conditions in the early going this outdoor season.

Rhea’s wind-legal PR is 13.89, which he ran in May of 2021 as a freshman at Penn State in the trials of the Big East Championships in Champaign, Ill., and then matched last April at the LSU Alumni Gold meet in Baton Rouge.

According to the Maximmoinat wind correction calculator, 13.72 is the equivalent of a 13.79 with a legal 2.0 wind or 13.93 with no wind. So Rhea’s fitness is there, especially this early in the season.

Rhea will be back in action and hopefully with legal wind this weekend at the Florida Relays, although the meet web site says the qualifying standard for the 110 highs is 13.50, which only one hurdler in the world has run this year – Japan’s Rachid Muratake, who ran 13.25 at the Sydney Track Classic two weeks ago in Australia.

So either that’s a mistake or the hurdles field will be very small.

In only his third outdoor meet in nearly two years, Cherokee graduate Lucciano Pizarro popped a big 60-foot shot put effort and near PR in a meet Saturday in Coral Gables, Fla.

Pizarro, a junior at Penn State, threw 60-8 and placed 2nd in the Hurricane Collegiate Invitational at the University of Miami. Harvard junior All-America Alexander Kolesnikoff won the competition with a 62-5.

Pizarro came up only 5 ½ inches short of his lifetime-best 61-1 ½, which he threw at the Jim Thorpe Invitational at Penn State in May of 2021. That’s the No. 9 throw in Penn State history, even though PSU hasn’t updated its all-time performance list in a few years.

Pizarro had three fouls in his series, but hit 60-8 on his 4th throw and also had a 59-6 ½ on his second throw.

He ranks 5th so far in the Big Ten Conference and is No. 10 on the 2023 U.S. list on the World Athletics web site.

Pizarro ranks 5th in South Jersey alumni history, behind world championships bronze medalist Josh Awotunde of Delsea [71-1 ½ in 2022], Bridgeton’s Braheme Days [66-3 ½ in 2016], Paulsboro’s Jon Kalnas [66-2 ¾ in 2008] and Kennedy’s Steve Muse [61-8 in 1987].

Thanks to a huge negative split, Edinboro’s Kylie Anicic from Kingsway PR’d in the 10,000 this weekend and came within three seconds of a 35-year-old school record.

Anicic ran 34:30.63 at the Raleigh Relays, falling just short of the Edinboro school record of 34:27.75 set by Kerrie Yenchak at the 1987 Florida State Relays. Her time is a provisional qualifier for the NCAA Division 2 Championships in May in Emporia, Kan.,

Her previous 10,000 PR was a 34:37.31 at a meet last April at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

Anicic’s time is No. 4 in NCAA Division 2 and No. 44 among U.S. women.

Anicic came through 1,600 meters in 5:33.64, 3,200 in 11:08.10 and 5,000 in about 17:25.8. So she negative’d the second 5,000 in 17:04.78 – only 25 seconds off her track 5,000 PR.

She closed in 5:21.23 for her final 1,600, 2:36.40 for her final 800 and 76.42 for her final lap.

Anicic also ranks No. 3 in school history in the 1,500 [4:30.52] and No. 2 in the 5,000 [16:39.84]. Indoors, she ranks No. 3 in the mile [4:58.38], No. 2 in the 3,000 [9:43.39] and No. 3 in the 5,000 [16:47.87].

Rider’s Mariah Stephens won the hurdles with a PR and the No. 4 time in school history as part of a triple win in her season-opening outdoor meet on her home track in Lawrenceville.

Stephens, an Egg Harbor Township graduate, ran 14.12 in the 100-meter hurdles and triple jumped 38-10 ¼ at the Rider 5-Way Meet Sunday in Lawrenceville. She also ran a leg on the winning 4-by-100.

All three performances are No. 1 in the Metro Atlantic Conference two weeks into the season.

In the hurdles, Stephens ran unpressed, winning by seven meters over Magdalena Brogioli of Sacred Heart of Fairfield, Conn., who ran 14.99. The wind was a legal 1.4.

Stephens’ previous PR was 14.19 from the ECAC Championships last May in Williamsburg, Va. That was actually her last outdoor meet. Her 14.12 is only 4-100ths of a second from 2nd-fastest time in school history. Sara Gardner set the school record of 13.41 at the 2018 Metro Atlantic Championships in Lawrenceville.

In the triple jump, Stephens hit 38-10 ¼ on her second attempt. She had a second 38-10 ¼ later in her series that was slightly wind-aided at 2.1. Stephens ranks 3rd in Rider history at 39-7 ¾ from the same meet last year.

Stephens also ran the second leg on Rider’s first-place 400-meter relay team, which ran 47.23 and won by 15 meters over Sacred Heart. The 47.23 is No. 3 in school history and only 29-100ths of a second off the school record of 46.94 that Rider ran last year at Princeton with both Genesis Walker of Bordentown and Stephens running the first two legs.

Not one, not two, but three PRs for Pennsville graduate Arianna Smith at this weekend’s Raleigh Relays.

What a performance by the Princeton junior.

On Friday, Smith lowered her 100-meter hurdles PR from 14.11 at last weekend’s Penn Challenge to 14.02 – into a 0.9 meters-per-second wind. That’s No. 6 in Princeton history.

https://goprincetontigers.com/sports/2012/5/10/205425944.aspx?id=618

She also ran 54.74 in the 400 on Friday, lowering her PR from 55.01 in January in a meet at Navy in Annapolis. Her previous outdoor PR was 56.68 from the 2019 state Group 1 championships at Franklin High. Because she specializes in the 400 intermediates, this was her first open 400 outdoors as a collegian. That 54.74 is No. 4 in Princeton history and fastest in seven years, since Cecilia Barowski set the school record of 52.97 at Heps at Princeton.

PR No. 3 for Smith came Saturday, when she ran 24.74 in the 200, lowering her PR from 24.91 in February at an indoor meet at the Armory. Her outdoor 200 PR was 25.25 from a meet last April at Princeton.

Smith has yet to run a 400 intermediates this spring. She ran 59.69 in April at a meet in Coral Gables, No. 6 in school history.

 

On June 1, 2019, Arianna Smith won the state Group 1 title in the 100-meter hurdles in 14.84 at Franklin High.

Then she didn’t run another high hurdles race for nearly four years.

Until Saturday.

When she ran the No. 6 time in Princeton history.

Smith, a Pennsville graduate and junior at Princeton, runs the hurdles indoors, but has been almost exclusively an intermediate hurdler outdoors since she arrived at Old Nassau in 2020.

Smith ran 59.69 last spring in a meet in Coral Gables, Fla., which is No. 6 in Princeton history. But last weekend, she got a rare opportunity to race the 100-meter highs at the Penn Invitational at Franklin Field, and she responded with a time of 14.11 and 2nd place, behind Army’s Saydee Aganus, who ran 14.01.

That makes her the only hurdler in Princeton history ranked in the top-6 in both the highs and intermediates.

That’s No. 3 in the Ivy League so far this year, behind two Harvard hurdlers – Izzy Goudros (13.66) and Josefina Biernacki (13.81) – and 1-100th of a second faster than Penn’s Aliya Garozzo from Paul VI, who finished just behind Smith at the Penn Challenge with a PR of her own at 14.12. Garozzo – 3rd in the Heps 500 indoors – also ran 59.96 to win the 400IH at the Penn Challenge, not far off her PR of 59.76 from last year’s 2nd-place finish at Heps (just ahead of Smith).

Princeton is at the Raleigh Relays this weekend, and we’ll likely see Smith race the 400IH for the first time this spring.

Usually, if Bryanna Craig is throwing the javelin, it’s part of a heptathlon.

This weekend, she had the rare luxury of competing in an open javelin, and she responded with a huge PR.

Purdue competed over the weekend in the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Fla., and while the meet doesn’t have a heptathlon, Craig was busy doing four individual events. Which is terrific heptathlon training two weeks out from her first college multi.

The high point for Craig in Miami was the javelin, which she threw 130-4 and placed 4th overall. Her previous PR was 118-6 from World Junior Championships in Cali, Columbia, in August.

Considering that 118-6 is worth 593 points in a heptathlon and 130-4 is worth 662 points, that’s a significant jump.

Craig also ran a near-PR 14.11 for 7th in the 100-meter hurdles, high jumped 5-5 ¼ and ran the 200 in 25.06, a PR but wind-aided (2.7).

So far this spring, she ranks 3rd in the Big Ten in the high jump, 6th in the hurdles and 8th. She hasn’t long jumped yet this spring, but the top two long jumpers so far this spring in the Big Ten are from South Jersey – Rancocas Valley’s Kristina Tossas, a Rutgers junior and the conference champ and school record holder indoors, is No. 1 at 20-5, and Winslow’s Tionna Tobias is No. 2 at 20-1. Both are outdoor PRs.

The 14.11 is only 3-100ths off her PR of 14.08 from 2021 in Austin. She’s high jumped 5-10 outdoors at a meet in West Monroe, La., last April. Her wind-legal 200 PR is 25.29 from Eugene USA Under 20’s in Eugene in June.

Craig, who spent her first two years of high school at Millville and graduated from Ruston (La.) High, set her lifetime best of 5,388 points in June when she placed 2nd in the USA Under-20 Championships in Eugene.

This winter, she scored 4,046 points to place 2nd in the Big Ten Championships, 49 points ahead of Tobias, who was 3rd. That ranked her 2nd among all collegiate freshmen.

Craig’s other PRs: 58.14 in the 400, 2:14.27 in the 800, 18-8 ¼ in the long jump (19-0 ¼ wind aided) and 34-7 shot put.

Craig will make her collegiate heptathlon debut March 29-30 at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.

She’ll be competing against a loaded field including indoor NCAA pentathlon champ Jadin O’Brien of Notre Dame and All-Americas Sterling Lester of Florida and Kristine Blazeevica of Texas.

Kadence Dumas’s monster 2:10 anchor leg led the Eastern girls to the No. 5 indoor sprint medley time in state history at a meet this weekend in Virginia Beach.

Dumas split 2:10.84 to bring Eastern home in 4:01.78, more than 1 ½ seconds ahead of second place at the Virgina Beach Nationals at the Virginia Beach Sports Center. Tallwood High of Virginia Beach was 2nd in 4:03.45.

Senior Johnay Stilley and junior Lomaria Tengbeh ran the opening 200s, giving freshman Natalie Dumas the stick in 5th place. Dumas split 57.20 – fastest of all the quarter-milers – to move Eastern into the lead, and her older sister put the race away.

Eastern’s time is No. 2 in South Jersey history, behind Willingboro’s 4:01.41 for 2nd place at the 2003 National Scholastic Championships at the Armory. It’s 5th-fastest in South Jersey history overall including indoor and outdoor marks and fastest since Lenape ran 4:01.07 at Greensboro (N.C.) Nationals in 2015.

The previous Camden County record was Haddonfield’s 4:03.93 at 2001 Landover (Md.) Nationals at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Center.

I’m not sure what the rules are regarding when the indoor season officially ends, but as far as I’m concerned, the track is indoors, they ran the time and it counts.

All-Time South Jersey Indoor Sprint Medley List
4:01.41 … Willingboro, 2003
4:01.78 … Eastern, 2023
4:03.93 … Haddonfield, 2001
4:04.27 … Cherokee, 2022
4:04.38 … Washington Twp., 2010
4:08.21 … Lenape, 2015
4:08.60 … Lenape, 2012
4:09.27 … Millville, 2008
4:10.01 … Willingboro, 2004
4:10.17 … Camden, 1995
4:10.18 … Willingboro, 2005
4:10.22 … Lenape, 2016
4:10.36 … Lenape, 2013
4:10.43 … Kingsway, 2013
4:10.51 … Lenape, 2007
4:11.02 … Lenape, 2006
4:11.19 … Woodrow Wilson, 2005
4:11.61 … Millville, 2009
4:11.66 … Willingboro, 2006
4:11.93 … Cherokee, 2012
4:11.94 … Kingsway, 2010
4:12.35 … Delsea, 2014
4:12.51 … Rancocas Valley, 2004
4:13.00 … Cherokee, 2013
4:13.0h … Lenape, 2008
4:13.11 … Winslow Twp., 2003
4:13.25 … Washington Twp., 2011
4:13.26 … Buena, 1999
4:13.33 … Camden, 2009
4:13.58 … Seneca, 2016
4:13.72 … Overberook, 2001
4:14.03 … Paul VI, 2020
4:14.17 … Woodrow Wilson, 2006
4:14.60 … Cherokee, 2010
4:14.49 … Haddonfield, 2017
4:14.70 … Washington Twp., 2010
4:14.74 … Washington Twp., 2005
4:14.74 … Rancocas Valley, 2017
4:14.84 … Egg Harbor Twp., 2015
4:14.90 … Millville, 2013

All-Time South Jersey Combined Sprint Medley List
3:59.6h … Willingboro, 2003
4:00.34 … Willingboro, 2006
4:00.71 … Willingboro, 2002
4:01.07 … Lenape, 2015
4:01.78 … Eastern, 2023 [i]
4:02.60 … Sterling, 2017
4:02.69 … Willingboro, 2004
4:02.89 … Woodrow Wilson, 2002
4:03.04 … Camden, 1995
4:03.42 … Millville, 2008
4:03.54 … Lenape, 2006
4:04.27 … Cherokee, 2022 [i]
4:04.38 … Washington Twp., 2010 [i]
4:04.44 … Millville, 2013
4:04.86 … Woodrow Wilson, 2009

All-Time New Jersey Indoor Sprint Medley List
3:57.19 … Columbia, 2014
3:58.46 … Union Catholic, 2019
4:00.33 … Neptune, 2011
4:01.41 … Willingboro, 2003
4:01.78 … Eastern, 2023
4:03.13 … Sparta, 2010
4:03.14 … Westwood, 2014
4:03.18 … Columbia, 2010
4:03.22 … Columbia, 2013
4:03.57 … Piscataway, 2006
4:03.69 … Pope John, 2007
4:03.85 … Hopewell Valley, 2005
4:03.93 … Haddonfield, 2001
4:04.27 … Cherokee, 2022
4:04.36 … Columbia, 1983
4:04.38 … Washington Twp., 2010
4:04.47 … Neptune, 2009
4:04.49 … Hunterdon Central, 2015
4:04.81 … Union Catholic, 2017
4:05.83 … Union Catholic, 2016
4:06.22 … Ramapo, 2019
4:07.07 … Pope John XXIII, 2019
4:07.87 … Southern Regional, 2007
4:07.95 … South Brunswick, 2011
4:07.98 … Immaculate Heart, 2010
4:08.17 … Sparta, 2013
4:08.18 … Middletown North, 2017
4:08.21 … Lenape, 2015
4:08.1h … Trenton, 2001
4:08.42 … Woodbridge, 2019
4:08.50 … Columbia, 2009
4:08.59 … Old Bridge, 2009
4:08.53 … Hunterdon Central, 2004
4:08.60 … Lenape, 2012
4:09.04 … Westwood, 2013
4:09.19 … Ramapo, 2013
4:09.21 … Pope John XXIII, 2013
4:09.27 … Millville, 2008
4:09.39 … Pope John XXIII, 2014
4:09.2h … Shabazz, 1986
4:09.60 … Pope John XXIII, 2018
4:09.70 … Neptune, 2010
4:09.89 … Ridgewood, 2020
4:09.96 … Southern Regional, 2009

All-Time New Jersey Combined Sprint Medley List
3:50.82 … Columbia, 2014
3:52.07 … Columbia, 2013
3:52.74 … Neptune, 2010
3:53.70 … Columbia, 2010
3:53.93 … Sparta, 2010
3:54.37 … Southern Regional, 2007
3:55.8h … Columbia, 1980
3:56.54 … Columbia, 2009
3:57.19 … Columbia, 2014 [i]
3:57.44 … Union Catholic, 2017
3:57.51 … Columbia, 2012
3:57.82 … Union Catholic, 2016
3:57.96 … Westfield, 2014
3:58.26 … Pope John XXIII, 2014
3:58.41 … Union Catholic, 2015
3:58.46 … Union Catholic, 2019 [i]
3:58.56 … Columbia, 1995
3:58.59 … Shabazz, 1986
3:59.6h … Willingboro, 2003
4:00.33 … Neptune, 2011 [i]
4:00.34 … Willingboro, 2006
4:00.71 … Willingboro, 2002
4:01.07 … Lenape, 2015
4:01.41 … Willingboro, 2003 [i]
4:01.52 … Pope John, 2008
4:01.78 … Eastern, 2023 [i]
4:01.80 … Ridgewood, 2022
4:01.91 … Woodbridge, 2018
4:01.92 … Sparta, 2012

One note about the outdoor sprint medley list. Willingboro’s 3:59.6 in 2003 came at its own invitational. The time is listed everywhere else as 3:59.0, but what happened is the Boro actually ran 3:59.6 and the woman at the finish line who recorded the time scribbled the “6” and it looked like a “0.” Meet management accepted the time as 3:59.0 even though I went back to the finish line and checked with the finish-line official to see what they had on their watch and they said 3:59.6. The time went out in all results as 3:59.0 and since it’s one of the fastest times in U.S. history it remains recorded that way. But as fast as Willingboro was that day, they weren’t that fast. They really did run 3:59.6.

Rowan sophomore Molly Lodge opened her 2023 outdoor season Saturday with a PR in the 400-meter hurdles and the 4th-fastest time so far in NCAA Division 3.

What makes the performance so remarkable is that she’s never run the intermediate hurdles before.

According to New Jersey Milesplit’s database, Lodge never ran the intermediates at Woodstown – she ran the 100 and 200 and did both horizontal jumps – and the DirectAthletics college track database shows her running the 100, 200, 400 and 100 hurdles as well as competing in the high jump and triple jump last spring in her first year of collegiate outdoor track.

Intermediates? Nowhere to be found.

But racing Saturday at the Washington & Lee Carnival in Lexington, Va., Lodge not only ran 1:04.46, she won the race by 20 meters over Amanda Romano of the host Generals, who was 2nd in 1:07.71.

Her time is fastest by a Rowan woman in five years, since Bordentown graduate Jackie Ansong ran 1:02.81 at the 2018 NJAC Championships in Ewing.

This past indoor season, Lodge placed 3rd in both the 60 and 400 at the NJAC Championships at Ocean Breeze and ran a leg on Rowan’s 8th-place 1,600-meter relay team at the NCAA Division 3 Nationals in Birmingham, Ala.

Last spring, she placed in the top eight in the 100, 200, 400 and high jump at the conference meet and ran a leg on the 3rd-place 4-by-4.

Rancocas Valley graduate Kristina Tossas, a Rutgers junior, opened her 2023 outdoor season with a monster 20-5 long jump at the UCF Black and Gold Invitational in Orlando.,

That’s No. 4 in Rutgers outdoor track history behind Shameka Marshall of Oakcrest [21-6 ¾ at the 2005 ECAC Championships at Princeton], Williamstown’s Gabrielle Farquharson [21-5 ½ at the 2016 Seminole Invitational in Tallahassee, Fla.] and Asha Ruth [21- ½ at the 2012 Big East Championships in Tampa].

So three of the top four long jumpers in Rutgers history are from South Jersey. Ruth attended high school in Bowie, Md.

Tossas only managed three legal jumps, but she hit 20-1 ½ and 20-5 on back-to-back jumps in the trials before a 19-3 ½ to open the finals. She fouled on her 1st, 5th and 6th attempts.

Tossas is coming off a monster indoor season that she concluded by winning the Big Ten long jump at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, with a 20-9 ¼. That’s No. 3 in Rutgers history indoors and was a PR by more than a foot. It gave her a final U.S. ranking of No. 18 and left her just 2 ½ inches from qualifying for the NCAA Championships in Albuquerque.

Tossas also had a 20-2 ¼ at indoor Big Ten’s as well as a near-miss 19-11 ½. So after entering Big East with a PR of 19-7 ½ she’s now jumped 20 feet plus four times in her last two meets – one indoors and one outdoors.

Before Saturday, her outdoor PR was 19-0 on her only legal jump at the Tennessee Relays last April in Knoxville.

At R.V., Tossas had a PR of 18-7 ½ from the 2019 state Group 4 meet at Franklin High. Her indoor PR was 17-10 from a meet at Ocean Breeze in February, 2020.

Tossas will be in action a little closer to home next weekend when Rutgers competes in the Monmouth Open in West Long Branch