From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Sianni Wynn became the second South Jersey girl to record a double-win at the 88th annual Easterns Wednesday night at the Armory.

Wynn, a Pennsauken freshman, PR’d in both the 55-meter dash and the 400. She won the 55 in 7.04, which is No. 11 in South Jersey history, and then came back and won the 400 in 56.10, which is No. 10 in South Jersey history.

Wynn is the first girl in meet history – which goes back to 1980 – to double the 55 and 400 (or 55 and 300, which was run until 1995).

The only other South Jersey girl to win two individual events at Easterns is Winslow’s Ste’cye McNeil, who won the 200 in 24.65 and hurdles in 7.89 in 2012.

Both marks are South Jersey freshman records. The 7.04 tied English Gardner’s mark set at the 2007 Easterns at the Armory, and the 56.10 broke Gardner’s freshman record of 56.29, set two days earlier at the Meet of Champions at the Bubble.

On the MileSplit U.S. national list, Wynn is the No. 1 freshman at 7.04 and No. 4 in the 400 with her 56.10.

For more on the 55, click here.

In the 400, Wynn ran away from the field in the final heat, finishing a whopping eight meters in front of Gina Certo of Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest, who ran 57.29. Chairely Bido of Snyder in Jersey City actually wound up 2nd with a 57.23 out of the 4th section.

That 56.10 is fastest by a South Jersey girl in six years, since Rancocas Valley’s Aliyah Taylor ran 55.21 at Easterns and fastest by a Camden County quarter-miler since Gardner’s hand-timed 55.4 in 2008.

Wynn wasn’t the only South Jersey runner doing damage in the Easterns 400.

Eastern senior Kadence Dumas placed 4th in 56.64 – that’s just 2-100ths of a second off her PR from sectionals – and Absegami senior Hannah Ross PR’d in 58.28 for 6th place out of an unseeded heat. Her previous indoor PR was 58.44 at Group 4 states last month at the Bubble.

Here’s the all-time South Jersey sub-57 list:

54.24 … Okechi Ogbuokiri [Willingboro], 2003
54.91 … Nijgia Snapp [Oakcrest], 2008
55.16 … Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp.], 2006
55.19 … Michelle Brown [Seneca], 2008
55.21 … Aliyah Taylor [Rancocas Valley], 2017
55.4h … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
55.6h … Denise Mitchell [Edgewood], 1984
55.83 … Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2016
56.10 … Sianni Wynn [Pennsauken], 2023
56.19 … Nylah Perry [Winslow], 2020
56.21 … Dana Burnett [Williamstown], 1997
56.34 … Katrina Sye [Buena], 1997
56.44 … Avionne Sloan [Camden], 2006
56.62 … Ste’yce McNeil [Winslow Twp.], 2012
56.65 … Britney Kott [Millville], 2009
56.76 … Simone Thomas [Willingboro], 2003
56.78 … Ajae Alvarez-Tyler [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2018
56.85 … Emily Duffey [Lenape], 2012
56.85 … Nylah Perry [Winslow], 2020
56.88 … Marcene Jack [Mainland Reg.], 2004
56.90 … Nadia Davy [Bridgeton], 1999
56.98 … Jade Pope [Pennsauken], 2020

Wynn’s time is 4th-fastest ever by a South Jersey girl at Easterns, behind only Oakcrest’s Nijgia Snapp [54.91 in 2008], Willingboro’s Okechi Ogbuokiri in 2003 [55.14] and Seneca’s Michelle Brown in 2010 [55.74].

She’s also the fifth South Jersey girl to win an Easterns 400 title:

2003 … Okechi Ogbuokiri (Willingboro, N.J.) 55.14
2008 … Nijgia Snapp (Oakcrest, N.J.) 54.91
2017 … Aliyah Taylor (Rancocas Valley, N.J.) 55.21
2018 … Ajae Alvarez (Egg Harbor Twp., N.J.) 56.78
2023 … Sianni Wynn [Pennsauken], 56.10