Washington Township graduate Jayden Greene, a junior at St. Joe’s, blew away his PR Friday afternoon with the fastest time by a St. Joe’s Hawk in eight years.
Greene ran 1:50.79 at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton’s Weaver Stadium. He placed 10th overall but was 3rd in his section. Villanova’s Sean Dolan was the overall winner in 1:47.33, and Monmouth’s Louis DiLaurenzio won the second section ahead of Greene in 1:50.05.
Greene was out in 56.69 but came back in 54.10, those big negative splits showing he’s ready to run significantly faster.
Unfortunately, St. Joe’s is one of the few Division 1 schools we’ve come across that doesn’t have an all-time top-10 on its web site, so no way to tell where Green’s time ranks in school history.
But from the year-by-year performance lists on DirectAthletics.com, we can determine it’s fastest by any Hawks runner in eight years. In May of 2015, Matt McGarvey ran 1:49.75 in a meet at Swarthmore.
Greene’s previous PR was a 1:51.05 at indoor IC4A’s last month in Boston. His outdoor PR was a 1:53.76 last month at the Colonial Relays in Williamsburg, Va. His high school outdoor PR was 1:55.41 at 2019 states at Franklin High School. He ran slightly faster indoors – 1:55.19 at the 2020 Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze.
Kingsway graduate Thomas Cooke competing post-collegiately ran 1:52.19, Sean Burtnett of Burlington Township and The College of New Jersey 1:53.28 Monmouth’s Ian Moore from Rancocas Valley 1:53.81 and Delsea grad Michael Szwed, a post-grad at St. Joe’s ran 1:53.98.
Cooke, who competed briefly for Felician College in Lodi, N.J., in 2013 and 2014, doesn’t appear to have run an 800 in 11 years – since PR’ing at 1:54.53 at the 2012 state Group 3 championships in South Plainfield. He’s run 4:01.08 for a full mile.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 