Jessica Woodard made it to the podium in her first Diamond League track meet Sunday, placing 3rd in the shot put in Rabat, Morocco.

Woodard, a Cherokee graduate, threw 61-2 on her first attempt and finished 3rd overall, behind Portugal’s Auriol Dongmo [63-3] and Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands [61-10].

Woodard has competed in international meets in Canada and Brazil, but this was her first appearance in the Diamond League, the 14-meet European circuit that runs from early May through the Diamond League Final in September.

The 61-2 is Woodard’s 2nd-best throw this year. She hit 61-5 at the Tucson (Ariz.) Elite Classic two weeks ago.

Woodard ranks No. 16 in the world this year and No. 5 among U.S. women. Woodard threw 63-7 ¾ and placed 3rd at the U.S. Championships last year in Eugene and went on to place 8th at the World Championships, also in Eugene. She ranks 14th all-time among U.S. women.

One of the best stories to come out of the 2023 track season is the remarkable improvement that Burlington Township graduate Jasmine Broadway made at Rowan.

Broadway never broke 25.50 in high school, but since arriving in Glassboro she’s improved from 26.60 indoors as a freshman to 25.84 last spring to 25.48 this past indoor season to one of the fastest in the country this spring.

Broadway placed 5th in the 200-meter dash final at the NCAA Championships on Saturday, earning All-America honors a year after she placed 14th in the 200 in her own conference meet.

Broadway came into the spring season with a PR of 25.16 from February in Boston and dropped that to 24.85 in her outdoor debut at Widener. She ran 24.76 in Columbia, S.C., a few weeks later and then 24.46 when she won the conference meet.

This past Thursday, she ran 24.18 in the trials at NCAA Division 3 Nationals in Rochester, smashing the school record of 24.36 – set by Pemberton graduate Shailah Williams when she won the 2015 NJAC meet at Ramapo.

She followed that with a 24.33 and 5th place in the final, making her the third short sprinter in Rowan history to earn All-America honors. Karen Corsey placed 8th in the 100 in 1992 and Williams was 4th in the 60 and 1st in the 200 indoors in 2014, 4th in the 60 and 3rd in the 200 indoors in 2016 and 8th in the 200 outdoors in 2016.

Overall, Broadway is now a two-time All-America. She ran on Rowan’s 8th-place 4-by-4 team indoors.

This past weekend, she also ran on two very fast Rowan relay teams that just missed earning All-America honors.

In the 4-by-100, she ran with Hillsborough’s Kat Pederson, Woodstown’s Molly Lodge and Triton’s Nevaeh Lorjuste, running 47.53 and placing 13th overall, and in the 4-by-4, she joined Sosa Caceres, Lodge and Lorjuste, placing 9th in 3:49.43.

Winslow’s Nylah Perry finished her season on a high note with a PR in the second round of the 400-meter hurdles Saturday at the NCAA Division 1 West Preliminaries in Sacramento.

Perry, a sophomore at Iowa, lowered her lifetime best from 58.61 to 58.28 and although she missed advancing to Austin next month for the national semifinals, she finished second among freshmen and sophomores in the entire Western Region.

The top 12 finishers advance to Austin, and Perry wound up with the 16th-fastest time in the West Prelims.

Perry’s 58.28 puts her in the No. 9 position in Iowa history and as far as I can find it puts her No. 6 on the all-time New Jersey alumni list:

55.78 … Tonya Lee [Rancocas Valley], April 21, 1996, Walnut, Calif.
56.21 … Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp.], May 26, 2007, Gainesville, Fla.
56.87 … Evann Thompson [Lenape], May 30, 2014, Jacksonville, Fla.
57.16 … Jewel Ash [Eastern], May 9, 2022, High Point, N.C.
57.84 … Arianna Smith [Pennsville], May 6, 2023, Philadelphia
58.28 … Nylah Perry [Winslow], May 27, 2023, Sacramento, Calif.
58.38 … Ste’yce McNeil [Winslow], May 2, 2015, Starkville, Miss.

With former Sterling teammates Marquise Young and Jah’mere Beasley running the 1st and 3rd legs, Rowan’s 4-by-400 relay team ran one of the fastest times in NCAA Division 3 history Saturday at the D-3 nationals in Rochester, N.Y.

In the fastest 1,600-meter relay ever at in the NCAA Division 3 Championship’s 49-year history, Mount Union, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Rowan and Wisconsin-La Crosse all run sub-3:09 – something only four teams in meet history had ever done.

Mount Union of Alliance, Ohio, won the race in 3:07.24, followed by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps of Claremont, Calif., which was 2nd in 3:07.82, Rowan in 3rd in 3:08.74 and Wisconsin La Crosse 4th in 3:08.81. John Carroll in 5th ran 3:09.44, fast enough to win a national title in 44 of the 48 previous meets.

The race produced the No. 1, 2, 8, 9 and 10 times in meet history.

Beasley split 47.06 and Rowan anchor Amara Conte 46.72. No splits for leadoff Young and second leg Nana Agyemang because the race starts in lanes, but Rowan’s time is No. 41 in the U.S. this year, including Division 1, Division 2 and NAIA scholaship programs, JUCOs, club teams, U.S. all-star teams, and so on.

Rowan’s previous school record was a 3:10.06 when the Profs placed 2nd in NCAA Division 3 Nationals last spring in Geneva, Ohio, with West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s John Owens, Agyemang, Beasley and Conte. The Profs came within 1-100th of a second of that record with a 3:10.07 in a meet in Columbia, S.C., last month with the same lineup as Saturday – Young, Agyemang, Beasley and Conte.

With six points in the final event, Rowan finished with 39 points and placed 3rd in team scoring behind MIT of Cambridge, Mass. (60 ½) and Wisconsin-La Crosse (49). It’s Rowan’s best team finish in 39 years, since the 1984 team outscored 2nd-place Mount Union 114-100 to win its 5th straight team title.

3:07.24 … Mount Union, 2023 [1st]
3:07.82 … Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 2023 [2nd]
3:08.10 … Mount Union, 2018 [1st]
3:08.21 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2004 [1st]
3:08.26 … Wesley, Del., 2018 [2nd]
3:08.55 … Lincoln, Pa., 2006 [1st]
3:08.71 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2005 [1st]
3:08.74 … Rowan, 2023 [3rd]
3:08.81 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2023 [4th]
3:09.44 … John Carroll, 2023 [5th]

Shamar Love, Jah’mere Beasley, Nana Agyemang and Evan Corcoran ran the 6th-fastest 400-meter relay in NCAA Division 3 history and placed a close 2nd to D-3 record holder Wisconsin-La Crosse at the Division 3 National Championships Saturday in Rochester, N.Y.

Bridgeton’s Love, Sterling’s Beasley, Parsippany’s Agyemang and Kingsway’s Corcoran ran 40.14 and placed 2nd to La Crosse, which ran an NCAA Division 3-record 39.86 in the trials on Thursday. La Crosse won the race in 39.96.

Rowan lowered the school record from 40.37 from earlier this month in Selinsgrove, Pa., to 40.36 in the trials. Before this spring, the school record was 40.82 by Ed Fortune from Queens, N.Y., Millville’s Matt Davis, Highland’s Jorge Santiago and Camden’s Tyree Jackson at the 2003 NCAA Division 3 Championships in Canton, N.Y.

Only three D-3 schools have run faster than Rowan. Here’s a look at the top-10 fastest 4-by-1 performances in NCAA Division 3 history:

39.86 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, NCAA Division 3 Semifinals, 2023
39.95 … New Jersey City, NCAA Division 3 Finals, 2003
39.96 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, NCAA Division 3 Finals, 2023
40.01 … Wesley (Del.), NCAA Championships Finals, 2016
40.07 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, Drake Relays, 2023
40.14 … Rowan, NCAA Championships Finals, 2023
40.17 … Benedictine, Carius-Gregory Invitational, 2022
40.18 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, NCAA Championships Semifinals, 2021
40.19 … Wisconsin Oshkosh, Augustana Twilight Qualifier, 2022
40.19 … Lincoln (Pa.), NCAA Championships, 2000

The 2nd-place finish is Rowan’s best-ever in the 400-meter relay at NCAA Division 3 nationals. The Profs were 3rd in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Rowan also earned All-America honors in the 400-meter relay in 1994 [7th in 42.10], 2001 [3rd in 40.98], 2002 [3rd in 41.06], 2003 [3rd in 40.82], 2016 [4th in 40.92], 2017 [4th in 41.15] and 2021 [7th in 41.22].

Beasley is now an eight-time All-American: 4-by-1 and 200 in 2021 outdoors, 4-by-4 and 200 outdoors last year, 4-by-4 in 2020 indoors and 200 and 4-by-4 indoors last year. He still has the 200 and 4-by-4 coming up later Saturday.

This is Ageyemang’s 6th All-America honor and the first for Corcoran and Love, Rowan’s two freshmen.

Pitman graduate Emily Galvin, a senior at Rowan, recorded one of the top hammer throws in NCAA Division 3 history Saturday and placed 2nd at the NCAA Championships at St. John Fisher in Rochester, N.Y.

Galvin threw 177-6 on her 1st attempt before popping a 184-3 on her 2nd, not far off her lifetime best of 186-9, which she just threw a week and a half ago in Selinsgrove, Pa.

On her 3rd throw, Galvin put it all together and surpassed the 190-foot barrier for the first time, moving from 4th into 2nd at 190-10.

That puts her at No. 22 in NCAA Division 3 history.

Alexis Boykin, a sophomore at MIT in Cambridge, threw 195-5 on her 2nd attempt to win the competition. That’s No. 9 in NCAA Division 3 history.

In the finals, neither Boykin nor Galvin improved on their throws in the first round. They were the only competitors who surpassed 190 feet. Galvin did add a 187-6 on her 5th attempt – her 2nd-best throw ever.

Galvin’s 2nd-place finish is highest by a Rowan woman at Division 3 nationals since Kathy Darling from Milford, Del., won her 2nd consecutive discus title in 2001 in Decatur, Ill.

Galvin is the first Rowan woman ever to earn All-America honors in the hammer and the first in any of the throws since Cherokee’s Melissa Lake placed 8th in the javelin with a throw of 137-6 at the 2013 meet in La Crosse, Wisc.

Galvin spent her first four years and three seasons at Villanova, where she threw 185-3 and placed 3rd in last year’s Big East Championships at Storrs, Conn.

The other outstanding senior javelin thrower from Gloucester County named Emily – Kingsway graduate Emily Hilt of Rutgers-Camden – placed 17th with a 165-3 on her final attempt after fouling on her first two throws. It was Hilt who edged Galvin to win the NJAC title earlier this month in Mahwah.

Amara Conte ran Rowan’s fastest 400 in 33 years Friday and advanced to the finals at the NCAA Division 3 Championships.

Conte, a sophomore, ran a personal-best 46.76 at St. John Fisher in Rochester, N.Y,., the fastest time by a Rowan quarter-miler since Salem High graduate Maurice Ransome ran 46.19 in 1990.

Conte’s previous PR was a 46.79 when he won the NJAC title earlier this month at Ramapo. That 46.76 is 4th-fastest ever by a NJAC 400 runner. Dwayne Stevens of Elizabeth High ran 45.90 for Montclair State in 1992, Ramapo’s Cheickna Trarore from Snyder ran 46.54 when he placed 2nd at NCAAs last year in Geneva, Ohio, and there’s Ransome’s 46.19.

Interestingly, both Traore and Conte are from Jersey City, Traore from Snyder and Conte from Ferris a couple miles to the northeast.

On Friday, all eight qualifiers for Saturday’s final ran under 47 seconds, which is unprecedented. The final will include No. 7, No. 11, No. 16, No. 20, No. 21 and No. 22 in NCAA Division 3 history. The final is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. Saturday, and Conte will be out in Lane 8.

Rowan’s last outdoor All-America in the 400 was Rich Dixon, who placed 4th in 2000 in 47.82 at North Central College in Naperville, Ill. Dixon was also 4th in 1999 in 47.77.

(A note on that 46.19 – I can’t find any record of it actually happening. Even the NCAA Division 3 track official stats don’t indicate where it happened, although they do list the time: . I’ve searched everywhere using every possible resource – mainly Newspapers.com – and if it happened nobody knew about it or wrote about it. If Maurice Ransome is out there, let us know where you ran 46.19!)

Thanks to former Rowan runner Dan Fourney, who asked a bunch of teammates from that 1990 team if they remembered where Maurice ran his 46.19. Someone tagged Maurice himself, and he said it was actually in the semifinals at 1990 nationals, which were also at North Central College in Naperville. The only full set of results from that meet that I could find don’t show the semis, which is how we missed it!

St. Augustine’s Sincere Rhea punched his ticket to Austin in the 110-meter hurdles Friday evening with a commanding win in the 2nd of three quarterfinal races at the NCAA Championships East Preliminaries.

Rhea, a Miami junior, easily won his heat at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville in 13.56 with a 2.7-meters-per-second assisting tailwind, finishing well clear of 2nd-place Tayshaun Chisholm of Delaware State, who was 2nd in 13.66.

The first three finishers in each of the three races along with the next-three-fastest times advance to the NCAA Championships in Austin June 7-10. The top 12 hurdlers from the NCAA Western Prelims in Sacramento later Friday will race in the semifinals at 7:32 p.m. Wednesday, June 7.

Rhea’s 13.56 is his 2nd-fastest ever under any conditions. He ran 13.48 with legal 1.2 wind in the trials of the ACC Championships two weeks ago in Raleigh.

Rhea ran 13.70 Wednesday in the first round and was only the 20th-fastest qualifier out of 24 into Friday’s quarterfinals. But he was 5th-fastest of those 24 hurdlers on Friday, and the four who ran faster were all aided by a 5.8 meters-per-second wind. Any race assisted by a tailwind over 2.0 meters per second is considered wind-aided and those times are not eligible for record purposes.

But that’s irrelevent here because all that matters is surviving to the next round, and Rhea had never done that before outdoors. He placed 30th in the 2021 prelims, also in Hodges Stadium, and that was his final race competing for Penn State. He placed 35th in last year’s prelims. His best NCAA finish was 14th place at the 2021 indoor championships over the 60-meter hurdles in Fayetteville.

But he’s clearly a much better, much more consistent, much more confident hurdler these days, and it’s showed over the last two months with a series of very fast races against very strong fields.

Rhea, who turned 22 last month, is now ranked 35th in the world and 12th among U.S. men, 2-100ths of a second behind Eagles wide receiver Devon Allen, who ran 13.46 at the Penn Relays.

Rowan freshman Kwaku Nkrumah leads all qualifiers into the final of the 110-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division 3 Championships.

Nkrumah, whose PR at Teaneck over the 39-inch hurdles was 14.44, ran 14.25 over the 42-inch barriers Friday at St. John Fisher in Rochester, N.Y.

Nkrumah didn’t break 15 seconds over the college hurdles until last month but gradually lowered his PR from 14.75 in early April at a home meet, 14.60 in mid-April at Princeton, 14.46 in late April in Columbia, S.C., and then the big breakthrough was a 14.25 to win the NJAC Championships at Ramapo earlier this month.

He ran 14.30 two weeks ago to win the AARTFC Championships in Selinsgrove, Pa., so he’s now run 14.25, 14.30 and 14.25 in his last three meets after not breaking 15 seconds until last month.

Nkrumah was first across the line in the 3rd of three heats of the 110-meter highs Friday, edging Enoch Ellis of MIT of Cambridge, Mass., by 1-100th of a second. The winner of each heat plus the next-five-fastest hurdlers advanced to the final.

Nkrumah, Ellis and MIT’s Kenneith Wei – who won the 3rd heat in 14.33 – were the only hurdlers under 14.40 in the trials.

The final is scheduled for 1:50 p.m. Saturday.

Rowan’s web site lists Garry Moore’s 13.40 from 1982 as the school record, but I think we’re all aware that’s not an accurate time. Maybe a hand time. The USTFCCCA web site confirms that Moore’s 13.90 is the actual fastest wind-legal FAT time by a Rowan hurdler.

I made an attempt to put together an all-time Glassboro State / Rowan 110-meter hurdles wind-legal performance list, and it looks like Nkrumah’s 14.25 is 6th-fastest in school history, although I could be missing one or two names. Rowan does not have an all-time top-10 on its web site, unfortunately. This is what I cobbled together:

13.90 … Garry Moore [Overbrook], 1982
14.01 … Stanley Moore [Overbrook], 1983
14.22 … Leon Devero [Linden], 1981
14.23 … Dave Benjamin [Freehold Twp.], 2017
14.24 … Bobby Cooks [McArthur, Hollywood, Fla.], 2018
14.25 … Kwaku Nkrumah [Teaneck], 2023
14.27 … Chase Tolliver [], 2017
14.28 … Tyler Garland [Deptford], 2019

14.00w… Dave Benjamin [Freehold Twp.], 2017
14.05w … Bobby Cooks [McArthur, Hollywood, Fla.], 2018

The Rowan women, with four South Jersey legs, ran their fastest 4-by-4 in five years and just missed advancing to the final at the NCAA Division 3 Championships.

Senior Amantha Sosa Caceres from Absegami, sophomore Jasmine Broadway of Burlington Township, sophomore Molly Lodge of Woodstown and sophomore Nevaeh Lorjuste from Triton ran 3:49.43 and placed 9th in the prelims at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, N.Y. The top eight advanced to Saturday’s final.

Lorjuste anchored in 54.97. She races in the open 400 later Friday.

It was Rowan’s fastest time this year and the program’s fastest time since the 2018 team ran 3:48.28 at a meet at Swarthmore. Dominique Peters from Lawrenceville, Jackie Ansong of Bordentown, Brianna Angelella from Manahawkin and Miyah Sturdivant of Timber Creek ran on that team.

Rowan’s previous season-best performance was a 3:50.31 at the NJAC Championships in Mahwah with the same four runners and Pederson leading off (but Lodge running 2nd, Lorjuste 3rd and Broadway anchor).

Rowan is 16th all-time in NCAA Division 3 with its 3:44.60 to place 4th at the 2014 NCAA Division 3 Championships at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, the geographic epicenter of the state.

Cherokee’s Jessalyn Wright, South Brunswick’s Jamie Thompson, Hillside’s Tashay Wilson and Edison’s Melirah Searcy ran on that team.

The cutoff for advancing was 3:47.85. The College of New Jersey got in as the No. 8 seed for the final.