Winslow’s Tionna Tobias opened up the Big Ten Conference heptathlon in Bloomington, Ind., with a monster hurdles PR and the 2nd-fastest time in Iowa history.
Tobias ran 13.20, only 3-100ths of a second off the school record of 13.17 set by Paige Magee in the prelims of the 2021 Big Ten Championships in Champaign, Ill.. Tiffany Johnson also ran 13.20 at the 2007 Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
That 13.20 got Tobias a whopping 1,094 points in the opening event of the seven-event two-day competition.
She ran with a legal 1.0 wind.
Tobias’s previous PR in the highs was 13.51 at a meet in Waco, Texas, last month. Her previous heptathlon hurdles PR was a 13.59 in the 2021 Big Ten meet in Champaign.
The performance made Tobias the 2nd-fastest South Jersey hurdler in history. Olympic silver medalist Nia Ali of Pleasantville has a PR of 12.34 from her win at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Looks like her time is 7th-fastest ever by a New Jersey hurdler:
12.34 … Nia Ali [Pleasantville], Oct. 6, 2019, Doha, Qatar
12.65 … Sydney McLaughlin [Union Catholic], May 9, 2021, Walnut, Calif.
12.74 … Dawn Bowles [Neptune], June 15, 1997, Indianapolis
13.13 … Charmaine Walker [Plainfield], June 2, 2000, Durham, N.C.
13.15 … Amaya Chadwick [Union Catholic], May 27, 2021, Jacksonville, Fla.
13.18 … Amber Williams [Roxbury], June 6, 2007, Sacramento, Calif.
13.20 … Tionna Tobias [Winslow Twp.], May 11, 2023, Bloomington, Ind.
Tobias’s heptathlon PR is 5,124 points from last year’s Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis, 6th-highest in school history. Her long jump PR of 20-2 ½ is No. 5 in school history.
Also, Purdue freshman Bryanna Craig of Millville ran 14.22 for 947 points in a different section of the same event. That’s only 3-100ths of a second off her PR of 14.19 from a meet last month in Louisville and it also breaks her heptathlon hurdles PR of 14.29 from the Drake Relays last month in Des Moines.
Craig has a heptathlon PR of 5,411 points, which makes her the No. 5 junior (Under 20) in the world and No. 6 in school history.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 