Pennsauken’s Premier Wynn, Bryce Tucker make N.J. track history with unprecedented achievement in 400-meter hurdles!!!!!!!!

Premier Wynn and Bryce Tucker did something Saturday that’s never been done in New Jersey track history.

The two Pennsauken seniors became the first teammates ever to run the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 53.00 or faster in the same high school race. (This one took me about three hours to figure out so please keep reading!)

At the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township, Wynn – the Meet of Champions winner at 200 meters indoors – edged Tucker, the two-time Meet of Champions winner in the intermediates and the No. 1-ranked hurdler in the country with his 52.18 from Fast Times at Cherokee last month.

Wynn, who came in with a PR of 54.28 from last year’s state meet – when he was 2nd to Tucker – hadn’t run a 400IH race this year. In fact his last one was a win in the Rising Stars division of Franklin Field Nationals in June.

But it was Wynn who was first across the line with a 52.68, No. 18 in South Jersey history and according to the MileSplit database, No. 3 in the country this year – behind Tucker and Nicholas Gorsich of Linn-Marr High of Marion, Iowa, who ran 52.46 in a meet this weekend on his home track. Tucker was just behind in 52.80.

Only 12 schools in New Jersey track history have had more than one runner break 53.0 seconds in the intermediates at any point in the school’s history, including Camden, Lenape, Washington Township and Willingboro before this past weekend.

But at most of those schools, their fast 400 hurdlers didn’t overlap.

At three of them, they did overlap.

Cory Poole and Akeem Lindo were both at East Orange in 2017, which was Lindo’s junior year and Poole’s senior year; Obafemi Animashaun and Taylor McLaughlin were both at Union Catholic in 2015, McLaughlin’s sophomore year and Animashaun’s senior year; and Dwight Ruff and Maurice Young were both at Camden in 2001, Ruff’s senior year and Young’s junior year.

East Orange? Poole ran 50.14 as a senior in 2017, but Lindo didn’t run sub-53 until his senior year. His fastest time as a junior was 53.05. Close. But not quite.

Camden? Ruff is the South Jersey record holder at 50.37, and Young ran 52.94, but he didn’t run sub-53 until his senior year, so they also never ran sub-53 the same year, much less the same race.

What about the two Union Catholic guys? Here it gets interesting.

In the summer of 2013, Animashaun and McLaughlin (whose sister Sydney is the world record holder and Olympic gold medalist) both went to the World Youth Track and Field Trials at Southern Illinois in Edwardsville, Ill. In the 400-meter hurdles final, McLaughlin placed 3rd in 51.69 and Animashaun ran 52.82 for 5th.

Now, if the two Union Catholic teammates had raced at the U.S. Junior Championships in Des Moines, that would have counted as a high school meet, because it’s a continuation of the high school season. The World Youth Trials are essentially a summer track meet, and by rule performances from summer track competitions don’t qualify for performance lists.

The only other South Jersey schools that have had two intermediate hurdlers at 52.80 at any point in their existence are Camden and Lenape.

Pennsauken did it in one race.

Tucker hasn’t run an open 400 yet, but he ran 47.50 indoors. Wynn ran 47.86 last spring. Get them in the same flat 400 race?

Here’s a look at all the New Jersey schools with multiple sub-53 intermediate hurdlers:

Camden
51.5h … Martin Booker [Camden], 1981
52.4h … Diandre Chandler [Camden], 1986
52.66 … Justin Dupree [Camden], 1996
50.37 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
52.94 … Maurice Young [Camden], 2002

East Orange
50.14 … Cory Poole [East Orange], 2017
51.85 … Akeem Lindo [East Orange], 2018

Lenape
52.71 … Mike Brown [Lenape], 1996
52.62 … Ian Moore [Lenape], 2001

Linden
52.94 … Jeff Jasmin [Linden], 2000
52.42 … Jonathan Petit-Homme [Linden], 2012

Notre Dame
52.78 … Matt Miesionczyk [Notre Dame], 1997
52.27 … Tiquan Underwood [Notre Dame], 2005

Pennsauken
52.14 … Bryce Tucker [Pennsauken], 2021
52.68 … Premier Wynn [Pennsauken], 2023

Plainfield

51.0h … Chris Person [Plainfield], 1978
51.02 … Tony Valentine [Plainfield],. 1983
52.51 … Isaiah Gill [Plainfield], 2009

Rahway

51.78 … Randall Walker [Rahway], 1985
52.29 … Christen Whyte [Rahway], 2009

Union Catholic
52.82 … Obafemi Animashaun [Union Catholic], 2013
50.20 … Taylor McLaughlin [Union Catholic], 2015
52.48 … Nick Givan [Union Catholic], 2022

Washington Twp.
52.72 … Devon Carter [Washington Twp.], 2000
52.10 … Tim Carey [Washington Twp.], 2009

West Orange
52.2h … Bruce Berry [West Orange], 1984
52.74 … Laejon Brooks [West Orange], 2003

Willingboro
52.89 … Devon Patton [Willingboro], 1990
52.71 … Mike Morrison [Willingboro], 2003
52.96 … Tyler Davidson [Willingboro], 2016

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Kingsway grad Kylie Anicic completes her 4TH STRAIGHT PSAC distance triple for Edinboro!!!!!!

Kingsway’s Kylie Anicic on Saturday finished off her 4th consecutive conference distance triple at the PSAC Championships in Slippery Rock.

Anicic, a junior at Edinboro, won the 10,000 on Thursday in 35:48.85 and won the 1,500 in 4:33.88 and 5,000 in 17:20.57 on Saturday.

Including the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference XC championships in November in Mansfield, Anicic is 13-for-13 in PSAC races since transferring from Towson.

Indoors last year, she won the mile [4:58.38], 3,000 [9:59.46] and 5,000 [17:12.88] and outdoors she won the 1,500 [4:37.92], 5,000 [17:21.02] and 10,000 [36:46.38]. This past indoor season, she won the mile [5:02.72], 3,000 [10:06.49] and 5,000 [17:34.83].

Anicic has PRs of 4:25.00 in the 1,500 from last month in Lewisburg, Pa., 9:27.55 for 3,000 meters from last year’s NCAA Division 2 indoor National Championships in Virginia Beach, 16:25.97 in the 5,000 also from indoor Nationals in Virginia Beach and 34:30.63 in the 10,000 from a meet in March in Raleigh, N.C.

How many times has Anicic been an All-America? Good question. Edinboro hasn’t updated its All-America list on its web site since 2019 because why provide up-to-date information?

But it looks like once in cross country and twice on the track.

This year’s NCAA Division 2 Championships are scheduled for May 25-27 at Neta and Eddie DeRose Thunderbowl Stadium on the Colorado State campus in Pueblo, Colo.

Anicic began her collegiate career playing soccer at Temple in the fall of 2018. She played in two games for the Owls – at Delaware State on Aug. 26, 2018, and at Wagner on Sept. 16, 2018 – before transferring to Towson, where she spent the 2019 indoor and outdoor track seasons, 2019 cross country season and 2020 outdoor season before heading to Edinboro.

She ran 2:16.98 for 800 meters and 4:36.42 for 1,500 meters at Towson.

Abdulazeez Iyiola becomes 2nd runner to double 400 and 400IH in Burlington County Open history!!!!!!

Photo courtesy Dennis Smyth, RunningWorksPics.

Nobody ever pulls off this double because nobody ever tries this double.

Palmyra junior Abdulazeez Iyiola at Northern Burlington on Saturday became only the second boy in meet history to win both the 400-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles at the same Burlington County Open.

Iyioa won the 400 in a PR 49.85 out of an unseeded heat and then just 15 minutes later won the intermediate hurdles in 57.01.

The only other boy in meet history to win both one-lap races in the same meet was Mike Williams of Lenape, who won the 400 in 49.15 and the intermediates in 56.62 at the 2013 meet at Maple Shade.

Iyiola is Palmyra’s first double winner since Will Brown doubled the hurdles in both 2005 [14.28, 55.77] and 2006 [14.19, 54.61].

Palmyra’s only other double winners in the last 50 years are Dan Cooper in the 100 and 200 in 1968 and 1969, Glenn Cooper in the 100 and 200 in 1973, Butch Birkhead in the 100 and 200 in 1980, Bob Howard in the hurdles in 1981, Chris Eberly in the javelin and intermediates in 1994 and Will Allison in the long and triple jumps in 2004.

Thanks to Iyiola’s two wins, senior Kwinten Ives’ long jump win and senior Joe Russell’s 5th-place in the high jump, Palmyra scored 32 points and placed 7th, its best finish since the 2004 team took 6th.

Iyiola is the first Palmyra runner to win the 400 at a County Open since Rodney Coon in 1986 and the first to win the intermediates since Brown in 2006.

In the 400, Iyiola won the 4th of five sections in 49.85, then watched as Rancocas Valley freshman Julian Coppage-Seepersaud won the seeded section in 50.20, a Burlington County freshman record.

It was Iyiola’s first open 400 this spring, although he ran 51.82 indoors and took 3rd in the state Group 1 meet.

Iyiola had never broken a minute in the intermediates before the Moorestown Invitational last month, but he ran 57.59 at Moorestown and a PR 56.45 last weekend at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea before easily winning Saturday by 15 meters over Seneca junior Ethan Cutts, who was 2nd in 59.45.

State-wide, Iyiola is No. 4 in Group 1 in the 400 and No. 2 in the intermediates.

WINSLOW’S TIONNA TOBIAS FINISHES DAZZLING WEEKEND WITH #2 ALL-TIME N.J. HEPTATHLON SCORE AND BIG TEN TITLE!!!!!!!! AND BRYANNA CRAIG WAS 2ND!!!!!!

Winslow’s Tionna Tobias capped a remarkable weekend Saturday by winning the heptathlon at the Big Ten Conference Championships with the 2nd-highest score in Iowa history.

Tobias scored 5,640 points, the 15th-highest score by an American woman this year according to the World Athletics database and the highest score by a New Jersey woman in seven years.

The only higher score in Iowa history was recorded by Jenny Kimbro, who set the school record of 5,679 points when she won the 2019 Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, Calif.

Tobias’s score is No. 2 ever by a South Jersey woman and looks like the 2nd-highest ever by a New Jersey high school graduate.

Before she became a full-time hurdler and Olympic silver medalist, Nia Ali of Pleasantville scored 5,870 points at the Azusa (Calif.) Combined Events Invitational. That was Ali’s last heptathlon ever.

Millville’s Bryanna Craig, a freshman at Purdue, who was 6th after Day 1, finished very strong and placed 2nd with a lifetime-best 5,460 points for a 1-2 South Jersey finish in Bloomington, Ind.

More on Craig in a minute.

Tobias began with a very strong Day 1 and had a 218-point lead over Indiana’s Hope Purcell going into Saturday.

She opened with a PR of 13.20 in the 100-meter hurdles – that’s No. 2 in Iowa history behind Paige Magee’s 13.17 and was worth a whopping 1,094 points – and then cleared 5-7 ¼ in the high jump for 867 points.

After a 34-5 in the shot, she closed out Day 1 with a PR 23.97 in the 200 for 984 more points.

Day 2 began with another one of Tobias’s best events, the long jump, and she hit a near-PR 19-11 ¾ for 877 points, which gave her 4,348 points through five events and a 250-point over Penn State freshman Maddie Pitts, who moved into 2nd.

Tobias got through the javelin with an 89-8 on her final attempt, so she went into the closing 800 with 4,821 points and a 297-point lead over Michigan’s Theresa Mayanja, who had moved into 2nd.

Basically, she just needed to get around the track in the 800 without incident for the win, but Tobias PR’d again with a 2:19.61 – her first time under 2:20 and her 3rd PR of the weekend – for 829 points.

Tobias’s previous PR was 5,124 points at last year’s Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis, where she finished 6th.

Tobias is the first Iowa woman to win the Big Ten heptathlon.

As for Craig, she improved her PR from 5411 points to 5460 and moved up to No. 4 junior (under 20) in the world.

On Friday, Craig hurdled 14.22 for 947 point, high jumped 5-6 for 830 points, threw 34-9 ½ in the shot for 569 points and then added 890 points with a quick 24.97 in the 200.

She opened Day 2 by long jumping 18-6 for 741 points and then threw 111-4 for 552 points before finishing very strong with a monster 2:12.34 for 931 points, moving up from 4th to 2nd in the final event.

Craig PR’d in the shot put and 800 but came very close to her PRs in the high hurdles, 200 and long jump.

Craig’s 5460 points is 6th-highest in Purdue history and depending on what happens over the weekend at other meets will likely make her the No. 2 freshman in NCAA Division 1 behind Pippi Lotta Enok of Oklahoma, the World Under-20 champion from Estonia.

So she’s the No. 1 U.S. freshman in the country.

These are the highest heptathlon scores Lambo and I could find by New Jersey high school graduates:

5,870 … Nia Ali [Pleasantville], Azusa Combined Events Invitational, Azusa, Calif., April 14, 2016
5,640 … Tionna Tobias [Winslow Township, Iowa], Big Ten Championships, Bloomington, Ind., May 12, 2023
5,490 … Amber Williams [Roxbury, Florida], Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, Tallahassee, Fla., April 22, 2005
5,460 … Bryanna Craig [Millville, Purdue ], Big Ten Championships, Bloomington, Ind., May 12, 2023

Michigan State’s Shakira Dancy from Winslow runs big PR at Big Ten’s, advances to 200 final!!!!!!

Winslow’s Shakira Dancy, now a Michigan State senior, ran a personal-best 23.53 in the 200 trials Friday at the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind.

Dancy’s race was wind-legal at 0.1 meters per second. She advanced to the 200 final at 2:42 p.m. Sunday. The cutoff for the nine-lane final was 23.59.

Dancy’s previous 200 PR was a 23.69 in the prelims of the 2021 Big Ten Championships in Champaign, Ill.

Dancy spent two indoor seasons at Florida but because of the 2020 season getting wiped out by COVID she didn’t race outdoors in 2019 or 2020.

Wilson’s Dennisha Page leads all qualifiers for Big Ten 200 final, misses Rutgers school record by 1-100th of a second!!!!!!

Dennisha Page, a Rutgers junior from Wilson, annihilated her 200 PR Friday in the prelims of the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind., and leads all qualifiers into Sunday’s final.

Page ran 23.08 with legal wind and missed the school record by 1-100th of a second. The school record of 23.07 was set at the 2016 Big Ten Championships in Lincoln, Neb., by Williamstown’s Gabrielle Farquharson.

So South Jersey sprinters now hold the top-two spots on the all-time Rutgers 200 list. Bordentown’s Andrea Conaway (23.95 in 1988), Egg Harbor’s Ajae Alvarez-Tyler (24.19 last year) are No. 6 and 8.

Page’s previous PR was a 23.19 just two weeks ago in a meet in Jacksonville. She also ran 23.48 and 23.46 last month. Coming into April, her 200 PR was 23.61 indoors at Clemson in January, so that’s now dropped more than half a second.

The only South Jersey women to run faster than Page are Olympic gold medalist English Gardner, who ran 22.62 in 2013, and Farquharson with her 23.07. Unless I’m missing someone, I have Page tied for No. 8 in state history at 23.08:

22.37… Me’Lisa Barber [Montclair], June 26, 2005, Carson, Calif.
22.39 … Sydney McLaughlin [Union Catholic], March 29, 2018, Gainesville, Fla.
22.62 … English Gardner [Eastern], May 12, 2013, Los Angeles
22.63 … Wenda Vereen [Trenton], April 17, 1993, Walnut, Calif.
22.73 … Mikele Barber [Montclair], June 23, 2007, Indianapolis, Ind.
23.07 … Shavon Greaves [Lakewood], April 2, 2010, Gainesville, Fla.
23.07 … Gabrielle Farquharson [Williamstown], May 15, 2016, Lincoln, Neb.
23.08 … Aleah Williams [Montclair], May 19, 2003, Austin, Texas
23.08 … Dennisha Page [Wilson], May 12, 2023, Bloomington, Ind.
23.24 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], June 10, 2004, Austin, Texas

SINCERE RHEA SHATTERS HURDLES PR IN ACC PRELIMS, QUALIFIES FOR U.S. NATIONALS WITH #2 TIME IN MIAMI HISTORY!!!!!!!!

Sincere Rhea destroyed his high hurdles PR Friday in the prelims of the ACC Championships in Raleigh, N.C., and recorded the 2nd-fastest time in Miami Hurricanes history and one of the fastest times by an American this year.

Rhea, a junior at Miami and a former national scholastic champion at St. Augustine in Richland, Atlantic County, ran a wind-legal 13.48, the 4th-fastest qualifying time into the final at 5:50 p.m. Saturday.

The only faster time in Miami history was recorded by Trenton High graduate Devon Hill, who set the school record of 13.35 when he won the 110 highs at the 2012 ACC Championships in Charlottesville, Va.

Rhea, from Maurice River Township, Cumberland County, was one of four hurdlers that ran between 13.43 and 13.48 and advanced automatically to the final by winning their heat.

Rhea’s time makes him the 4th-fastest hurdler ever from South Jersey and fastest since Willingboro’s Isaac Williams ran 13.43 at the 2016 Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.

Only nine U.S. hurdlers had run faster than 13.48 going into Friday’s meets. The A standard to qualify for U.S. Nationals in Eugene July 6-9 is 13.50, so Rhea can run in his first nationals if he chooses.

Rhea’s previous PR was a 13.72 from two weeks ago in Jacksonville. He had run between 13.72 and 13.74 in each of his last four meets after coming into the season with a PR of 13.89 from last spring in Baton Rouge, La. That was also his PR at Penn State from the 2021 Big Ten Championships in Champaign, Ill.

Deptford’s Naseem Smith, a sophomore at Syracuse, also qualified for the final with a PR 14.02 in the same heat as Rhea. His previous PR was a 14.38 in a meet last month in Cortland, N.Y.

This is my best attempt at an all-time New Jersey 110-meter hurdles top-10:

12.93 … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], Aug. 19, 1981, Zürich
12.94 … Jack Pierce [Woodbury], June 22, 1996, Atlanta
13.08 … Jeff Porter [Franklin Twp.], June 30, 2012, Eugene, Ore.
13.12 … Anwar Moore [Camden], May 5, 2007, Modesto, Calif.
13.35 … Devin Hill [Trenton], April 21, 2012, Charlottesville, Va.
13.36 … Todd Matthews [Notre Dame], July 12, 2012, Budapest, Hungary
13.43 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], April 16, 2016, Walnut, Calif.
13.48 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], May 12, 2023,
13.51 … Martin Booker [Camden], June 7, 1986, Indianapolis
13.53 … Dudley Dorival [Ewing], July 29, 1995, Colorado Springs, Colo.

RV’s Micah Woods of Rutgers PRs in 400IH, advances to Big Ten Championships final!!!!!!

Nice PR Friday for Rancocas Valley graduate Micah Wood, who ran 52.35 in the 400-meter intermediates in the prelims at the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind.

Wood advanced to the final at 2:18 p.m. Sunday.

Wood’s previous PR was a 52.61 last month in a meet in Columbia, S.C. At Monmouth he ran 52.91 to win the 2021 Metro Atlantic Conference meet in Lawrenceville.

Wood’s time is No. 10 in Rutgers history. Four of the top 10 are South Jersey alumni: Aaron Younger of Delsea is No. 2 [50.65 at 2010 NCAA Regionals in Greensboro, N.C.], Steve Swern of Lenape is No. 6 [51.68 at 2010 IC4As in Princeton], Delran’s Harran Williams No. 8 [52.19 at 2002 IC4As in Princeton] and Wood is No. 10.

In the women’s race, Winslow’s Nylah Perry advanced to Sunday’s final with a 59.37 in the prelims. She just PR’d with a 58.61 at a meet last month in Gainesville, Fla.

Winslow’s Tionna Tobias obliterates hurdles PR, runs #2 time in Iowa history to open Big Ten heptathlon!!!!!!

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.

Washington Twp.’s Aaron Kolosowsky wins Gloucester County 800 with … 18-second PR???!!!

Washington Township junior Aaron Kolosowsky won the 800 Thursday night at the Gloucester County Championships in what appears to be the first major 800 he’s ever run.

Kolosowsky ran 1:59.00, edging Clearview senior Cavan Agatone, who was 2nd in 1:59.66. According to MileSplit, the only 800 Kolosowsky had ever raced previousloyz was indoors as a sophomore in a meet at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., where he ran 2:17.07.

It’s possible he ran some fast 800s in dual meets – he probably did since he was seeded in the faster section – but the only result on his MileSplit page from before Thursday night is a 4:29.25 to win the 1,600 this past Saturday at the South Jersey Open.

Kolosowsky ran 4:37.02 and 10:11.01 last spring and 4:35.99 indoors. So he’s made a huge leap in both the 800 and 1,600.

The Minutemen went 1-3 in the race, with senior Colin Keane PR’ing at 2:01.46 for 3rd. And Williamstown freshman Dominic Burgio took 4th in 2:03.59, No. 4 among New Jersey freshmen this year and No. 2 in South Jersey behind Delsea’s Matthew Littlehales, who ran 2:01.01 Saturday at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea.

Littlehales didn’t run the 800 Thursday but ran a PR 9:49.70 for 3rd in the 3,200 behind Peyton Shute’s stat-leading 9:11.11 and Williamstown’s Nick Krol [9:37.71]. Littlehales is the No. 1 freshman in the state in the 1,600 [4:23.69] and No. 4 in the 800 and 3,200.

Washington Township outscored Williamstown 106-78 1/2 to win the team title.