Sophia Curtis has been making history all year and Saturday was certainly no exception.
Curtis became Ocean City’s first triple winner, ran the 7th-fastest intermediate hurdles in the U.S. this year and helped the Red Raiders place 2nd in the state Group 3 meet at Delsea.
It was a monumental one-day performance for Curtis, who won the 400-meter dash in 56.61, ran a PR 1:00.42 to win the intermediates by almost two seconds and used a last-jump 39-5 ¾ to win the triple jump.
The 400-400IH double is hard enough at a two-day meet. For Curtis to pull it off with about two hours between events is truly impressive. She’s the first South Jersey girl to win both the 400 and intermediates at states in 18 years, since Winslow’s Krystal Cantey won both as part of a quad win in Group 3 in 2005 [24.35, 55.52, 14.40, 1:02.93].
Curtis is the first Ocean City girl ever to win three events at states and the first to win two since Renee Tomlin won the 800 [2:11.83] and 1,600 [4:57.55] at Egg Harbor in 2005.
She’s actually the first Ocean City girl to win any individual event at states since Tomlin in the 1,600 [4:56.34] in 2006 in South Plainfield, although the Raiders have won the 4-by-8 twice since then [Cierra Granger, Devon Grisbaum, Rachel Stremme and Bridget Flynn ran 9:15.61 in 2014, and Grisbaum, Emma Bergman, Michaela Baker and Stremme ran 9:23.84 in 2015].
Let’s take a look at Curtis’s afternoon:
400-meter dash: In only her 3rd flat 400 of the spring, Curtis held off Timber Creek junior Naylah Jones, who had edged her at sectionals on the same track a week earlier. Jones won last week by 21-100ths of a second with a PR 55.83, but this time Curtis held Jones off by 3-100ths of a second. It was likely the final 400 of the year for Curtis, who will presumably contest the triple jump and intermediates Wednesday at the Meet of Champions at Franklin High. She would be the 6th seed in the 400 if she did choose to run it. She already holds the Cape May County record of 56.04 from sectionals.
400-meter hurdles: Racing unpressed, Curtis lowered her PR from 1:00.51 from sectionals to 1:00.42, which is 10th-fastest in South Jersey history. She won by nearly two seconds over Kylie Jacoutot of Colts Neck, who was 2nd in 1:02.30. Curtis’s time is No. 7 in the U.S. this year, just behind Morristown’s Aaliyah Murphy, who won the state Group 4 title at Franklin in 1:00.39, so that should be quite a hot Meet of Champions race Wednesday.
Triple Jump: Winslow’s remarkable Ma’Syiah Brawner set the state freshman record of 39-5 ½ at sectionals, finishing just 2 ½ inches behind Curtis. It was just as close this time as the two best triple jumpers in New Jersey squared off again. Brawner opened with a 39-2 to take the lead, and Curtis answered with a 39-0 ½. Neither matched those marks on their 2nd attempts – 37-4 for Brawner, 38-11 for Curtis. Brawner hit 36-6 ½ on her third and final attempt in the curtailed three-jump event, but on her final jump Curtis sailed 39-5 ½ to snag the win by 3 ¾ inches.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 