Pennsauken’s Sianni Wynn became the first South Jersey freshman in 16 years to win a Meet of Champions title Thursday when she cruised to a win in the 400 at Franklin High.
Wynn, the No. 3 freshman in the U.S. with her 53.97 at states last weekend, didn’t need to run that fast Thursday, sailing to a still-very-fast 54.56 and a comfortable win over Ridgefield junior Kylie Castillo, who ran 55.43 and finished six meters back.
Wynn is the 5th South Jersey freshman to win a Meet of Champions title. The others are Michelle Glover of Pennsauken, who won the 100-yard dash in 1978 before transferring to Willingboro and winning four more Meet of Champions titles, English Gardner of Eastern in the 100 in 2007, Egg Harbor’s Lauren Princz in the 200 in 2008 and Delsea’s Alanna Woolfolk in the high jump in 2021. She won this year’s high jump as a junior at Clayton.
Wynn is only the 3rd Pennsauken girl to win an MoC title. Glover won the 100 in 1978 and Thananya Wooden won the inaugural triple jump in 2000.
She’s the first South Jersey girl to win the Meet of Champions 400 since Seneca’s Michelle Brown won her 3rd straight in 2010.
Wynn, who won the 55 at the indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze, hasn’t lost a 400-meter race this spring and was unbeaten at 400 meters indoors until nationals. Her only losses at any distance this spring were to Meet of Champions 100 winner Naylah Jones of Timber Creek in a 100 at Fast Times at Cherokee back in April and to Elizabeth’s Cynthia Boakye in the 200 at Group 4 states. Boakye won the MoC 200 on Thursday. So Wynn has never lost an outdoor high school race to anybody who wasn’t a Meet of Champions winner.
Wynn came back to anchor Pennsauken’s 4th-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:54.94. sophomore Amina Dyer, freshman Sanaya Dupree and sophomore Ameenah Rodriguez ran the first three legs for Pennsauken.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 