With track season finally over, we’ll catch our breath and spend the next couple weeks taking a look at some top South Jersey athletes who fell through the cracks this year that we didn’t have a chance to write about.
TODAY: Absegami freshman Samia Ghazaz.
Samia Ghazaz had never broken 2:26 until sectionals, but in the span of two weeks she became one of the fastest half-milers in South Jersey this year, one of the fastest freshmen in the state and the fastest 800 runner from Atlantic County in six years.
Ghazaz, a freshman at Absegami, didn’t run indoors, so her first high school race was an 800 at the Lenape Girls Invitational on April 15, and it was a promising debut with a 2:28.38 for 4th place behind a senior and two juniors.
She dropped to 2:26.11 to win the 800 at the Atlantic County Championships in mid-May at Stockton University in Galloway Township and also ran her first 1,600, taking 3rd in 5:19.20 behind two really good milers – Mainland’s Gillian Lovett and Egg Harbor’s Michaela Schlemo.
But that was just the start.
At South Jersey Group 3 sectionals at Delsea, Ghazaz took 2nd to Highland’s Grace Wassell in the 800 in 2:20.71 – a 5 ½-second PR – and was 4th behind Delsea’s Lillie Widmer, Ocean City’s Maeve Smith and Lovett in 5:13.29, a 6-second PR.
Then it was off to states, where she lowered her 800 PR to 2:18.05 to place 8th in a very fast race. She was the top freshman runner in the race as well as the top South Jersey runner (Wassell focused on the 1,600 and placed 6th).
She qualified for the Meet of Champions and ran another 2:18-low, placing 19th overall – among every girl in the state – with a 2:18.13. She was the No. 3 freshman in the race, behind Shore Regional’s Kiera Greene [2:16.53] and Wall Township’s Cali Buxbaum [2:17.28] and the 3rd South Jersey finisher, behind winner Kadence Dumas of Eastern [2:10.44] and Cherokee senior Kelsey Niglio [2:13.42].
Ghazaz finished as the No. 8 half-miler in South Jersey this year and No. 19 in the 1,600. Among freshmen, she was No. 7 in the state in the 800 and also No. 7 in the state in the 1,600 – actually tied with Audubon’s Riley Fayer at 5:13.29.
The only faster South Jersey freshman in the 800 was West Deptford’s Kayla Romanoski, who ran 2:18.00 at the South Jersey Elite last month. Fayer and Ghazaz shared the top ranking among South Jersey freshmen in the 1,600.
Ghazaz is the fastest freshman from Atlantic County in the 800 since Bridget Flynn of Holy Spirit ran 2:15.98 at the state Parochial A meet in 2011 (Flynn later ran at Ocean City and ran as fast as 4:23.41 for Dartmouth at 2018 Heps). She’s fastest in Atlantic County in the 1,600 since Mainland’s Alyssa Aldridge ran 5:06.13 in 2015.
Overall, she’s the fastest 800 runner in Atlantic County since Aldridge ran 2:16.00 at South Jersey Group 3 sectionals at Delsea in 2017.
Ghazaz swims for Absegami during the winter, but I couldn’t find any swimming results anywhere. Apparently, there is no equivalent of New Jersey MileSplit for swimming!
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 