Florence’s Curtis Thompson won his third national title Saturday thanks to a clutch season-best 265-5 throw on his final attempt of the competition.

He’s only the 3rd thrower to win three U.S. javelin titles since 1950.

Thompson was sitting in 3rd place after four throws with a best of 248-9, but he moved up to 2nd with a 256-7 on his 5th throw and then jumped leader Capers Williamson – who had thrown 258-10 on his 2nd attempt – with a 265-5 on his final throw at the U.S. Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.,

Thompson also won U.S. titles in 2018 with a 249-3 and won the 2021 U.S. title at the Olympic Trials at 271-7. That was also on his 6th throw.

With the win, Thompson earns the chance to represent the U.S. in the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, next month. He was 11th in the 2022 Worlds in Eugene, the best finish at Worlds by an American since 2009.

Thompson opened with four throws between 242-1 and 248-9 before hitting 256-7 on his 5th attempt. His 265-5 is the 2nd-best 6th throw of his career. His 271-7 at the same facility at the 2021 Olympic Trials also came on his final throw.

The 265-5 is his best throw since a 269-4 at the Weltklasse Diamond League in Zurich last September. Thompson now has 10 lifetime throws of at least 260 feet at Hayward Field.

Williamson – throwing last as the leader through the first three throws – had one last chance to pass Thompson but fouled on his final attempt. He finished 2nd at 258-10 and Marc Minichello, the 2022 NCAA champion for Penn, was 3rd at 256-1.

Thompson’s previous best throw this year was a 261-3 at the Kuortane Games at Kuortaneen Keskusurheilukenttä in Kuortane, Finland, on June 17.

Thompson is now one of only seven men in the 116-year history of the U.S. Championships to win three javelin titles:

Breaux Greer [8]: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
Tom Pukstys [6]: 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999
Bud Held [6]: 1949, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1958
George Bronder [6]: 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919
Boyd Brown [4]: 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942
Steve Seymour [3]: 1947, 1948, 1950
Curtis Thompson [3]: 2018, 2021, 2023

Thompson is not the first South Jersey athlete to win a U.S. javelin title. Holy Cross graduate Vince Labosky won the 1990 title with a 261-3 throw.

Here’s a look at all of Thompson’s lifetime 260-foot throws [79.248 meters]:

287-9 … American JavFest, East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 9, 2022 [2nd throw]
276-4 … NACAC, Freeport Stadium, Grand Bahamas, Bahamas, Aug. 20, 2022 [3rd throw]
274-11 … Athletissima, La Pontaise, Lausanne, Switzerland, Aug. 26, 2022 [1st throw]
273-4 … American JavFest, East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 9, 2022 [1st throw]
271-11… Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, July 4, 2016 [1st throw]
271-10 … Spitzen Leichtathletik, Luzern, Switzerland, Aug. 30, 2022 [3rd throw]
271-7 … Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, June 21, 2021 [6th throw]
270-3 … Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Invitational, Silesian Stadium, Chorzów, Poland, Aug. 6, 2022 [2nd throw]
269-7 … American JavFest, East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 9, 2022 [3rd throw]
269-4 … Weltklasse, Letzigrund, Zürich, Switzerland, Sept. 8, 2022 [2nd throw]
268-1 … Oregon Relays, Hayward Field, Eugene, April 23, 2022 [1st throw]
268-1 … World Athletics Championships [qualifying], Hayward Field, Eugene, July 21, 2022 [1st throw]
267-4 … World Athletics Championships [qualifying], Hayward Field, Eugene, July 21, 2022 [2nd throw]
267-2 … USATF Throws Festival, Roy P. Drachman Stadium, Tucson, Ariz., May 22, 2021 [2nd throw]
266-6 … USATF Throws Festival [2nd], Roy P. Drachman Stadium, Tucson, Ariz., May 21, 2022 [1st throw]
266-2 … Spitzen Leichtathletik, Luzern, Switzerland, Aug. 30, 2022 [4th throw]
265-10 … American JavFest [2nd], East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 17, 2021 [5th throw]
265-10 … Florida State Relays [1st], Mike Long Track, Tallahassee, Fla., March 25, 2016 [2nd attempt]
265-7 … Victoria Track Classic [1st], Centennial Stadium, Victoria, British Columbia, June 15, 2022 [unknown]
265-5 … U.S. Championships [1st], Hayward Field, Eugene, Ore., July 8, 2023 [6th throw]
264-8 … USATF Throws Festival, Roy P. Drachman Stadium, Tucson, Ariz., May 21, 2022 [2nd throw]
264-1 … USATF Championships [2nd], Hayward Field, Eugene, Ore., June 26, 2022 [5th throw]
264-0 … Athletissima, La Pontaise, Lausanne, Switzerland, Aug. 26, 2022 [5th throw]
263-11 … 94th annual Clyde Littlefield Relays, Mike A. Myers Stadium, Austin, Texas, March 25, 2022 [6th throw]
263-7 … Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, June 21, 2021 [1st throw]
262-8 … Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, June 21, 2021 [4th throw]
262-3 … Spitzen Leichtathletik, Luzern, Switzerland, Aug. 30, 2022 [1st throw]
261-6 … Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Invitational, Silesian Stadium, Chorzów, Poland, Aug. 6, 2022 [3rd throw]
261-3 … Kuortane Games, Kuortaneen Keskusurheilukenttä, Kuortane, Finland, June 17, 2023 [4th throw]
260-11 … American JavFest [1st], East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 30, 2016 [2nd throw]
260-11 … Kuortane Games, Kuortaneen Keskusurheilukenttä, Kuortane, Finland, June 17, 2023 [3rd throw]
260-10 … Mt. SAC Relays, Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Walnut, Calif., April 14, 2023 [4th throw]
260-4 … Kuortane Games, Kuortaneen Keskusurheilukenttä, Kuortane, Finland, June 17, 2023 [6th throw]
260-4 … Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, June 21, 2021 [3rd throw]
260-3 … USATF Throws Festival, Roy P. Drachman Stadium, Tucson, Ariz., May 20, 2023 [5th throw]
260-2 … Paavo Nurmi Games, Paavo Nurmi Stadium, Turku, Finland, June 13, 2023 [3rd throw]
260-1 … NACAC Under-23 [1st], San Salvador, Estadio Jorge “Mágico” González, June 17, 2016 [2nd throw]
260-1 … NACAC, Freeport Stadium, Grand Bahamas, Bahamas, Aug. 20, 2022 [2nd throw]
260-1 … 95th annual Clyde Littlefield Relays [3rd], Mike A. Myers Stadium, Austin Texas, April 1, 2023 [2nd throw]

Pennsauken’s Bryce Tucker, buried in 5th place after the 8th hurdle, finished very strong and won his heat in the 400-meter hurdles Saturday at the USATF Under-20 Championships.

Tucker ran 51.97 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., and automatically qualified for Sunday’s final. The top two finishers in each of three races plus the next two-fastest runners advanced.

Tucker, a June graduate of Pennsauken High and incoming Rutgers freshman, came off the 8th hurdle in 5th place in 37.44, trailing North Carolina’s Blaise Atkinson [36.61], San Jose State’s Zaire Waring [36.80], El Camino Community College’s Lincoln Marschall [37.01] and Rowan’s Jason Agyemang [37.32].

But he moved into 4th over the 9th hurdle and 3rd over the 10th and final hurdle, then passed Atkinson and Waring in the final steps to win the heat and comfortably advance.

Tucker’s time wound up 2nd-fastest of the three heats, behind only Gage Gose, a recent graduate of Lander (Wy.) Valley High. Gose ran 51.82 to win the first heat. Tucker’s PR is 50.96 from his most recent MoC win at South Plainfield, and Gose’s is 51.48 from Hayward Field Nationals last month.

The final is scheduled for 6:46 p.m. EST on Sunday. Tucker will be in Lane 4, Rose in Lane 5. The top two finishers have the opportunity to represent the U.S. at the Pan Am Under-20 Championships Aug. 4-6 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

The cutoff for advancement into the finals was 52.70. Alexander Sadikov, who was a close 2nd to Tucker at this year’s Meet of Champions with a PR 51.00, ran 52.70 to become the final qualifier to reach the eight-man final.

Agyemang, a North Plainfield High graduate who just finished his freshman year at Rowan, placed 15th overall in 54.32.

Agyemang, who ran his PR of 53.42 at Widener in May, placed 3rd in both the 110 highs [14.51] and 400 intermediates [54.29] at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships in Mahwah in May. He placed 14th in the highs at the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Rochester, N.Y., also in May.

Kingsway graduate Ryan Allen won his 2nd straight USATF Under-20 10,000-meter racewalk national title Saturday, covering the 12 ½ laps at Hayward Field in a massive lifetime-best 46:17.65.

Allen, 19, finished 90 seconds ahead of Clayton Stoil, who was timed in 48:47.89 and placed 2nd for a second straight year.

Allen’s race began minutes after older brother Sam finished 3rd in the 20,000 walk at Senior Nationals on the same track. Click here to read about his race.

Allen won the Under-20 title last year in a then-PR 49:53.14, winning by more than half a mile over the field.

So Allen trimmed 3 ½ minutes off his lifetime best, or the equivalent of 17 ½ seconds per lap.

With the win, Allen makes his 2nd straight U.S. national Under-20 team. He raced at the World Under-20 Championships in Cali, Columbia, last August, and will race in the Pan Am Under-20 Championship Aug. 4-6 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

Stoll was 2nd last year in 54:15.71. Allen has defeated Stoil twice in a row now since Stoil edged Allen to win the National Scholastic title last June, also at Hayward Field.

Kingsway graduate Sam Allen placed 3rd in the 20,000-meter racewalk Saturday morning at the USATF National Championships in Eugene, Ore.

Allen covered 50 laps on the Hayward Field track in 1:31:58.72, an average of 7:25 per mile for the 12.4-mile race.

Allen’s matched his previous-best finish at a national championship meet. He was 3rd over 20,000 meters last February at the USATF 20-kilometer (road course) World Team Trials in El Cajon, Calif.

Allen, 21, finished only 27 seconds behind 2nd-place Emmanuel Corvera, who crossed the line in 1:31.31.53. Nick Christie won the race in 1:25.30.31. Allen recently finished his junior year at Cornell.

Allen will represent the U.S. in the NACAC Under-23 Championships July 21-23 in San Juan, Costa Rica.

For most of the first half of the race, Allen was in 6th place, but over the final 10,000 he settled into a pack with Jordan Crawford and Jason Cherng, and those three remained together in 3rd, 4th and 5th until the final lap, when Allen closed with a 1:40.23 – the fastest single lap any of the competitors other than Christie recorded – to edge Crawford and Cherng.

Allen wound up finishing about five seconds ahead of Crawford and six seconds ahead of Cherng.

Allen was the youngest qualifier for the race. Crawford and Cherng are both 23.

Allen recorded his 20,000 PR of 90:43.43 at the World Trials in El Cajon.

Pleasantville’s Nia Ali, the Olympic silver medalist in 2016, matched her fastest time of the year Friday night and easily advanced to the semifinals of the 100-meter hurdles at the USATF National Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene.

Ali ran 12.53, the 2nd-fastest time among all entrants. She placed 2nd in the first of three qualifying races, finishing behind only all-time world No. 2 and 2021 Olympic silver medalist Kendra Harrison, who ran 12.50.

The top four finishers in each of the three races along with the next four-fastest hurdlers advance to Saturday’s semifinals, so Ali earned an auto-qualifier with her 2nd-place finish.

Ali also ran 12.53 at the Tom Jones Memorial at Percy Beard Track in Gainesville, Fla., on April 15.

Ali is all-time world No. 12 and U.S. No. 4 with her 12.34 to win the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

So far this year, Ali ranks No. 9 in the world and No. 6 among U.S. women.

Tia Jones won the second race in 12.56, and Alaysha Johnson won the 3rd in 12.60. The fastest qualifiers were Harrison at 12.50, Ali at 12.53, Jones at 12.56 and Tonea Marshall – 3rd in Ali’s race – with 12.58.

Winslow graduate Tionna Tobias ran 13.43 in the third heat and placed 6th, missing a berth in the semifinals. In her first U.S. championships, the rising Iowa senior placed 20th among all U.S. women.

Ali and Tobias rank No. 1 and 2 in South Jersey history in the 100-meter hurdles with 12.34 and 13.11. They are also No. 1 and 2 in South Jersey history in the heptathlon (5,870 for Ali in 2016 and 5,640 for Tobias in Bloomington, Ind., in May.

Ali will race in the semifinals at 9:02 p.m. Saturday. The top three in each of two semis as well as the next two-fastest hurdlers will advance to the final, scheduled for 10:55 p.m. Saturday.

Haddonfield’s Seth Clevenger advanced to the finals of the 1,500-meter run Friday at the USATF Under-20 Championships in Eugene.

Clevenger, who recently completed his freshman year at Iowa State, ran 3:52.74 at Hayward Field and placed 3rd in the first of two heats. The top four finishers in each race and the next four-fastest advanced to the 12-runner final. Clevenger earned a “large-Q” qualifier with his 3rd-place finish. His time was 8th-fastest overall among the 21 entrants.

Clevenger started out in 7th place after a strategic 66.78 first lap and came through 800 in 2:11.23 in 6th place in his section. But he used a 58.61 third lap to move into 5th and ran the final 300 in 42.92 – that’s 57.23 pace for 400 – to secure an auto qualifier.

Talk about negative splits. Clevenger ran about 1:57.6 for his final 800 meters.

Despite the very slow first 800, Clevenger still ran within 4 ½ seconds of his 1,500 PR of 3:48.23 from a meet in May in Ames, Iowa. He ran 4:08.67 full mile as a high school senior at West Philly Nationals.

The top two finishers in Saturday’s final will represent the U.S. in the World Athletics Pan Am Under-20 Championships Aug. 4-6 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

The final is scheduled for 10:08 p.m. EST Saturday.

Competing against college freshmen and incoming freshmen, Sophia Curtis – who just finished her junior year at Ocean City – placed 6th in the triple jump Friday at the USATF Under-20 Championships at historic Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.

Curtis jumped an outdoor lifetime-best 40-11 ½ on her fifth attempt and actually finished less than a foot outside the top two, who qualified to represent the U.S. in the World Athletics Under-20 Pan Am Championships Aug. 4-6 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

Agur Dwal of the University of Oklahoma won with a 42-2 ¾ and Suzan Ogunleye of Tennessee was 2nd at 41-10.

Curtis’s 40-11 ½ was wind-legal, with a 1.7 meters-per-second tailwind. Anything at 2.0 or lower is considered legal and acceptable for record and list purposes.

Every woman that finished ahead of Curtis either just finished her freshman year of college or is a Class of 2023 graduate. Curtis will be a senior at Ocean City this fall.

Curtis opened with jumps of 39-4 ½ and 39-10 ¾ before hitting a wind-aided 40-7 ½ to close out the trials.

The top eight advanced to the finals, where they got three more jumps, and Curtis was in 8th place before the 40-7 ½ moved her up to 6th.

She opened the finals with a 39-8 ½ before popping the historic 40-11 ½, the No. 4 jump in state history. That moved her into 5th place, but she was bumped back down to 5th – by a quarter of an inch – when Skylann Townsend of North Texas jumped 41-5 on her 5th attempt.

She finished with a 40-1 ¼ jump, giving her six jumps at 39-4 ½ or better. She averaged 40-1 ¼ on her six attempts. Her average jump would have placed 9th overall Friday.

Curtis broke her own South Jersey outdoor record of 40-10 ¼, which she set at the Penn Relays.

Curtis, who spent her first two high schools years at Padua Academy in Wilmington, Del., finished undefeated in the triple jump against New Jersey athletes this past season. Her only loss before Friday was at Penn, where she was 2nd to Jade-ann Dawkins of St. Jago School in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica.

Curtis hit her overall PR of 41-3 ¼ to place 3rd at Boston Indoor Nationals in March. That’s the best jump indoors or outdoors in South Jersey history and No. 2 in state history indoors.

At 9:09 p.m. Saturday, Curtis will race in the first of two heats in the 400 hurdles trials. The top three in each race and the next two-fastest advance to the final at 9:38 p.m. Sunday.

Curtis was also undefeated against New Jersey competition this year in the 400-meter hurdles with a PR of 1:00.42, 10th-fastest in South Jersey history.

Curtis has two more years of eligibility for U.S. Under-20’s, open to athletes who don’t turn 20 before the end of this year.

Next year is a World Under-20 championships year, although Lima, Peru, recently dropped out of hosting the meet and there’s no replacement site selected yet.

Eastern graduate English Gardner advanced to the semis in the 100-meter dash Thursday at the USATF Championships in Eugene.

Gardner, 31, ran 11.13, only 4-100ths of a second off her season-best time of 11.09, which she ran in Miramar, Fla., in April.

The 16-fastest women advanced to the semifinals at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus. The cutoff was 11.15 seconds.

Gardner’s time was 13th-fastest of 33 qualifiers. The top three finishers in each of four races advanced along with the next four-fastest.

Gardner, racing in the fourth and final quarterfinal, placed 3rd in her race to earn an auto qualifier – a big-Q – into the semis.

Her time was slightly wind-aided at 2.1 meters-per-second. Anything over 2.0 is considered wind-aided and not eligible for records and lists, although that really doesn’t matter at this point. Gardner is just trying to advance.

Gardner, an Olympic gold medalist in the 400-meter relay in 2016 and silver medalist in 2021, won U.S. titles in the 100 in 2013 with a 10.85 and in 2016 with a lifetime-best 10.74.

Gardner ranks 10th in world history with her 10.74 from 2016 nationals on the same track. That’s No. 5 in U.S. history.

She’s ranked 26th in the U.S. this year with a wind-legal-best of 11.13 from a meet in Devonshire, Bermuda, in May, so she’s already competing at a much higher level than her seed time.

The semifinals are scheduled for 10:14 p.m. EST on Friday, with eight women advancing – the three-fastest in each of two races and the next two-fastest. The final is scheduled for 11:45 p.m. EST Friday.

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: Willingboro freshman Kaila Speight.

Willingboro’s Kaila Speight may have been overshadowed at times by Willingboro teammate Nester Wea, who won three state Group 2 titles and had a remarkable sophomore season for the Chimeras.

But Speight had a terrific season in her own right and was one of the top freshmen in New Jersey in two events.

Speight ran 12.30 in the 100, No. 4 among New Jersey freshmen and No. 2 in South Jersey, behind Pennsauken’s Sianni Wynn, who ran 11.82.

And she ran 24.83 in the 200, which made her the No. 2 freshman in New Jersey, behind only Wynn’s 24.38.

Speight was 2nd in the 200 and 5th in the 100 at the state Group 2 meet at Delsea, helping the Willingboro girls win their first state title in 21 years.

Overall, Speight ranked 5th in South Jersey in the 200 and No. 10 in the 100 this past spring. She broke the Burlington County freshman record in the 200 and tied the county freshman mark in the 100, set in 2007 by Willingboro’s Asja Goode.

Speight was also a regular leg on every Willingboro relay team. With three freshmen – Speight, Aaliyah Robinson and Jaden Murry – and Wea, a sophomore, the Chimeras reached the Northeast Championship 4-by-1 at Penn and ran 48.78, and won the South Jersey 4-by-4 for the first time in 13 years with the same four girls.

At states, Speight led off the 4-by-1, which won in 48.36 (Robinson, Murry and Wea also ran) and ran on the winning 4-by-4, which ran 3:56.18 and also included Sunny Oyibo, Robinson and Murry.

At the Meet of Champions, Speight split 58.85 and joined Oyibo, Robinson and Murry on the 5th-place 4-by-4 with a season-best 3:55.08. Speight led off the 4-by-1, which was 2nd in 47.78, with the usual lineup – Speight to Robinson to Murry to Wea. That 47.78 is No. 7 in Burlington County history and fastest by a Willingboro 4-by-1 since Tiffany Butler, Sherron Lawson, Kim Hargrove and Kia Van Wright ran 47.45 in 1994 – 29 years ago.

Here’s where Speight (and Wea) rank on the all-time Burlington County lists:

11.42 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], 1981
11.61 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], 2000
11.82 … Annie Johnson [Shawnee], 2012
11.95 … Aliyah Taylor [Rancocas Valley], 2017
11.96 … Nester Wea [Willingboro], 2023
12.00 … Andrea Conway [Bordentown], 1986
12.05 … Anu Ward [Moorestown], 2000
12.08 … Kim Hargrove [Willingboro], 1996
12.11 … Michelle Brown [Seneca], 2009
12.11 … Nia Lawrence [Pemberton], 2012
12.15 … Rageana Marigna [Palmyra], 2008
12.20 … Mya Jackson [Delran], 2023
12.23 … Morgan Gordon [Rancocas Valley], 2009
12.25 … Halimah Bashir [Willingboro], 2002
12.30 … Kaila Speight [Willingboro], 2021
12.30 … Asja Goode [Willingboro], 2007

23.69 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], 1981
24.01 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], 2000
24.17 … Michelle Brown [Seneca], 2008
24.18 … Sheriyah Nutt [Rancocas Valley], 2019
24.31 … Morgan Gordon [Rancocas Valley], 2009
24.49 … Annie Johnson [Shawnee], 2012
24.55 … Daneille Myricks [Willingboro], 2000
24.61 … Aliyah Tayor [Rancocas Valley], 2018
24.63 … Nester Wea [Willingboro], 2023
24.72 … Halimah Bashir [Willingboro], 2002
24.79 … Darynn Minus-Vincent [Rancocas Valley], 2018
24.81 … Jasmine Staten [Lenape], 2015
24.83 … Kaila Speight [Willingboro], 2023