Wilson graduate Dennisha Page ran a monster 200 Saturday, sprinting one lap in 23.12 seconds – the 20th-fastest time in the world this year and the fastest indoor 200 ever by a South Jersey woman.
Page, a Rutgers transfer in her first season at Tennessee, placed 6th in a loaded field of college stars and professional runners at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
She’s run slightly faster outdoors – a wind-legal 23.08 in the prelims of the Big Ten Championships this past May in Bloomington, Ind. But her previous indoor 200 PR was a 23.60 two weeks ago at a meet at Texas A&M in College Station. She ran 23.61 last winter for Rutgers in a meet at Clemson.
According to the World Athletics data base, Page’s time is No. 13 among U.S. women this year and No. 20 in the world. It’s also No. 14 in NCAA Division 1.
Page’s time is 7th-fastest ever by a New Jersey woman indoors. The fastest previous indoor 200 by a South Jersey woman was Olympic gold medalist English Gardner’s 23.34 on the same track in Albuquerque in February of 2012.
The only South Jersey women to run faster than Page outdoors are Gardner, who ran 22.62 in Los Angeles in 2013, and Williamstown’s Gabrielle Farquharson, who ran 23.07 in Lincoln, Neb., in 2016.
Here’s my best attempt at an all-time New Jersey alumni indoor 200 list:
22.68 … Sydney McLaughlin [Union Catholic], March 9, 2018, College Station, Texas
22.98 … Shavon Greaves [Lakewood], Feb. 28, 2010, University Park, Pa.
23.06 … Mikele Barber [Montclair], March 10, 2000, Fayetteville, Ark.
23.07 … Wendy Vereen [Trenton], March 13, 1993, Toronto
23.08 … Me’Lisa Barber [Montclair], Feb. 23, 2002, Fayetteville, Ark.
23.12 … Dennisha Page [Wilson], Feb. 3, 2024, Albuquerque, N. Mex.
23.26 … Dominique Booker [Immaculate Heart], Jan. 29, 2011, University Park, Pa.
23.34 … English Gardner [Eastern], Feb. 10, 2012, Albuquerque, N. Mex.
23.49 … Gabrielle Farquharson [Williamstown], March 11, 2016, Birmingham, Ala.
23.56 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], Feb. 24, 2018, Clemson, S.C.
23.87 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], Jan. 26, 2007, Boston
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 