How dominant were the Haddonfield girls Saturday in the South Jersey Group 2 sectional meet?
Haddonfield had 22 entries, and 19 of them scored. And 12 of the medalists placed first or second. That’s six 1sts, six 2nds, three 3rds, two 4ths and two 6ths.
Haddofield scored a meet-record 136 points and won its record 12th indoor sectional title and 5th in a row, a streak interupted when indoor sectionals weren’t held in 2021. Sterling placed 2nd with 54 points.
Indoor sectionals were first held in 2008, and Haddonfield won Group 1 in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 and has now won Group 2 in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The 136 points are the most ever in any indoor South Jersey sectional or any Group 2 sectional state-wide. Haddonfield set the previous South Jersey standard with 130 1/3 points in Group 1 in 2009. The previous South Jersey Group 2 record was Delsea’s 111 in 2014. The most points previously in any Group 2 meet is Hopewell Valley’s 133 in Central Jersey in 2009. Only Bernards – with 138 points in Central Jersey Group 1 in 2010 – has scored more points in an indoor sectional.
The Bulldogs scored in every event and placed either 1st or 2nd in nine of 10 events. They piled up 68 of a possible 72 in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.
And that’s all with the rules changing this year and not allowing schools three entrants in every event.
Senior Ava Thomas won the 1,600 in 5:05.66 and the 3,200 in 11:25.89, junior Audrey Adams PR’d at 8.85 to win the 55-meter hurdles and also was 2nd in the high jump at 4-10, sophomore Riley Austin PR’d at 2:20.01 to win the 800 and was 2nd in the 1,600 in 5:24.80, senior Chloe Kamp won the 55 in a PR 7.36 and was 2nd in the 400 in 1:00.58, and junior Rebecca Hoover cleared 11-9 to win the pole vault.
Senior Anna Stolarick was 2nd in the 800 in 2:20.71 and 3rd in the 1,600 in 5:26.89, junior Nicolette Pinkerton ran a PR 9.26 for 3rd in the hurdles, senior Stella Stolarick PR’d with a 2:21.33 for 4th in the 800, freshman Devon Gervasi ran a PR 11:53.84 in her second high school 3,200 for 2nd place and sophomore Katherine Asher was just behind her in 4th in 11:57.45.
In the field, senior Mia Bompensa cleared 10-6 for the first time indoors or outdoors and placed 3rd in the pole vault, and junior Maeve Hurley cleared 4-8 for 6th place in the high jump.
Stella Stolarick, Anna Stolarick, senior Penny Davis and Adams finished things off with a 2nd-place in the 4-by-4 in 4:13.70, just behind Sterling.
Pemberton sophomore Olivia Serrano won the 400 in 1:00.42, Sterling junior Isabella Patruno matched her PR clearing 5-0 to win the high jump and ran a leg on the winning 4-by-4 team, and Eastside senior Yamilet Basarte-Cruz – in her first season of indoor track – threw 37-5 ¾ to win the shot put.
Sterling senior Ayanna Brown, junior Leeya Joseph, Patruno and junior Elyse Simpson ran 4:13.00 to win the relay.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 