Washington Township’s Kami Joi Hickson, a senior at Maryland, smashed her 800 PR Saturday at the Black and Gold Invitational in Orlando.
Hickson ran 2:08.19 at the Central Florida Track and Soccer Complex, placing 5th overall. Her previous PR was a 2:08.58 at 2019 Armory Nationals after she had transferred from Washington Township to Neumann Goretti in East Passyunk. Her previous college PR was a 2:08.70 in a meet in College Park last May. At Washington Township she ran 2:12.04 at the 2017 Meet of Champions.
Her 2:08.19 is No. 6 in Maryland history and fastest in 11 years, since Julie Sinkovitz from Woodcliff Lake and Immaculate Heart Academy – ironically in Washington Township, Bergen County – ran 2:07.15 in the prelims of the 2013 ECAC Championships at Princeton.
Where does her time rank in Maryland history? Great question. The “women’s outdoor top 10 list” link on their web site is dead. Using the Wayback machine I found a 2019 partial list with incomplete information and then I updated it using stats on TFRRS and articles on Newspapers.com and came up with an all-time Maryland women’s outdoor 800 list. Something the Maryland sports info office could have done in about 20 minutes if they cared as much as me:
2:05.61 … Bobbie McGee, State College, 1984
2:06.61 … Myah Hicks, Bloomington, Ind., 2012
2:06.7h … Rosalind Taylor, Washington, D.C., 1987
2:07.15 … Julie Sinkovitz, Princeton, 2013
2:07.51 … Kerrie Bowes, N/A/, 1996
2:08.19 … Kami Joi Hickson, Orlando, 2024
2:09.25 … Catherine Voelpel, College Park, Md., 2017
2:09.81 … Carolyn Forde, State College, 1983
2:09.88 … Alexandra Lucki, Princeton, 2016
2:10.09 … Kelley Pry, Atlanta, 2008
Here’s a look at the fastest half-milers ever from South Jersey, with Hickson in the No. 13 spot:
1:59.85 … Michelle DiMuro [Shawnee], June 17, 1996, Atlanta
1:59.99 … Erin Donohue [Haddonfield], July 13, 2010, Liège, Belgium
2:02.20 … Kimarra McDonald [Rancocas Valley], June 2, 2012, Nashville
2:02.49 … Krista Ferrara [Vineland], June 25, 2006, Indianapolis
2:03.34 … Greta Feldman [Haddonfield], June 15, 2013, Indianapolis
2:03.88 … Nijgia Snapp [Oakcrest], May 13, 2012, Baton Rouge, La.
2:05.06 … Renee Tomlin [Ocean City], May 31, 2013, West Chester, Pa.
2:06.15 … Sydney Coppolino [Sterling], May 13, 2022, Durham, N.C.
2:07.18 … Kristen Neidrach [Shawnee], Kortrijk, Belgium, July 10, 2021
2:07.25 … Marielle Hall [Haddonfield], March 26, 2011, Houston
2:08.02 … Shelby Whetstone [Lenape], April 2, 2022, Palo Alto, Calif.
2:08.36 … Sarah Robbie [Cherokee], May 13, 2017, University Park, Pa.
2:08.18 … Kami Joi Hickson [Washington Twp.], March 15, 2024, Orlando
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 