With an all-South Jersey lineup of freshman Chastiney Pearson from Timber Creek, junior Jasmine Pope from Pennsauken, Molly Lodge from Woodstown and junior Nevaeh Lorjuste from Triton, the Rowan women ran the No. 14 time in NCAA Division 3 in the 1,600-meter relay Saturday at the 128th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field.
The Profs ran 3:51.66, missing the College Final 4-by-4 by 11-100ths of a second.
As always, the first two splits aren’t available, since the race is run in a three-turn stagger and you can’t have a FAT timer for every lane. Lodge split 56.99 and Lorjuste 56.09.
Pearson is an interesting story. She graduated in 2021 from Timber Creek, where she was a 17-foot long jumper and 36-foot triple jumper but never even ran the 400 – or anything over the 55 . Not sure if she was at another college and not competing the last two years or took some time off. Can’t find any record of her anywhere else in 2022 or 2023. Either way, incredible to be a part of a 3:51 relay team in a new event in what appears to be your first year of track in three years.
What makes Pearson’s split even crazier is that according to TFRRS – the Track and field Race Reporting System – Pearson had never even run a 4-by-4 since she first began competing for Rowan in late January. She did some long jump and some shot put but literally nothing on the track.
Rowan’s previous fastest 4-by-4 this year was a 3:53.45 two weeks ago in Princeton. Indoors, the Profs ran 3:48.64 and placed 5th at the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Virginia Beach with Lodge, Pope and Lorjuste in the lineup.
With the New Jersey Athletic Conference meet scheduled for this weekend – Saturday and Sunday at Stockton in Galloway Township – Rowan’s time is No. 1 in the conference. The College of New Jersey has also run sub-4 with a 3:55.95 last month in San Marcos, Texas, with Shawnee’s Amanda Demko anchoring.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 