Michaela Pomatto, an Egg Harbor Township graduate, smashed a 19-year-old Stockton University discus record Friday.

Pomatto, a Stockton junior, won the event at the Paul Donahue Invitational at Widener University in Chester, Pa., with a throw of 149-3, breaking the school record of 147-5 set by Audra Schappell at a meet in 2005 that I still haven’t been able to identify and isn’t listed on Stockton’s web site.

Her throw is No. 7 in NCAA Division 3 this year and No. 1 in the NJAC by 27 feet.

It’s the best throw by any NJAC woman as far back as TFRRS performance lists are available, which is through 2013. The overall conference record is 159-10 set by Rowan’s Kathy Darling of Milford, Del., in 2001, before she transferred to Johns Hopkins.

Pomatto opened with a 130-9 throw before PR’ing at 140-9 on her 2^nd attempt. She bombed the 149-5 on her 3^rd try before going 137-0, 130-0 and 137-2 in the finals.

Pomatto  averaged 137-6 on her six throws – only 11 inches below her previous PR.

Kingsway grad Kyle Rakitis ran the 7th-fastest 1,500 in Rutgers history Friday afternoon at the Virginia Challenge in Charlottesville.

Rakitis, a Scarlet Knight freshman, ran 3:47.35, the equivalent of a 4:05.54 full mile. His previous 1,500 PR was a 3:50.64 just last weekend at Princeton. Before that it was 3:52.82 from May of his junior year at Kingsway at a meet at Icahn Stadium in Manhattan. His mile PR is 4:10.09 from Eugene Nationals in the spring of 2021.

Rakitis was out in 43.63 for the first 300, came through 700 in 1:45.00 and then closed in 2:02.35 and 59.80.

Rakitis’s time is 5th-fastest by a Rutgers runner since 1983, with four-faster times all coming in the last two years. He’s the fastest Rutgers freshman since the TFRRS began tracking results in 2010, which means – if the Rutgers all-time performance list is correct – he’s Rutgers’ fastest freshman since at least 1980.

Rakitis was racing on his former home track in Charlottesville, where he began his career as a student at the University of Virginia before transferring to Rutgers. He did not race for the Cavaliers.

Rakitis’s high school teammate, Monmouth junior Stone Caraccio, ran 3:53.32 in the same race (different section), closing in 2:01.79 and 59.74. He’s coming off a lifetime-best 1:50.37 for 800 last month at Villanova.

Leah Clear continued her remarkable breakthrough season at Delaware with another PR at 1,500 meters.

Clear, a freshman from Cherry Hill and Camden Catholic, ran 4:35.73 for 1,500 meters Friday afternoon at the Virginia Challenge in Charlottesville, Va.

That converts to a 4:57.79 full mile (or 4:56.05 for the high school 1,600), which is about 17 seconds faster than Clear ever ran in high school.

Clear closed in 2:25.14 and 70..71.

Clear never even ran the 1,600 or mile until her senior year at Cherry Hill, and she only ran it twice – a 5:13.85 at the Cherokee Final Countdown Last Chance last May and then a 5:13.56 at the state Parochial A meet in Somerset. She did run as fast as 2:17.40 for 800 meters at the Olympic Conference Championships at Rancocas Valley.

This past winter, Clear ran 5:12.46 and 5:10.53 in her first two mile races before a huge breakthrough 4:58.49 in February in a meet at Ocean Breeze. So her PR dropped from 5:13.56 to the equivalent of 4:56.05 in the span of just over three months.

Her previous 1,500 PR was a 4:36.57 late last month in Raleigh, N.C. She PR’d in the 800 at 2:16.56 in her last race, last weekend at Princeton.

Clear’s 1,500 time is No. 13 in the CAA and 5th-fastest among freshmen. She’s not quite on the all-time Delaware top-10, but she’s only about a second and a half off, and her time is 4th-fastest ever by a Blue Hen freshman.

Clear is a biomedical engineering major.

Bryanna Craig leads the heptathlon after Day 1 at the Jim Green Invitational at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

Craig, a Purdue sophomore from Millville, opened with a 14.46 in the hurdles, fastest time in the event and good for 914 points. She cleared 5-5 ¼ in the high jump for 806 points and then threw the shot 35-4 for 580 points. She finished the first day of competition with a 25.27 in the 200 for 862 points.

With three events to go on Saturday, Craig leads the competition with 3,162 points, 185 more than 2nd-place Mia Manson, a senior at Michigan.

Craig set her lifetime-best 5,460 last May at the Big 10 Championships in Bloomington, Ind., where she placed 2nd to Iowa’s Tionna Tobias of Winslow.

She needs 2,299 points in the final three events to break her PR. Saturday’s schedule is long jump at 9:30 a.m., javelin at 10:30 a.m. and 800 at 1 p.m.

Craig’s PRs in the three remaining events are 18-7 ¼ in the long jump, 130-4 in the javelin and 2:12.34 in the 800.

Craig scored 5,285 points in her one previous multi this spring two weeks ago in Tucson, Ariz.

Woodstown graduate Molly Lodge, a junior at Rowan, is getting close to the school record in the 400-meter hurdles.

Lodge ran 1:02.26 at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton’s Weaver Stadium over the weekend, the No. 6 time in NCAA Division 3 this year and just a fraction of a second off her PR from last year’s NJAC Championships. Lodge placed 2nd in 1:02.01 last year at Ramapo.

Rowan lists 1:01.49 by Melirah Searcy as the school record. Searcy, an Edison graduate, ran that at the 2015 NJAC Championships at Ramapo. Lodge’s 1:02.01 is fastest by a Rowan runner since then.

What makes all of this so interesting is that Lodge never ran the intermediates or even a flat 400 at Woodstown. She never ran anything longer than the 200 in high school.

Lodge never even ran an intermediates race as a Rowan freshman and it wasn’t until the Danny Curran Invitational in Chester, Pa., a year ago, that she contested it for the first time, running a respectable 1:04.46.

She lowered her PR to 1:04.13 in a home meet and then had that 1:02.01 breakthrough a few weeks later. She even qualified for the NCAA Championships in her first year as an intermediate hurdler.

Rowan competes this weekend at the Widener Invitational in Chester. Lodge is entered in the intermediates at the Penn Relays, with the race scheduled for 5:25 p.m. on Day 1 at Penn, next Thursday.

In his 4th meet throwing the college discus, Cinnaminson’s Malicah Etienne shattered the Georgian Court school record.

Etienne placed 2nd in the discus Wednesday at the Shippensburg University Midweek Invite with a throw of 169-5. East Stroudsburg junior Cole Gorham threw 169-10 to win by five inches.

The previous Georgian Court school record was 162-0 by Joseph Kass of Governor Thomas Johnson High in Frederick, Md., at the 2017 Osprey Open and Multi meet at Stockton University in Galloway Township.

Etienne had a high school PR of 177-4 with the 3.5-pound disc but has improved rapidly with the 4.4-pound international implement, from a 135-4 in his first outdoor meet a month ago to 157-8 in a meet at Monmouth three weeks ago and now a nearly eight-foot school record just four weeks after first throwing the college disc.

Etienne’s 169-5 is best this year in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference and No. 22 this spring in NCAA Division 2 and No. 5 among freshmen.

His throw is the best in at least 25 years by a South Jersey college freshman. The last few discus throwers from South Jersey who threw as far as 169-5 in college – Paulsboro’s Jon Kalnas, Mainland’s John Mooers, Collingswood’s Adam Hunt, all at Rutgers – didn’t come anywhere close to 169-5 as college freshmen.

Year-by-year results by other South Jersey throwers – such as Holy Spirit’s Mike Mielke, Kennedy’s Steve Muse or Paulsboro’s Jon Kalnas – are impossible to find.

Etienne threw 53-9 ¼ indoors in the shot, which is No. 3 in school history. His top shot put so far this spring is 49-7 ¾.

On Wednesday, Etienne opened with a 147-6 before hitting the 169-5 on his 2nd attempt. He hit 160-8 on his 3rd throw and then finished with 156-7, 161-5 and 156-1 in the finals.

Timber Creek’s Naylah Jones opened her senior outdoor season with the 7th-fastest 100 time in South Jersey history.

Jones ran 11.64 at Fast Times at Cherokee High, with junior teammate Ryan Jennings 2nd in 11.93. So far, they’re the only New Jersey girls under 12 seconds. No wind information was recorded.

Jones lowered her from 10.73 from her win at the Meet of Champions at Franklin in June. She ran 6.93 indoors for 55 meters, 7th-fastest in state history, and set a South Jersey 200 record of 24.15 (later broken when Pennsauken’s Sianni Wynn ran 24.00 at the Meet of Champions).

Jones’ 11.64 is fastest by any New Jersey sprinter since Manchester’s Jada Ellis, now at Rutgers, ran 11.57 at the 2021 Meet of Champions at South Plainfield. It’s fastest by a South Jersey girl since Dennisha Page of Woodrow Wilson, now at Tennessee, ran 11.63 in the prelims of the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.

Jennings ran within 1-100th of a second of her PR of 11.92, which she ran at the state Group 3 meet at Delsea, where she placed 2nd to Jones.

Jones’ time is 9th-fastest ever recorded by a South Jersey alumni at 100 meters:

10.74 … English Gardner [Eastern], July 3, 2016, Eugene, Ore. [+1.0]
11.21 … Nia Ali [Pleasantville], April 13, 2024, Gainesville, Fla. [+1.2]
11.27 … Dennisha Page [Wilson], April 6, 2024, Knoxville, Tenn. [+1.7]
11.29 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], April 17, 2005, Walnut, Calif. [+0.4]
11.31 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], May 14, 2017, Atlanta [+0.8]
11.32 … Gabrielle Farquharson [Williamstown], May 14, 2016, Lincoln, Neb. [+1.6]
11.36 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], May 6, 1984, Houston [+1.7]
11.52 … Bria Mack [Williamstown], May 12, 2018, Knoxville, Tenn. [+0.5]
11.64 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], April 12, 2024, Marlton [NWI]
11.65 … Shardae Anderson [Paulsboro], April 14, 2007, Chapel Hill, N.C. [+1.1]

ALL-TIME NEW JERSEY 100-METER DASH LIST
11.42 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], 1981
11.44 … Myasia Jacobs [Paramus Catholic], 2010
11.49 … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
11.50 … Wendy Vereen [Trenton], 1984
11.57 … Patti Dunlap [Camden], 1979
11.57 … M’elisa Barber [Montclair], 1998
11.57 … Jada Ellis [Manchster Twp.], 2021
11.58 … Bria Mack [Williamstown], 2017
11.61 … Shavon Greaves [Lakewood], 2007
11.61 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], 2000
11.62 … Cathy Cranford [Perth Amboy], 1977
11.63 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
11.64 … Olivia Baker [Columbia], 2013
11.64 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2024
11.65 … Aleah Williams [Montclair], 1999
11.65 … Ogechi Nwaneri [Columbia], 2005
11.66 … Lauren Princz [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2021
11.68 … Regina Trotter [Weequahic], 1991
11.70 … Christina Nwachuku [Kent Place], 2022

ALL-TIME SOUTH JERSEY 100-METER DASH LIST
11.42 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], 1981
11.49 … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
11.57 … Patti Dunlap [Camden], 1979
11.58 … Bria Mack [Williamstown], 2017
11.61 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], 2000
11.63 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
11.64 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2024
11.66 … Lauren Princz [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2021
11.71 … Shakira Dancy [Winslow Twp.], 2017
11.73 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], 2014
11.77 … Aisha Morgan [Schalick], 1998
11.78 … Shameka Speed [Bridgeton], 2003
11.80 … Famatta Lewis [Woodrow Wilson], 2007

After initially being omitted when the Penn Relays high school shot put field was announced, Hammonton junior Anthony Liakhnovich now appears on the entry list for the world’s oldest and largest annual track meet.

The high school invitational fields for the 125th annual Penn Relays were initially announced on April 9, and Delsea junior was the only South Jersey thrower listed. Glassboro senior Damere Lassiter, who qualified with a 60-1 indoors, chose the discus instead of the shot put.

But the entry list now shows Liakhnovich added at the bottom as a 19th competitor. He’s one of three New Jersey throwers in the event. Joshua Huisman of St. Rose is the top seed with a 67-7 at the indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze, and he went on to place 2nd in both indoor national meets.

Liakhnovich hadn’t thrown 50 feet before the state relays indoors in January. But he threw 56-10 ¼ in a meet at Cherokee in mid-January and then opened the outdoor season with a 59-10 at the Rebel Relays in Howell on April 6 – the first Saturday of the season and the day before the qualifying window closed.

That mark should have easily gotten Liakhnovich into Penn. He added a 61-2 in a dual meet at Oakcrest on Wednesday.

Liakhnovich’s 59-10 ¼ is No. 3 in Atlantic County history, only 18 inches off the county record of 61-4 set by Egg Harbor Township’s Kofi Yamoah at the 2013 South Jersey Invitational at Buena.

The shot put is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Friday. The Penn Relays runs Thursday, April 18, through Saturday, April 20, at Franklin Field on the University of Pennsylvania campus in West Philadelphia.

All the throws at the Penn Relays are located across the Northeast Corridor railroad tracks on the grass fields alongside the Schuylkill Expressway south of South Street.

Pleasantville’s Nia Ali, one of the fastest hurdlers in world history, continues to focus on the sprints this spring heading into the Olympic Trials and she ran one of the fastest 100-meter dashes ever by a New Jersey high school alum this weekend in Gainesville.

Competing in the Olympic Development 100 at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational at the University of Florida’s Percy Beard Track, Ali ran a lifetime-best 11.21 with a legal 1.2 meters-per-second tailwind. Earlier, she ran the fastest 100-meter hurdles time in the world this year at 12.44 into a 0.8 meters-per-second headwind.

Ali’s 11.21 is 2nd-fastest ever by a South Jersey woman, behind only Olympic gold medalist English Gardcner’s 10.74 in Eugene in 2016. It’s also No. 5 on the all-time New Jersey list.

Her previous 100 PR was an 11.41 last month at the Hurricane Collegiate Invitational at Cobb Stadium at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. That was her first open 100-meter dash on record going back to her days at Pleasantville High School.

Ali’s 11.21 is No. 25 in the world this year and No. 14 among U.S. women. She only placed 9th racing against some of the fastest women in history. Tamari Davis and Melissa Jefferson both ran 10.94, Davis winning in 10.932 over Jefferson’s 10.935. Those are the No. 2 and 3 times in the world this year.

World No. 1 is Tennessee’s Jacious Sears, who ran 10.77 in the college 100 at the same meet. Her teammate, Woodrow Wilson graduate Dennisha Page, ran 11.27 earlier this month in a meet in Knoxville, which Ali bumped from 2nd on the all-time South Jersey list to 3rd.

Ali is now only the 5th woman in world history to run as fast as 11.21 in the 100 and 12.30 in the high hurdles. The only other U.S. woman to achieve that speedy double is Briana McNeal, the 2016 Olympic hurdles champ.

Tobi Amusan, Nigeria [11.10 (2023), 12.12 (2022)]
Ludmila Narozhilenko, Russia [11.04 (1992), 12.26 (1992)]
Briana McNeal, U.S. [11.20 (2019), 12.26 (2013)]
Sally Pearson, Australia [11.14 (2007), 12.28 (2011)]
Nia Ali, U.S. [11.21 (2024), 12.30 (2023)]

10.74 … English Gardner [Eastern], July 3, 2016, Eugene, Ore.
10.95 … Me’Lisa Barber [Montclair], May 20, 2007, Carson, Calif.
11.02 … Mikele Barber [Montclair], July 24, 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11.18 … Wenda Vereen [Trenton], July 3, 1983, Colorado Springs
11.21 … Nia Ali [Pleasantville], April 13, 2024, Gainesville, Fla.
11.27 … Dennisha Page [Wilson], May 13, 2023, Bloomington, Ind.
11.29 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], April 17, 2005, Walnut, Calif.
11.31 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], May 14, 2017, Atlanta
11.32 … Gabrielle Farquharson [Williamstown], May 14, 2016, Lincoln, Neb.
11.36 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], May 6, 1984, Houston
11.38 … Sydney Hawkins [Phillipsburg], April 6, 2024, Tampa
11.52 … Bria Mack [Williamstown], May 12, 2018, Knoxville, Tenn. [+0.5]
11.65 … Shardae Anderson [Paulsboro], April 14, 2007, Chapel Hill, N.C. [+1.1]
11.66 … Lauren Princz [Egg Harbor Twp.], June 19, 2021, South Plainfield, N.J. [+1.0]

10.74 … English Gardner [Eastern], July 3, 2016, Eugene, Ore.
10.95 … Me’Lisa Barber [Montclair], May 20, 2007, Carson, Calif.
11.02 … Mikele Barber [Montclair], July 24, 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11.18 … Wenda Vereen [Trenton], July 3, 1983, Colorado Springs
11.21 … Nia Ali [Pleasantville], April 13, 2024, Gainesville, Fla.
11.29 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], April 17, 2005, Walnut, Calif.
11.30 … Dennisha Page [Wilson], May 13, 2023, Bloomington, Ind.
11.31 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], May 14, 2017, Atlanta
11.32 … Gabrielle Farquharson [Williamstown], May 14, 2016, Lincoln, Neb.