Malachi James is 6th-fastest in state history at 100 meters. Ajani Dwyer is 14th-fastest in state history.
They’re two of the fastest sprinters in the country, two of the fastest in South Jersey history, the two-fastest in New Jersey ths year, and they’ve never raced each other outdoors.
That ends Thursday night when James, a senior at Burlington City, And Dwyer, a senior at Washington Township, are both scheduled to run the 100 at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea.
Dwyer didn’t compete in track as a freshman or sophomore, and his outdoor season ended early, before sectionals. He got hurt late in the indoor season and hasn’t raced in a major meet since Millrose in early February.
James missed the entire 2023 outdoor season with a severe hamstring injury suffered in the finals of the 55 at the South Jersey Group 1 indoor meet at the Bubble.
So far this spring, James has only run hot at the USATF New York Youth Challenge Series Opener, where he ran PRs of 10.40 and 21.13.
James and Dwyer did meet three times indoors this past winter. At the Ocean Breeze Holiday Festival in late December, Brown ran 6.33 and James 6.36 in the 55. At the Millrose Games Trials at the Armory, Dwyer ran a state-record 6.18 for 55 meters and James 6.42, both qualifying for the Millrose finals in February, where Dwyer ran 6.76 and James 6.78, placing 2nd and 3rd behind LSU football signee Jelani Watkins of Atoscocito High in Houston, who ran 6.68.
But James won the Meet of Champions in 6.22 – the 2nd-fastest time in state history – and also ran a N.J. all-time No. 2 6.71 at Ocean Breeze. He went on to place 2nd at Armory Nationals at 60 meters in 6.79.
So through indoor season, here are their PRs and all-time New Jersey rankings:
Malachi James
55: 6.22 [#2]
60: 6.71 [#5]
100: 10.40 [#6]
200: 21.13 [#8]
Ajani Dwyer
55: 6.18 [#1]
60: 6.76 [#8]
100: 10.48 [#14]
200: 21.25 [#15]
The 100 will be run as a trials and final Thursday evening. The boys 100 trials will follow the boys and girls hurdles trials and probably start around 6:20 p.m. Finals start at 6:30 p.m., with the intermediates, 1,600, 400 and high hurdles finals preceding the 100 final.
The South Jersey Elite carries the lineage of the old South Jersey Invitational, which began in 1992 at Eastern, and we consider it the same meet with a slightly different name. The meet record is 10.57 going back to 2010 by Timber Creek’s Damiere Byrd, who has spent the last eight years in the NFL with the Panthers, Cards, Patriots, Bears and Falcons.
Other top seeds in the 100 are Pennsauken senior Elijah Jennings [10.84], Washington Township junior John Santos [10.91], Cherokee senior Ryan Bender [10.94], Washington Township senior Yashahya Brown [10.96], Delsea senior Julian Conigliaro [10.97] and Willingboro senior Rae-Juan Gayle [10.99].
Dwyer is also entered in the 200, along with Conigliaro [21.71] and Woodbury junior Marquis Taylor [21.98].
Complete entry list is here.
Here’s a look at the fastest 100 times in meet history:
10.57 … Damiere Byrd (Timber Creek) 2010
10.61 …….. Byrd, 2011
10.62 …….. Byrd, 2011
10.64 … Jeremy Cooper (Kingsway), 1997
10.67 … Fabian Santiago (Oakcrest), 2011
10.68 …….. Santiago, 2012
10.71 … Albert Newkirk (Camden), 1997
10.73 … Jonathan Taylor (Salem), 2016
10.75 … Jamaal Harris (Palmyra), 2002
10.75 … Thomas Hampton (Clayton), 2019
10.77 …….. Santiago, 2012
10.78 … Jamil Benjamin (Cumberland Reg.), 2006
10.79 … Santiago, 2010
10.79 …….. Taylor, 2016
10.80 … Darnell Charles (Oakcrest), 2012
10.81 … Anthony Averett (Woodbury), 2012
10.81 …… Miekel House (Delran), 2019
10.83 …… Hampton, 2019
10.84 …… House, 2019
10.85 …… Sahmir Jones (Pleasantville), 2019
10.85 …… D.J. Germann (Egg Harbor Twp.), 2022
10.85q …….. Germann, 2022
10.87q … James Burrus (Moorestown), 2022
10.92q … Malachi Melton [Cedar Creek], 2019
10.93 … Samuel Thomas (Northern Burlington), 2022
10.95q …….. Thomas, 2022
10.96q … Ziyan Smith (Delsea), 2022
10.97 …….. Smith, 2022
10.99 …….. Jones, 2019
10.99 …… Burrus (Moorestown), 2022
10.99 … J’Nathan Silver (Washington Twp.), 2022
Some other absolutely loaded events:
Boys 400 [six seeds under 50], boys 800 [seven under 2:00], boys hurdles [four at 14.34 or faster], boys pole vault [five at 14-0 or better], boys long jump [three 22-footers], boys triple jump [six 44-footers], boys discus [six 160-footers], boys shot put [four 57-footers], girls 100 [three under 12], girls 200 [five under 25], girls 400 [five under 58, 12 under 60], girls 800 [seven under 2:20], girls 1,600 [five at 5:07 or faster, 15 under 5:19], girls high jump [four at 5-5 or better], girls pole vault [two 12-footers], girls long jump [eight 17-footers], girls discus [three at 130 or better], girls javelin [four at 122 or better] and girls shot put [three 40-footers].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 