Washington Township grad Isabelle Deal shattered her own Rowan shot put record Sunday as part of a double win at the NJAC Championships.
Deal, a Rowan junior, won the shot with a 45-8, breaking her own school record of 43-3 ¾ from two weeks ago in Lawrenceville, and also won the javelin at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at Stockton University in Galloway Township
Her 45-8 is No. 15 in NCAA Division 3 this year.
Deal actually had five throws beyond 43-3 ¾, and she averaged 43-11 ¾ on her six attempts, so her average throw actually would have broken Rowan’s school record. She had the six-best throws of the competition.
Although Deal’s previous school record was 43-3 ¾, her previous PR was 43-4 ½ from last May as a junior at Ursinus at the Centennial Conference Championships in Collegeville, Pa.
(For the record, Rowan’s web site says Deal broke “a 23-year mark of 13.16,” which translated to English seems to mean she broke a record of 13.16 meters – which is 43-2 good ol’ feet and inches – 23 years ago. However, that former record of 43-2 was actually set in 1991 – that was 33 years ago, not 23 years ago – and here in the U.S. we don’t use metric distances. Only on Rowan’s web site, which is filled with numbers that nobody has any clue what they mean. And, oh, Deal actually broke that record two weeks ago, but apparently nobody knew about it. For the record, that 1991 mark of 43-2 that wasn’t the Rowan record was thrown by Angela Solomon (who went to Overbrook and set a South Jersey record of 43-6 ¾ at the 1989 Meet of Champions)].
Deal opened her series with her first school record at 43-11 and after a 42-6 ½ popped the 45-8. She threw 42-7 ¾ on her 4th attempt before finishing with a 44-5 ¼ and a 44-7 ¼.
Here’s a look at all the known 45-foot throwers from South Jersey:
62-3 ½ … Jessica Woodard [Cherokee], May 20, 2021, Tucson, Ariz.
58-6 ¼ … Jamine Moton [Delsea], May 13, 2001, Clemson, S.C.
50-5 … Victoria Imbesi [Our Lady of Mercy], May 6, 2012, Philadelphia
49-11 … Shamere Rothmiller [Glassboro], May 26, 2012, Jacksonville, Fla.
49-10i … Tara Daniels [Kingsway], Feb. 6, 2016, Boston
49-2 ¼ … Sylvia Galarza [Millville], April 26, 2007, Philadelphia
48-7 … Melinda Boykin [Bridgeton], May 19, 2001, Princeton
47-11 … Teyana Ames [Atlantic County Tech], April 27, Philadelphia
47-10 ¾ …….. Daniels, March 26, 2016, Orlando, Fla.
46-8 ¼ … Janiece Rose [Delsea], May 15, 2015, Muncie, Ind.
46-5 … Ronetta Hunter [Burlington Twp.], April 20, 2019, Durham, N.C.
45-9 ½ … Genevieve Rybicki [Our Lady of Mercy], May 6, 2012, Amherst, Mass.
45-8 ½ … Prisca Blamon [Cinnaminson], Feb. 20, 2022, New York
45-8 … Isabella Deal [Washington Township], May 5, 2024, Galloway Township, N.J.
Deal won the javelin by over 15 feet with a 133-9 throw. Her PR is 155-0 for Ursinus last spring at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships in Selinsgrove, Pa.
She also scored in the hammer throw with a 134-8 for 7th place. Her previous hammer PR was a 133-1 in a meet in March in Atlanta.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 