Over the next few weeks, we’ll spotlight 30 athletes who excelled during the outdoor track season that we didn’t have a chance to write about extensively. We’d love to write about every athlete in South Jersey, but that’s not practical. But we will try to spotlight some who may have gotten overlooked over the past few months. We apologize in advance if we don’t get to you or your son or daughter or an athlete you coach.
Today: Claire Magee, Paul VI
There was quite a group of sophomore 400 runners in South Jersey this year, led by Sianni Wynn of Pennsauken, Natalie Dumas of Eastern and and Olivia Okaro of Winslow. But don’t forget Paul VI’s Claire Magee, who was the 6th-fastest sophomore quarter-miler in New Jersey this past season.
Coming off an indoor season where she ran 7.49 for 55 meters and 58.11 for 400 meters, Magee ran a PR 56.59 at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea, where she placed 2nd to Wynn, who ran 54.24.
She placed 2nd to Dumas, the national 400 hurdles champ, at the Camden County meet at Haddon Township in 57.22 and then took 6th in the state Parochial A meet at Stockton, where she was the first South Jersey finisher.
Magee’s 56.59 made Magee the No. 6 sophomore in New Jersey and No. 4 in South Jersey, behind Dumas, Wynn and Okaro.
She broke the school record of 56.88 set at the 2019 Rowan Open in Glassboro by Aliya Rae Garozzo, who competed in the 400 hurdles last month at the U.S. Olympic Trials and will be a senior at Penn this fall.
Her 56.59 was also the fastest time by any South Jersey parochial school runner in 48 years, since Carla Hunt of Holy Cross ran 55.4 over 440 yards at the 1976 Eastern States Championships in Washington, D.C. That converts to 55.1 for 400 meters.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 