Freshman Hope Edwards was a double winner, and senior Hannah Byrd-Leitner picked up a first and a third, and ther Moorestown girls won their first sectional track title Thursday in Toms River.
Moorestown edged Pennsauken 79-68 to win the Central Jersey Group 3 title at the Bubble. Colts Neck, which had won five straight CJ-3 titles, was 3rd with 36 points, and Northern Burlington, with double winner Liliah Gordon, was 5th with 24 points.
Junior Sianni Wynn was a triple winner for Pennsauken.
Moorestown scored 41 points in the 400, 800 and 4-by-400. In the 400, Edwards ran 59.28 and finished 2nd to Wynn and senior Sarah Brown ran 1:00.11 and placed 3rd. In the 800, Edwards won with a 2:19.32, junior Lilliana Stack Maya placed 3rd with a PR 2:19.80 and freshman Payton Derer was 6th with a PR 2:22.93.
Brown, Derer, Stack Maya and Edwards ran a school record 4:00.40 to win the 4-by-4. Splits unavailable, unfortunately. Bubble results are not ideal.
Byrd-Leitner cleared 12-6 to win the pole vault, tie her indoor PR and break the meet record of 12-0 that she set last year (and no, she never went to Manchster Township, as the NJSIAA’s meet records say). Senior Jaya Stockham PR’d at 10-0 for 2nd place in the vault, and junior Meredith Ortiz cleared 8-0 for 5th place. That’s 20 total points in the vault.
Byrd-Leitner also ran a lifetime-best 8.74 for 3rd place in the hurdles.
Senior I’mara Ford, the Meet of Champions runner-up last spring, scored eight big points with a 2nd-place in the high jump at 5-0. And senior Noelia Reyes ran an indoor-outdoor PR of 5:20.65 to place 6th in the 1,600.
For Pennsauken, Wynn tripled the 55, 400 and hurdles with a meet-record 6.93, a 56.68 and a lifetime-best 8.10.
Her 6.93 broke the overall sectional record of 7.00 set last year by Timber Creek in South Jersey Group 3 and broke the Central Jersey mark of 7.25 set in 2010 by Tylia Gillon of Jackson.
Wynn’s 8.10 is 4th-fastest in the state this year in what is a new event for Wynn. It’s also No. 14 in South Jersey history and only 7-100ths off the school record of 8.03 set by Alethia Jenkins when she won 2000 Easterns at the Armory.
Wynn’s 56.68 is less than half a second from the meet record of 56.29 set in 2010 by Seneca’s Michelle Brown, who was inducted into the South Jersey Track Hall of Fame last year.
Pennsauken went 1-2 in the 55 and hurdles, with junior Sanaya Dupree PR’ing at 7.35 for 2nd in the 55 and Olivia PR’ing with 8.38 for 2nd in the hurdles.
Olivia and Sanaya Dupree and seniors Amina Dyer and Ameenah Rodriguez ran 4:07.87 for 2nd place in the 4-by-4.
Freshman Xyhaa’Marah Macklin, seeded 9th going into the meet, won the shot put with a big PR of 32-0 ½. Her previous PR was a 29-7 ¼ at Ocean Breeze earlier in the week. Olivia Dupree also placed 4th in the high jump with a 4-8 clearance.
Gordon ran a fast double with 4:57.94 and a meet-record 10:34.24, which broke the overall sectional and Group 3 meet record by 1-100th of a second. Abby Loveys of Randolph ran 10:34.25 in North 1 Group 3 in 2019. The previous CJ-3 mark was Gordon’s 10:44.02 last year.
Northern junior Emma Price ran a three-second PR 2:22.88 for 5th in the 800 and junior Jessica Colletti PR’d in the shot with a 31-2 ½.
Burlington Township senior Anishka Mitchell placed 3rd in the shot put with an indoor-outdoor PR of 31-6, and Falcons senior Sonae Sims ran a personal-best 8.93 for 6th place in the hurdles.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 