Junior Natalie Dumas won the 400 and 800 and anchored the winning 4-by-4 and the Eastern girls won their first indoor state title Saturday at the Bubble in Toms River.
In the 400, Dumas ran 56.04 to edge sophomore Rhia Randolph of West Orange, last year’s indoor Meet of Champions winner as a freshman at Union Catholic. Randolph was 2nd in 56.24.
In the 800, Dumas ran 2:13.81 and ran away from Manalapan’s Jessica Abbott in what wound up as a pivotal finish in the final team standings.
Manalapan and Eastern both scored 30 points to share the team title. Going into the relay, Manalapan had 30 points and Eastern had 20, so Eastern needed to win the 4-by-4 while Manalapan didn’t score to deliver the team title to the Vikings. Manalapan wound up getting DQ’d in an earlier section but would have had to run 4:07.02 to score and they have a season best of 4:11.78.
Eastern took care of the relay with junior Adriana Marella, senior Samantha Osei-Kyei and senior Jasmine Davies setting up Dumas. Eastern won the 4-by-4 in 4:01.66, finishing eight meters ahead of Kingsway, who was 2nd in 4:02.97.
Ridgewood finished 3rd with 24 points and Washington Township 4th with 18 points. Eastern is the first South Jersey school to win Group 4 since Rancocas Valley in 2017.
For Washington Township, senior Dakota Jones won the hurdles in 8.28 becoming the Minutemaids’ 1st indoor state champ in eight years, since Kami Joi Hickson in the 800 back in 2017.
Junior Cali Lacovara placed 3rd in the pole vault with a 10-6 clearance, matching her indoor PR, and senior Ella Karp placed 5th in the shot put with a 40-7 ¾ throw.
Kingsway’s 2nd-place 4-by-4 team consisted of seniors Jonelle Lewis, senior Camryn Stanard, freshman Noemi Haller and sophomore Norah Brown.
Lewis also placed 6th in the 55 in 7.32 after a PR 7.20 in the trials that is tied for 9th-fastest in Gloucester County history. Haller also placed 6th in the 400 in 59.48.
For Cherokee, junior Alyssa Suriano ran a nearly four-second indoor-outdoor PR of 2:19.95 to place 5th in the 800, junior Madeline Meder ran an indoor PR 11:21.91 for 5th in the 3,200, and freshman Erin Healy ran an 18-second 3,200 PR 11:23.27 for 6th place.
Atlantic County Tech sophomore Brianna Growalt placed 3rd in the hurdles in 8.53.
Also, Rancocas Valley senior Milena Otoo cleared 10-0 for 5th in the pole vault, and Williamstown senior Addison Inge tied for 6th in the high jump with a 5-2 clearance.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 