Woodstown’s Molly Lodge and Triton’s Nevaeh Lorjuste took home three gold medals for Rowan and and Pennsauken’s Jasmine Pope took home two at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center in West Philly.
Lodge won the 200-meter dash in 25.37 and ran on Rowan’s 1st-place 800-meter and 1,600-meter relay teams. She’s now won 11 conference titles indoors and out including relays. She also placed 3rd in the 60 in 7.86.p
Lorjuste won her 3rd NJAC 400-meter dash title – two outdoors, one indoors – and she now has nine NJAC wins, including relays. She ran a season-best 58.00 in the 400 and also ran on the winning 4-by-2 and 4-by-4 teams.
And Pope also ran legs on both winning relay teams in addition to placing 3rd in the 400 in 58.70.
Rowan won the 800-meter relay in 1:40.75 with Lodge, Pope, senior Jasmine Broadway of Burlington Township and Lorjuste. The Profs won the 4-by-4 with Lodge, freshman Paige Franklin of Williamstown, Pope and Lorjuste.
Rowan’s 4-by-2 time broke the school record of 1:41.61 set last February at Ocean Breeze by Pope, Lorjuste, Kat Pederson and Lodge and it’s 2nd-fastest in meet history behind TCNJ’s 1:40.49 in 2023. Broadway also ran 26.00 for 4th in the 200.
The Profs ran 3:53.87 to win the 4-by-4, smashing the meet record of 3:55.15 set in 2015 by Rowan with a lineup incluiding Jessalynn Wright from Cherokee, Shailia Williams of Pemberton, Brianna Angelella and Lexxus Matos of Camden Catholic and matched in 2018 by The College of New Jersey with Lenape’s Shannon Lambert on the 3rd leg. Franklin also ran the 400 leg on Rowan’s distance medley, which placed 2nd in 12:26.76.
Rowan freshman Nyla Jones from Timber Creek won the 60-meter hurdles in a lifetime-best 8.95, which makes her the No. 6 freshman in NCAA Division 3 and 3rd-fastest in meet history.
Senior Anna Sasse from Williamstown placed 2nd in the mile in 5:08.67 and 4th in the 3,2000 in 10:36.02.
Junior Lexi Bey from Oakcrest placed in both throws, taking 2nd in the shot put at 39-8 and 5th in the weight throw with a 46-3 ½.
Allyson Wernik of Washington Township ran 4th in the mile in 5:18.23 and Sidney Whetstone of Lenape was 4th in the long jump at 16-7 ¾.
TCNJ, which won the team title by 5 ½ points over Rowan, got a 4th place in the 800 from senior Erin Hanlon of Ocean City in 2:22.98 and a 6th in the 5,000 from junior Savannah Hodgens of Mainland in 19:14.48.
Stockton junior Eva Morrison from Mainland Regional won the pole vault with an 11-1 ¾ clearance, which matched her PR from last winter in a meet at Marietta, Ohio, while she was attending Frostburg. Stockton junior Madelyn Valasek from Shawnee ran 10:28.06 and placed 2nd in the 3,000. Stockton also won the DMR in 12:09.60, 12th-fastest this year in Division 3, with senior Amanda McNally on the 1,200 leg and Valasek anchoring.
Also for Stockton, sophomore Elaina Styer, a transfer from Cornell who won the pentathlon on Saturday, placed 2nd in the high jump at 5-4 ¼.
And Rutgers-Newark senior Fejiro Akiri of Cherokee placed 3rd in the shot with a 39-4 ½ and 4th in the weight at 47-3.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 