We recently put together as complete a rundown of South Jersey athletes headed to Franklin Field this week for the 129th annual Penn Relays. You can find those here: High school boys click here, high school girls click here, local college and open athletes click here.
But with the meet around the corner – first event kicks off at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning – we thought we’d take a deeper look at 10 events where some of South Jersey’s top talent will compete. This isn’t meant to be complete and we apologize in advance if we didn’t get to your school. There is so much track talent from South Jersey that it’s not easy to limit it to 10.
But here are 10 events where South Jersey runners, jumpers and throwers could really do well over the next few days in West Philly.
Live results will be posted here in real time throughout the three days.
Aliya Garozzo, Arianna Smith
Championship 400-Meter Hurdles
5:45 p.m., Thursday
Garozzo returns to Penn, where she spent her four years of college before graduating last spring. She’s now a grad student at Duke and ranked sixth in NCAA Division 1 with her 55.77 earlier this month at the Duke Invitational. That’s 2nd-fastest ever by a New Jersey woman, behind Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin. Smith, a Pennsville graduate, started out at Princeton and was at Rutgers briefly before arriving at Howard. She PR’d with a 57.14 – also at the Duke Invitational – and is ranked No. 19 in Division 1.Garozzo and Smith should be in the same section of the race. Also in the field is Rowan senior Molly Lodge of Woodstown, who is ranked 7th in Division 3 with her PR 1:01.69 from earlier this month in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Jenovia Logan
Championship High Jump
11:30 a.m., Saturday
Logan, a Sterling graduate and sophomore at Rutgers, soared 5-11 ½ in Tampa last month and is ranked 18th in Division 1 in the high jump. That broke the Rutgers school record, and she’s now just half an inch from joining Priscilla Frederick of Paul VI [6-3 in 2015], MaryBeth Labosky of Holy Cross [6-1 ½ in 1992], Nia Ali of Pleasantville [6-1 ¼ in 2011] and Kenady Wilson of Willingboro [6-0 ¾] as the 5th six-footer from South Jersey. Also entered is Rutgers freshman Alanna Woolfolk of Clayton, who cleared 5-8 indoors and 5-7 this spring.
Jamir Brown, Yashahya Brown
Championship 110-Meter Hurdles
3:30 p.m., Friday
Two of the fastest freshmen hurdlers in all of college track are from South Jersey. Riverside’s Jamir Brown, a freshman at Rowan and the indoor NCAA Division 3 record holder, is now No. 2 all-tine outdoors in Division 3 with his 13.79 in Atlanta last weekend. Yashahya Brown, a Rutgers freshman from Washington Township, is the No. 6 freshman in Division 1 with his 13.82 in Tampa two weeks ago. The two Browns haven’t raced each other in college. They last raced at the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken in June, with Yashahya and Jamir finishing 1st and 2nd over the 39-inch hurdles. Across all college divisions, Brown and Brown are the 6th- and 8th-fastest freshmen. Rowan has the three-fastest hurdlers in Division 3, and the other two – junior Kwaku Nkrumah from Teaneck and junior Jason Agyemang from North Plainfield – are also in the championship hurdles field.
Pennsauken, Winslow, Willingboro, R.V., Timber Creek girls
400-Meter Relay heats
Friday 9:45 a.m.
South Jersey is loaded in the girls sprint races, and Pennsuaken, Winslow, Willingboro, Rancocas Valley and Timber Creek are ranked 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th in New Jersey so far this year.Pennsauken has run 47.26, Winslow 47.40, Willingboro 48.17, R.V. 48.31 and Timber Creek 48.55. The nine-fastest teams in the prelims race in the Championship of America on Saturday, the next nine-fastest advance to the International Final, and the nine-fastest from the Northeast [New England plus Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania] race in a Northeast final on Saturday. Note that the 400 relays will run all morning Friday starting at 9:45 a.m.. Pennsauken, Rancocas Valley, Timber Creek, Willingboro and Winslow are all in the final set of heats, starting at 11:50 a.m.
Here are the lineups listed in the Relays program:
Pennsauken: Abigayle John, Amina Dyer, Sanaya Dupree, Sianni Wynn
Winslow: Cinniya Robinson, Jasmine Jackson, Jordyn Cato, Olivia Okaro
Willingboro: Nester Wea, Maya Bolden, Kaila Speight, Jaden Murry
Rancocas Valley: Autumn Austin, Angelina Brown, Damanique Johnston, Rhyann Roseboro
Timber Creek: Ryan Jennings, Billie Frazier, Samiyah Puckett, Taylor Gaines
Greg Foster
Championship Long Jump
11:30 a.m. Saturday
Foster, a Princeton junior from Lumberton, had a couple huge wind-aided jumps this past weekend in Charlottesville with a 26-6 ¾ and a 26-7 ¼ on his last two attempts. But they were aided by tailwinds of 3.6 and 4.1 meters per second. He’s got a wind-legal PR of 26-1 ¾ from the 2023 Ivy League Championships at Franklin Field, but he’s got a wind-legal 25-8 ¾ earlier this month at Princeton. This will be Foster’s first time competing in an individual event at Penn. He also PR’d in Charlottesville in the hurdles with a 13.83 – that was legal and is No. 2 in the Ivy – but he is only long jumping at Penn.
Egypt Bolan, Hannah Byrd-Leitner, Ma’Syiah Brawner, Hannah Nuhfer, Ella Karp
High Jump, Pole Vault, Triple Jump, Discus, Shot Put
9:30 a.m. Friday
We’re listing all these outstanding field event competitors in one entry since they’re all among the best in New Jersey and they all compete at the same time on Friday. Lindenwold’s Bolan is No. 1 in New Jersey with her 5-8 clearance at Woodbury, Moorestown’s Byrd-Leitner is No. 3 in New Jersey history with her 13-2 to win last year’s Meet of Champions, Winslow junior Brawner is New Jersey No. 1 in the triple jump with her 39-1 ½ at Woodbury and jumped 40-6 ¼ last year, Delsea junior Nuhfer is No. 1 in New Jersey with her monster 153-2 discus throw at Woodbury and Washington Township’s Karp was No. 6 in New Jersey indoors with her 43-3 ¾ at Easterns.
Winslow boys
400-Meter Relay
12:20 p.m., Thursday
Winslow leads the New Jersey 4-by-1 contingent after its New Jersey No. 1 42.00 at Woodbury. Expected lineup is Karon Ali, Cameron Miller, Nyquir Helton and Jayden Poteat. Same as the girls race, top nine go to the Championship of America, next nine-fastest to the Internationl final and the nine-fastest from New England plus Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania qualify for a Northeast final. Rancocas Valley [42.62], Camden [42.68], Millville [42.71], Williamstown [42.78] and Deptford [42.95] also ran under 43 at Woodbury and will all also be in the 400 relay heats.
Haddonfield
Distance Medley
5:15 p.m., Friday
The Bulldogs ran 10:11.61 indoors at the Ott Center in February, 2nd-fastest in South Jersey history, and are one of 15 schools invited to the Penn DMR, which is a one-race Championship of America final. Bennet Wright, Luke Andressen, Ben Andrus and Jack Brand are listed as Haddonfield’s runners, although I suspect they won’t run in that order.
Anthony Liakhnovich, Jonathan Harris
Shot Put
9:30 a.m., Thursday
A couple 65-foot throwers from South Jersey will be headed to the shot put area across the Northeast Corridor railroad tracks from Franklin Field. Liakhnovich, a senior at Hammonton, threw 66-3 ¾ when he won Boston Nationals indoors, and Harris has a PR of 65-6 from a meet at the Armory in Decemer. They’re among a field of 18 throwers, including nine from New Jersey.
Rowan, Masai Byrd, Shamir Love, Eli Hendricks, Evan Corcoran
400-Meter Relay
1:25 p.m., Friday
The Profs bring the fastest 400-meter relay team in NCAA Division 3 this year to Franklin Field, and with their 40.27 they qualified for the fastest 4-by-1 section, so they’ll be mixing it up with some of the fastest Division 1 schools in the country. Better yet, this Rowan quarter is comprised entirely of South Jersey high school graduates. Byrd ran for Rancocas Valley, Love for Bridgeton, Hendricks Penns Grove and Corcoran Kingsway. The Profs will also race in the 800-meter relay Championship division at 2:45 p.m. Friday with a listed lineup of Rajahn Dixon from Eastern, Robert McKinney from Highland, Hendricks and James Coleman from Audubon, and in the 4-by-4 at 7:30 p.m. Friday with Coleman, Ocean City’s Luke Halbruner, Samael Milevoix from Union County Vo-Tech and Lowrentzky Ambroise of Toms River North.