Schalick senior Jordan Hadfield raced to the Salem County 1,600 record Wednesday and fastest time by a New Jersey Group 1 girl in 10 years at the Tri-County Showcase at Delsea.
Hadfield ran a big eight-second PR and solo’d 4:59.06, winning by about 130 meters with negative splits of 2:30.01 and 2:29.05, closing in 72.35.
She broke her own county record of 5:07.66 that she ran last June when she won the state Group 1 title in Somerset. Her time is 8th-fastest in the state this year and fastest by a South Jersey runner, just ahead of Ocean City’s Maeve Smith, who ran 4:59.17 at South Jersey Elite on the same track earlier this month.
Hadfield’s time is fastest this year in Group 1 and looks like the fastest ever run by a South Jersey Group 1 girl. The previous record was a hand-timed 4:59.6 by Glassboro’s Ruth Lockbaum at the 1985 Gloucester County Championships in Deptford. Haddonfield has had a few girls run faster but they were always in Group 2 in those years.
The last New Jersey Group 1 girl to run faster was Rachel Suss of Metuchen, who ran 4:57.05 to win the 2015 state Group 1 title at Egg Harbor.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 