Eastern junior Natalie Dumas won a sizzling showdown with Pennsauken junior Sianni Wynn Saturday morning and tied the state 400-meter dash record along the way.
Dumas won the South Jersey Group 4 title in 51.87, tying the state record set by four-time Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin at the 2016 Meet of Champions in Berkeley Township.
Her time is No. 2 in the U.S., according to the MileSplit national database. Tyra Cox of Miami Northwestern ran 51.44 last week in a meet in Jacksonville.
She broke the South Jersey record of 52.80 that Wynn set at the BCSL meet, also at Pennsauken, earlier this month. Wynn placed 2nd Saturday in 53.20.
Dumas’s performance is the fastest ever in a New Jersey sectional meet. McLaughlin had the previous-fastest sectional performance when she ran 52.89 at the 2017 South Jersey Parochial A meet at Egg Harbor.
The previous-fastest public-school 400 performance at sectionals was a 53.49 by Arianna Sharpe to win the South Jersey Group 1 title in 2022.
The overall Group 4 sectional record was Julia Jackson’s 53.69 in 2022 at Ridge, and the South Jersey Group 4 record was Wynn’s 53.80 last year at on her home track at Pennsauken.
Dumas’s time is No. 33 among U.S. women this year. It’s fastest among U.S. women 20 and under, according to World Athletics, and 3rd-fastest among world juniors, behind Chioma Nwachukwu of Nigeria [51.26 in Gainesville] and Bella Pasquali of Australia [51.84 in Perth].
The race was crazy fast overall, with 10 girls under 60 and six under 58. Behind Dumas and Wynn, Kingsway freshman Noemi Haller was 3rd in 55.87, Eastern senior Samantha Osei-Kyei placed 4th in 56.33, Pennsauken junior Sanaya Dupree ran 56.60 for 5th and Rancocas Valley junior Rhyann Roseboro was 6th in 57.55.
It’s going to be fairly high on the all-time U.S. scholastic list. Gotta look that up now!
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 