Clayton’s Alexander Osayemi continues monster senior year with record-setting performance at sectionals!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Clayton senior Alexander Osayemi continued his historic season at South Jersey Group 1 sectionals at Pennsauken with meet records in the 400 and 400-meter hurdles and a speedy win in the 200.

Osayemi became the only the second Clayton boy to record an individual triple win at sectionals and goes into the state Group 1 meet as the No. 1 seed in the 200 at 21.67, 46.91 in the 400 and 53.14 in the intermediates.

He’s ranked No. 1 in New Jersey in the 400, No. 3 in the intermediates and No. 6 in the 200. Among all the sectionals this past weekend, he had the fastest time in the 200 and 400 and 2nd-fastest in the intermediates, behind Toms River North senior Mamadi Diawara, who won the South Jersey Group 4 race in 51.98, also at Pennsauken.

Osayemi PR’d in the 200 and intermediates, but he ran a bit faster in the 400 at the Puma East Coast International Showcase in Baltimore earlier this month with a 46.60. That’s No. 2 in South Jersey history behind only Dennis Mitchell’s historic 46.02 at the 1984 International Prep Invitational in Elmhurst, Ill., and it’s 7th-fastest in state history.

Osayemi’s 46.60 broke the Gloucester County record of 46.95 that Woodbury’s Darrell Bush ran at the 2011 Meet of Champions in Old Bridge. It’s also fastest ever by a New Jersey Group 1 runner. His 400 hurdles time is 6th-fastest in Gloucester County history.

He broke the South Jersey Group 1 sectional 400 meet record of 47.41 set in 2011 by Bush and the overall sectional Group 1 record of 48.03 set by Florence’s Keith Griffith in 2010.

The meet record in the 400 intermediates is listed as 53.0 by legendary Fred Sharpe of Paulsboro in 1997. The FAT record was 54.08 by Shalick’s Chris Mesiano in 2015. Osayemi’s time should be listed alongside Sharpe’s hand-timed 53.0 because it’s intrinsically faster, but the NJSIAA doesn’t understand the difference between hand times and FAT times and doesn’t list superior FAT times. Oh well. We’re giving Osayemi a share of the 400IH record.

The state Group 1 meet is scheduled for May 30-31 in Somerset. The 400 hurdles are on Friday and the 200 and 400 are both on Saturday.

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