Junior Laila Fairweather became Burlington Township’s fastest 400 runner in 30 years at sectionals Saturday at Jackson Liberty.
Fairweather won the Central Jersey Group 3 race in 57.12, fastest by a Falcon since Tina Johnson ran 56.64 when she place 2nd at the 1995 state Group 1 meet at South Plainfield. Schalick’s Candyce DeLoatch won that race with the same time and was credited with the win.
(Note that MileSplit lists Nia Hinds with a 56.82, but that was in a summer track meet, not eligible for consideration for high school lists. MileSplit randomly lists some but not all summer track performances. We don’t include any in our lists.)
Fairweather is Township’s first sectional 400 winner since Johnson won the South Jersey Group 1 400 at West Deptford as a senior in 1997 in 58.6.
Fairweather never broke 60 as a sophomore and had a PR of 57.96 going into sectionals. That was from the Burlington County Open the previous weekend at Lenape.
At sectionals, she won by more than a second over Colts Neck junior Mariel Reucroft, who placed 2nd in 58.25.
She also placed 3rd in the 200 in a PR 25.97. Her previous best was a 26.34 earlier this month at the BCSL meet at Pennsauken.
Fairweather is the No. 5 seed in the 400 going into the state Group 3 meet May 30-31 at South Plainfield behind Cinniya Robinson [56.24], Skhye Seamon [56.46] and Olivia Okaro [56.91] of Winslow and Ramapo’s Bridget Cannon [56.73].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 