Top-seeded long jumper Greg Foster from Lumberton leads a large contingent of 18 South Jersey athletes into the NCAA Division 1 track championships, which open with preliminary round competition at two sites next weekend.
Foster, a Princeton junior, is the No. 1 long jumper in the East Region with his 26-7 ¼ from a meet in Charlottesville, Va., last month. The mark was wind-aided, but the NCAA does not consider wind readings when determining the NCAA fields.
Overall, Foster is ranked 3rd in the NCAA Division 1 behind Lokesh Sathyanathan of Tarleton State of Stephenville, Texas [26-8 ½] and Charles Godfrey of Minnesota [26-8 ¼].
The East prelims will be held in Jacksonville, Fla., with the West prelims in College Station, Texas. Both meets are scheduled to run May 28-13.
The top 12 placers in each event from each region advance to the NCAA Championships June 11-14 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
Note that Washington Township’s Ajani Dwyer, a Penn State freshman ranked 12th in the East Region in the 100 at 10.05, was not entered.
Here’s a glance at the South Jersey athletes headed to either Jacksonville or College Station.
East Men
Gabriel Moronta [Pleasantville], South Florida: Moronta is the 9th seed in the 400 with his PR 45.31 in Gainesville last month. Moronta, a transfer from Mississippi State, won the Amerian Conference 400 this past weekend in 45.55. He’s also expected to anchor South Florida’s 4-by-4, which is seeded 3rd at 3:02.13. That quartet is ranked 21st in the world.
Nico Morales [Delsea], Rutgers: Morales continued his record-breaking season by clearing an all-time South Jersey-record 18 feet at the Big 10 Championships in Eugene. For some reason, every clearance in that meet is listed as a “no-height” in the TFRRS database, so in the NCAA seedings Morales is listed with his 17-9 from a meet in Piscataway in April, which makes him officially the 15th seed. But he should be the No. 12 seed. It doesn’t really matter, but it’s annoying.
Greg Foster [Lumberton/Lawrenceville School], Princeton: This is Foster’s 4th trip to NCAAs. His best finish so far is 10th indoors this past March in Virginia Beach. He actually ran fast enough in the hurdles [13.78] to qualify but wasn’t entered and will focus solely on the long jump in Jacksonville.
Premier Wynn [Pennsauken], Norfolk State: Wynn qualified in both the 400-meter hurdles, where he’s the 27th seed with a 50.70, and with Norfolk State’s 4-by-4 team, seeded 18th with its 3:05.07.
Bryce Tucker [Pennsauken], Rutgers: Wynn’s training partner and high school teammate is also entered in the intermediates and is the No. 30 seed with his 50.79 season best.
Jason Nwosu [Delsea], South Florida: Moronta and Nwosu both set school records at South Florida this spring, with Nwosu PR’ing in the shot put at 58-8 ¾ in Gainesville last month. Nwosu is a transfer from William and Mary.
Kevin Burr [Rancocas Valley], Tennessee
Burr is one of the top javelin throwers in the country and PR’d with a 246-8 earlier this month in Knoxville. That’s the No. 6 mark by a South Jersey high school graduate and makes him the No. 6 seed.
Yashahya Brown [Washington Twp.], Rutgers
Good news seeing Brown’s name on the declared list. He hasn’t raced in over a month and hasn’t run a hurdles race since PR’ing at 13.82 in Tampa five weeks ago. But he made the field as the 35th seed in the 110 highs and hopefully is over the hamstring injury that sidelined him for a chunk of the season.
Ahmad Brock [Egg Haror Twp.], Monmouth
Brock made the field with a wind-legal 25-3 ½ in a meet at Rutgers last month. That’s the best jump ever by an Atlantic County native, just ahead of a 25-2 by Paul Klemic of Mainland in Waverly, Iowa, in 2005.
East Women
Alyssa Garozzo [Paul VI], Duke
Garozzo, a Duke grad student, is the 8th seed in the 400-meter hurdles with her 55.77 on her home track in Durham in April. She competed at NCAA East prelims last spring as a senior at Penn. She’s also a likely leg on Duke’s 4-by-4, which is the 4th seed at 3:27.77. She’s also listed as an alternate on Duke’s 4-by-1, the 6th seed at 43.42.
Arianna Smith [Pennsville], Howard
Smith PR’d with a 56.11 when she won the MEAC Championships earlier this month in Norfolk. That’s 3rd-fastest all-time by a South Jersey athlete, behind Rancocas Valley’s Tonya Lee [55.78 in 1997] and Garozzo. She’s the 7th seed in the intermediates and is also in the field as the 24th seed for the highs with her 13.19 in the prelims at MEACs. That’s also No. 3 all-time on the South Jersey performance list [behind Nia Ali’s 12.34 in Doha in 2019 and Tionna Tobias’s 13.11 in 2023 in Bloomington, Ind.]. Snith is also on Howard’s 4-by-4, the 14th seed at 3:30.88.
Kami Joi Hickson [Washington Twp.], Maryland
Hickson, who PR’d in the 800 this month with a 2:07.25, will race at NCAAs on Maryland’s 4-by-4, which qualified with a 3:35.38.
Jenovia Logan [Sterling], Rutgers
Logan is the No. 8 seed in the high jump with her lifetime-best 5-11 ½ in March in Tampa. That’s No. 4 on the all-time South Jersey alumni list.
Helene Usher [Haddonfield], La Salle
Usher had an outstanding sophomore year with PRs of 16:35.77 and 34:13.65, and it’s in the 10,000 that she qualified for NCAAs.
West Women
Leah Howard [Millville], Texas Tech
Howard is the 24th seed in the javelin with a PR 163-10 from a meet last month in College Station, where she’ll throw in NCAA prelims.
Jewel Ash [Eastern], Fresno State
Another of South Jersey’s battery of fast women intermediate hurdlers this spring along with Garozzo and Smith in the East. Ash, a transfer from Charleston Southern, ran a season-best 57.63 in Clovis, Calif., and is the 19th seed in the West.
West Men
Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], Texas Tech
Rhea returns to NCAAs as the 14th seed in the 110-meter highs with his 13.48, which he’s run twice this year. Rhea placed 14th in the 2021 indoor NCAAs in the 60-meter highs and and also ran the 110 highs at East Prelims that spring and again in 2023 competing for Miami. He advanced out of NCAA Prelims in the spring of 2023 but was DQ’d in the national semifinals.
Floyd Whitaker [Highland], Oklahoma
Whitaker, a transfer from Minnesota, is the No. 8 triple jumper in Division 1 and seeded 5th in the West with his 53-1 ½ in Lexington, Ky., last week.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 