With the qualifying deadline passing on Sunday, at least 22 South Jersey athletes have posted either an A or B standard for the USATF Nationals later this summer Eugene.
One has posted an A standard in two events (and a B in a third), and by now you can probably guess who that is.
The qualifying window opened on June 21, 2024, and continued through midnight Sunday. USATF Senior Nationals run from Thursday, July 31, through Sunday, Aug. 3, at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus.
Not all the athletes who qualified will compete. The deadline for entering is midnight Tuesday.
Athletes with an A standard are guaranteed entry into the meet. If that fills up the field – generally, 32 for sprints, middle distance and hurdles, 24 for distance races and 16 for field events – no B qualifiers are added. If the A qualifiers don’t fill the field, which is usually the case for most events, B qualifiers are added in order of their performance until the field size is reached.
The 2025 World Athletics performance lists are a pretty good indication where an athlete ranks in relation to other A or B qualifiers, but those lists only cover the 2025 calendar year and not the portion of the qualifying window that was in 2024. So there are some qualifiers you won’t find on the 2025 performance lists.
One example of that is Winslow Township’s Tionna Tobias, who jumped a lifetime-best 22-9 ¼ on July 19, 2024, so she has the A standard for the 2025 meet, it just wasn’t recorded in 2025.
The top three placers at U.S. Nationals (provided they have the world standard) make up the U.S. team that will compete at the World Championships in Tokyo from Sept. 13-21.
Let’s take a look at the long list of South Jersey athletes who’ve qualified for nationals.
An asterisk means that as of Monday morning they have entered. We’ll update the list once all the entries and declarations are in later this week. (Note that Tobias entered on Monday)
MEN
A Qualifiers
*Josh Awotunde, Delsea
Shot Put [#6 U.S. ranking]
Awotunde has the A standard at 70-2 ½ from Tucson in May, but he actually has a 71-5 from last year’s Olympic Trials on June 22 of last year, the 2nd day of the current qualifying window. Awotunde has a PR of 73-1 ½ from his 3rd-place finish at 2022 Worlds in Eugene. Awotunde is No. 22 in world history, No. 12 in U.S. history and No. 6 in the U.S. and No. 14 in the world this year.
Gabriel Moronta, Pleasantville
400 [#16 U.S. ranking]
Moronta recorded the A standard with his 45.01 at NCAA East Prelims and went on to anchor South Florida’s NCAA championship 1,600-meter relay team. Moronta is well under the A standard of 45.20. [Note that according to World Athletics, as of June 18, Moronta began competing for the Dominican Republic and therefore is ineligible for U.S. Nationals].
*Curtis Thompson, Florence
Javelin [#1 U.S. ranking]
Thompson is seeking his 5th U.S. title having won the javelin in 2018 in Des Moines and 2021, 2023 and 2024 in Eugene. He’s No. 1 in the U.S. this year and No. 3 in the world with his PR 287-11 in Austin in March. That’s more than 30 feet above the A standard of 255-10.
B Qualifiers
Jamir Brown, Riverside
110-Meter Hurdles [#51 U.S. ranking]
Brown set the NCAA Division 3 record of 13.60 in the semifinals at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at The College of New Jersey in Ewing. So he’s got the B standard of 13.75. The A standard is 13.40.
*Kevin Burr, Rancocas Valley
Javelin [#8 U.S. ranking]
Burr is well over the B standard of 232-11 with his 246-8 in Knoxville last month, and he’s within nine feet of the A standard if he feels like chasing a qualifier over the next couple weeks.
*Greg Foster, Lumberton
Long Jump [#20 U.S. ranking]
Foster increased his B standard with a season-best 26-0 ¼ at the Elliott Denman International in West Long Branch last month. The B standard is 25-7 and the A is 26-6 ¾. Foster isn’t far off in the 110 hurdles either with a 13.78 in New Haven last month. The B standard is 13.75.
Bryce Tucker, Pennsauken
400 Hurdles [#34 U.S. ranking]
Tucker isn’t far off the A standard of 49.75 with his PR 50.00 at NCAA East Prelims in Jacksonville last month. He’s well under the B standard of 50.75.
Ajani Dwyer, Washington Twp.
100-Meter Dash [#46 U.S. ranking]
200-Meter Dash [#52 U.S. ranking]
Dwyer was one of only three NCAA Division 1 freshmen to run 10.16 and 20.51 this past spring. He’s under the B standards of 10.25 and 20.60 in both sprints, but Dwyer hasn’t raced since the Big Ten Championships in Eugene in May.
Johnnie Jackson, Cherry Hill East
Hammer [#18 U.S. ranking]
Jackson doesn’t throw very often – just 11 meets over the past three years – but his 237-4 in Tucson last month is well above the B standard of 233-1 and only about seven feet shy of the A standard of 244-5.
Sincere Rhea, St. Augustine
110-Meter Hurdles [#56 U.S. ranking]
Rhea had a 13.48 in March at the Texas Relays in Austin that was slightly wind aided at 2.3, and his fastest wind-legal race was a 13.66 one day earlier in the semis. That puts him under the B standard of 13.75, but he could use a faster time to help his chances.
Premier Wynn, Pennsauken
400 [#93 U.S. ranking]
400 Hurdles [#61 U.S. ranking]
Wynn has B standards in both the 400 and 800 with 46.00 in the flat 400 and 50.70 in the hurdles. He’s right at the B standard of 46.00 in the 400 and just under the B standard of 50.75 in the intermediates.
*Floyd Whitaker, Highland
Triple Jump [#12 U.S. ranking]
Whitaker is less than a foot off the A standard of 54-9 ¼ but has a very strong B standard with his 53-10 from his 2nd-place finish at NCAAs. The B is 51-10.
WOMEN
A Qualifiers
*English Gardner, Eastern
100 [#23 U.S. ranking]
Gardner nailed the A qualifier of 11.07 when she ran 11.04 – her fastest time in seven years – in Winter Garden, Fla., last month. She’ll return to her home track in Eugene, where she became one of the most decorated sprinters in college history running for the University of Oregon.
*Natalie Dumas, Eastern
400 [#18 U.S. ranking]
800 [#23 U.S. ranking]
400 Hurdles [#19 U.S. ranking]
Racing at West Philly Nationals at Franklin Field, Dumas – who just completed her junior year at Eastern High School – locked down A qualifiers in both the 800 with a 2:00.14 and the 400-meter hurdles at 55.99. The A standards for those events at 56.00 and 2:00.50. She ran a B qualifier of 51.11 in the 400, just off the A standard of 51.00. Dumas plans to compete in the 800 in Eugene.
Nia Ali, Pleasantville
100 Hurdles [#29 U.S. ranking]
Ali, a world champion, two-time indoor world champion and Olympic silver medalist, has a best time this year of 13.01, which is shy of the A standard of 12.80. She’s only competed twice all year. But she ran 12.37 last year at the Olympic Trials nine days after the qualifying window opened last June, so she’s got a lane locked up.
*Aliya Garozzo, Paul VI
400 Hurdles [#15 U.S. ranking]
Garozzo’s 55.77 PR at the Duke Invitational in Durham in April has her safely under the A standard of 56.00. She’s actually only 4-100ths of a second shy of the B standard of 52.50 in the 400 with her 52.54 in Raleigh in March, the only outdoor flat 400 she’s run since April 2022 while she was a sophomore at Penn. But she’ll run the intermediates in Eugene.
*Tionna Tobias, Winslow Twp.
Long Jump [#52 U.S. ranking]
Tobias’s best jump this year was a 20-8 at the Armory indoors, a few inches shy of the B standard of 21-0. But she popped a lifetime-best 22-9 ¼ in Gainesville last July after the qualifying window opened and that’s well beyond the A standard of 22-1 ¾.
B Qualifiers
Arianna Smith, Pennsville
100 Hurdles [#55 U.S. ranking]
400 Hurdles [#21 U.S. ranking]
Smith is very close to the 400 hurdles A standard of 56.00 with her PR 56.11 in Norfolk last month. She’s well under the B standard of 58.00. She’s also got a B standard in her secondary event, the 100-meter hurdles, with a 13.19, under the B standard of 13.25.
Jenovia Logan, Sterling
High Jump [#37 U.S. ranking]
Logan PR’d with her 5-11 ¼ in her outdoor opener for Rutgers in Tampa back in March. That’s above the B standard of 5-10 ¾. The A standard is 6-2.
Jewel Ash, Eastern
400 Hurdles [#50 U.S. ranking]
One of three Eastern women who have at least a B qualifier and one of four South Jersey women who have at least a B qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles. Ash ran 57.46 in College Station in May, below that 58.00 B standard. She hasn’t raced since May.
*Jessica Woodard, Cherokee
Shot Put [#10 U.S. ranking]
Woodard is less than a foot and a half off the A standard of 62-4 with her season-best 60-11 ½ in Tucson in May. Only four U.S. women have thrown the A standard this year. Woodard is 5 ½ feet over the B standard of 56-5 and is in outstanding position to make the field of 16,
Sianni Wynn, Pennsauken
100-Meter Dah [#64 U.S. ranking]
Wynn ran 11.29 when she won her national title in the 100 at Franklin Field last month. That’s just under the B standard of 11.30. The A standard is 11.07.
Elisia Lancaster, Delsea
Hammer [#21 U.S. ranking]
Lancaster is actually shy of the B standard – by six inches – but we’re including her here because she’s so close. She threw 222-7 in Princeton last month, and the B qualifier is 223-1. As close as she was, Lancaster did not chase a qualifier and competed only twice since mid-May.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 