Eastern senior Natalie Dumas, who turned in maybe the greatest triple in high school history in June, raced Tuesday for the first time since U.S. Nationals and in an Olympic Conference batch meet at DREAM Park in Logan Township.
It wasn’t an all-out effort for Dumas, who is the only woman in the history of the world to run 51.14 for 400 meters, 2:00.11 for 800 meters and 55.99 in the intermediate hurdles. She won all three at West Philly Nationals and set state records in the 400 and 800 and also led Eastern to 2nd place in the sprint medley with the 12th-fastest time in U.S. history.
On Tuesday, Dumas ran with junior teammate Theresa Albertson well back in the pack, with both running 22:52 over the 5,000-meter course. Albertson has run 18:24 and 18:34 at DREAM Park and Dumas has a 5,000 PR of 18:49 set at DREAM Park.
They placed 3rd and 4th last fall at South Jersey Group 4 Sectionals. So they both ran close to 4 ½ minutes slower than they have on the same course. Dumas went on to run 20:26 last fall on the challenging Holmdel County Park course.
Although it wasn’t a full effort by Dumas, it’s just great to see her out racing again after a historic – and very long – spring season that culminated when she raced the 800 at the USA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., six weeks ago.
Cherokee swept the top three spots with seniors Madeline Meder, Alyssa Suriano and Sofia Recinto running 20:19, 20:22 and 20:23. On Saturday, they were part of the Cherokee team that won the RCA Relays in Virginia.
At West Philly Nationals, Dumas ran the 6th-fastest time in U.S. high school history in the intermediates, the 5th-fastest time in the 800 and the 6th-fastest time in the 400.
Next for the Eastern girls is the Osprey Invitational at Stockton University in Galloway Township on Friday.
Here’s the top in the batch race after Meder, Suriano and Recinto: Lenape junior Audrey McCorkle [4th, 20:25], Cherokee sophomore Erin Healy [5th, 20:33], Cherokee senior Maya Kumar [6th, 20:56], Seneca junior Jaden Elberman [7,th, 21:23], Seneca junior Abigail Connolly [8th, 21:47]], Rancocas Valley senior Mary Casano [9th, 22:21] and Lenape junior Elizabeth Sunlitis [10th, 22:26].
Team scoring wasn’t kept, but Cherokee would have won 17-65 over Lenape.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 