Eastern senior Natalie Dumas set a South Jersey record at 300 meters Saturday and also ran the fastest 400 in New Jersey this year at the Ocean Breeze Invitational in Staten Island, N.Y.
Dumas, a triple national champion last spring, ran 38.11 for 300 meters, which is 5th-fastest in state history and broke the South Jersey record of 38.19 that she ran at the Millrose Games at the Armory last February.
Her time is 5th-fastest in state history and 12th-fastest nationally according to the MileSplit national database. It’s No. 18 on the world Under-20 list, according to the World Athletics database.
Racing against pros and post-collegiates, Dumas ran 53.68 in the 400, just a fraction off her indoor and South Jersey-record PR 53.55 – 4th-fastest in state history – from last year’s Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze. She finished just ahead of Pennsville’s Arianna Smith, who ran a lifetime-best 53.93. Smith ran collegiately for Rutgers, Howard and Princeton. Dumas and Smith are the 2nd– and 3rd-fastest intermediate hurdlers from South Jersey at 55.99 and 56.11.
Dumas’s 400 is fastest in New Jersey this year, 7th-fastest nationally and No. 13 on the world Under-20 list, according to World Athletics.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 