Northern Burlington’s Samuel Thomas ran a huge 100 PR Saturday and the No. 2 time in Ramapo history behind an Olympian.
Thomas, a Ramapo sophomore, dropped his 100 PR from 10.63 from two weeks ago in the trials of a meet at Moravian College in Bethlehem, to 10.54 with a legal 0.9 tailwind at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships on his home track in Mahwah. These are his first two wind-legal races under 11 seconds as a collegian.
At Northern, Thomas ran 10.64 without a wind gauge at 2023 Group 3 states at Delsea. His legal PR was 10.73 at 2023 Central Jersey Group 3 Sectionals at Jackson Liberty running into a 1.1 meters-per-second headwind.
The only faster time by a Ramapo sprinter is the NCAA Division 3 all-time No. 4 10.18 by Chieckna Traore in 2023 at 2023 NCAA Division 3 Nationals in Rochester, N.Y. He went on to become a Division 1 national champ and an Ivory Coast Olympian in the 200.
Thomas placed 2nd to TCNJ All-America Maxim Tychkov, whose winning time of 10.43 missed Traore’s meet record by 2-100ths of a second.
Rowan sophomore Eric Foster Jr. placed 4th with a PR 10.64 after placing 3rd in the hurdles in 14.15, also a lifetime best. His previous PRs were 10.65 and 14.29, both last month.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 