Rowan sophomore Nyla Jones from Timber Creek, a top-10 seed in both hurdles races, leads the South Jersey contingent heading to the NCAA Division 3 Championships this weekend in Wisconsin.
Jones is the No. 8 seed in the 400-meter hurdles with her 1:00.26 and No. 9 seed in the 100-meter hurdles with a 13.92, both at a meet in Greensboro, N.C., last month. Both are Rowan school records.
Delsea graduate Ava Reardon, a Rowan junior, made the field in the javelin with a PR 138-11 last month in Charlottesville, Va. Rowan junior Gabrella Pagano from Pope John XXIII in Sparta qualified with her 16:34.81 in the 5,000-meter run.
Stockton sophomore Elaina Styer from Ocean City is seeded 4th in the heptathlon with her 5,050 last month in Ewing. She placed 2nd in the pentathlon at the indoor NCAA D-3 Championships in Birmingham in March. She qualified in the 100-meter hurdles with her 14.22 in the heptathlon at the NJAC Championships, No. 15 in Division 3, but will focus only on the heptathlon in La Crosse, Wisc.
Absegami’s Josephine Buxton, a Stockton freshman, is also a No. 4 seed after throwing the javelin 145-2 at the conference meet in Mahwah.
Stockton senior Kayla Kass will race the 800 after qualifyign with a 2:10.43 in a last-chance meet in Cambridge, Mass., last week. Kass is a three-time NCAA All-America in the 800 and has a PR of 2:07.13 from a meet in Chester, Pa., last April.
Also racing for Stockton is New Milford graduate Emma Petrola, who qualified with a 1:00.89 in the intermediates.
Clayton graduate Kelsey Thomas, a junior at TCNJ, is slated to anchor the Lions’ 13th-seeded 400-meter relay team, which has a 46.83 from the NJAC meet in Mahwah earlier this month. Thomas ran 24.83 and 57.31 this year.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 