Deptford senior Johann Hernandez turned in a historic sprint double this weekend at the state Group 3 meet in Mansfield Township.
Hernandez swept the 100 and 200, winning the 100 in 10.72 with no apparent wind reading taken and then winning the 200 in 21.51 with a 0.0 wind reading.
Hernandez is the first Deptford boy ever to sweep the sprints at the state meet.
He’s the first Spartan to win a state title in the 100 in 51 years, since Bill Williams won the 100-yard dash in 1975 in 9.9 in Piscataway, and the first to win the 200 – or its predecessor – in 58 years, since won the 220 in 21.5 at the 1968 meet, also in Piscataway.
The only other Deptford boy to win two individual events at the state meet was Lathan Brown, who won the 400 and 400-meter hurdles in 2023 at Delsea.
Hernandez PR”d with a 10.51 with a legal 0.8 when he won the South Jersey Group 3 race at Delsea. That’s 3rd-fastest in Gloucester County history and 9th-fastest all-time in South Jersey, regardless of wind conditions.
If Hernandez’s MileSplit profile page is correct his only previous 100 or 200 in his high school track career was at sectionals. He didn’t compete at all until the middle of May, which could mean he transferred into Deptford, but I can’t find a record of him competing anywhere else last year.
In any case, that 21.51 is 5th-fastest on the all-time Gloucester County list, behind Ajani Dwyer [20.86 in 2024] and Todd Dutch [21.40 in 2001] of Washington Township, Kingsway’s Dorian Bryant [21.41 in 2002] and Clayton’s Alexander Osayemi [21.43 last year].
So Dwyer, now ranked 15th in the world in the 100 at 9.98, is the only Gloucester County sprinter to run faster than Hernandez in both sprints.
Hernandez is seeded 4th in both the 100 and 200 in the Meet of Champions, scheduled for Wednesday at Pennsauken.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 