Missed this one when it happened because it happened at a tiny obscure meet at a small college in North Jersey, but Delsea’s Elisia Lancaster recently bombed a hammer PR of 227-0.

That PR came at the New York Hammer Spring Series 1 at Ramapo College in Mahwah. Why is the New York Hammer Spring Series in New Jersey? I don’t know, but Ramapo College is about two miles from the New York State border. And there is a Ramapo, N.Y., so maybe the meet was actually there.

Anyway, her throw makes her No. 16 among U.S. women this year and gives her a shot at the USATF Championships later this month at Randall’s Island in New York. She has a strong B standard, and only 10 throwers currently have the A standard of 232-11.

Lancaster surpassed her previous PR of 225-1 from a meet in Glassboro in May. Her PR coming into the season was 222-1, which she threw in May of last year at the Princeton Elite Invitational at Weaver Stadium.

Her 227-0 is No. 53 in U.S. history and No. 73 in the world this year.

Lancaster is the No. 2 hammer thrower ever from New Jersey. Alyssa Wilson of Donovan Catholic in Toms River threw 245-4 in June of 2022 in Eugene, Ore.

Turns out South Jersey has a pretty good 400-meter dash runner we didn’t know about.

Meet Michaela Poland of Sicklerville, who ran 54.77 last summer in a meet in Humble, Texas. Poland graduated this spring from Penn Charter after running 55.54 and placing 2^nd in the Inter-Ac Championships in Newtown Square and winning the 200 in 24.90.

Penn Charter, located in the East Falls neighborhood in Philly, apparently doesn’t compete in the Pennsylvania state meet and Poland did not race at West Philly Nationals, so she finished her senior season at the Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association Championships in Malvern, where she won the 200 in 25.04 and the 400 in 57.08. She has also high jumped 5-4. She’s also competed in the intermediate hurdles – they inexplicably run the obsolete 300-meter intermediates in Pennsylvania – although she didn’t run the 300IH this year.

Poland plans to run for Penn.