Historic race Sunday morning for Washington Township junior Yashahya Brown, who out-raced U.S. No. 1 Nathaniel Rayan of Scotch Plains-Fanwood at the 55th annual Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze and broke the state junior class record along the way.

Brown got a fast start, got out in front of Rayan and never allowed the Scotch Plains senior to close on him, finishing in 7.22 – No. 6 in state history and No. 2 in the U.S. this year, behind Rayan’s 7.14 at Easterns Wednesday at the Armory.

Brown was only 4th-fastest in qualifying rounds at 7.59, behind Rayan (7.25), Pennsauken’s Bryce Tucker (7.47) and Toms River North’s Jacob Klyer (7.52), who edged Brown in his own heat.

But the final was all Brown, who blew away his PR of 7.36 from sectionals at the Bubble last month and lowered the state junior class record set in 1996 by another Gloucester County hurdler, Delsea’s Sultan Tucker, who ran 7.23 at Easterns at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym.

His time is tied for 3rd-fastest in meet history, behind Jermaine Collier of Trenton, who won the 2012 race in 7.19, and East Orange’s Cory Poole, who ran 7.21 in 2017. Willingboro’s Isaad Williams in 2012 and St. Augustine’s Sincere Rhea in 2019 also ran 7.22.

Brown is the fourth Washington Township boy to win a Meet of Champions title, following Carmen Cavella in the 1,600 in 2004 [4:19.09], Xavier Fraction in the 800 in 2009 [1:54.82] and Devon Carter in the hurdles in 2010 [7.49].

Tucker finished 3rd in a PR 7.36 – more on him later but that’s No. 14 in South Jersey history.

ALL-TIME N.J. 55-METER HURDLES LIST
7.07 … Cory Poole [East Orange Campus], 2017
7.10 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 2019
6.9h … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains], 1985
7.18 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 1996
7.19 … Jermaine Collier [Trenton], 2012
7.22 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
7.22 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], 2012
7.22 … Yashahya Brown [Washington Twp.], 2023
7.27 … Dwight Henry [Irvington], 2020
7.29 … Nate Harley [Pleasantville], 1996
7.29 … Danyne Brown [Camden], 1999
7.29 … Will Brown [Palmyra], 2006
7.29 … Chris Serrao [East Brunswick], 2022

ALL-TIME S.J. 55-METER HURDLES LIST
7.10 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 2019
7.18 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 1996
7.22 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
7.22 … Yashahya Brown [Washington Twp.], 2023
7.22 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], 2012
7.29 … Nate Harley [Pleasantville], 1996
7.29 … Danyne Brown [Camden], 1999
7.29 … Anthony Acklin [Triton], 2001
7.29 … Will Brown [Palmyra], 2006
7.31 … Anthony Vasquez [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2020
7.32 … Jon Dickey [Penns Grove], 1985
7.34 … Chais Hill [Highland], 2015
7.35 … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1990
7.36 … Bryce Tucker [Pennsauken], 2023
7.39 … Rashad Baker [Wilson], 2000
7.39 … Isaiah Lewis [Winslow Twp.], 2020

1970 … Jim Robinson [Camden], 7.3h
1984 … George Barry [Camden], 7.6h
1985 … Jonathan Dickey [Penns Grove], 7.6h
1987 … George Bland [Penns Grove], 7.43
1989 … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 7.58
1990 … Mike Anderson [Edgewood], 7.56
1992 … Ed Loges [Shawnee], 7.54
1996 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 7.36
1997 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 7.44
1999 … Danyne Brown [Camden], 7.44
2001 … Anthony Acklin [Triton], 7.42
2002 … Aaron Ross [Clearview], 7.77
2004 … Reuben McCoy [Winslow Twp.], 7.48
2006 … Will Brown [Palmyra], 7.71
2010 … Devon Carter [Washington Twp.], 7.49
2018 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 7.35
2019 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 7.22
2020 … Anthony Vazquez [Egg Harbor Twp.], 7.31

The Meet of Champions is about to start, so all the links you need are here!

Click below for links to all-time winners, meet records since 1969, live results, all-time performance lists and tons more!

Meet of Champions link dump! Order of events, previous winners, live results, all-time lists, performance lists and tons more!!!!!!

With Kingsway’s Evan Corcoran leading off and Sterling’s Jah’mere Beasley anchoring, Rowan on Saturday afternoon ran the 2nd-fastest 800-meter relay in the world this year and the fastest in NCAA Division 3 history.

Corcoran, Amare Conte of Snyder High in Jersey City, Nana Agyemang of Parsippany and Beasley ran 1:25.86 at the Armory, breaking the Division 3 record of 1:26.33 set in 2006 by a New Jersey City College team that included Winslow’s Anthony Miles.

From all available resources, it appears to be the No. 15 time in U.S. history and makes Rowan the No. 11 performer all-time.

This is the second Division 3 record Rowan has set this year. Agyemang, Beasley, Sterling’s Marquise Young and Conte ran 3:10.09 last month to break the 1,600-meter relay record set in 2004 by Lincoln.

On Saturday, at the AARTFC Championships, Corcoran and Conte got the baton around the track in 42.85 – the official splits don’t break up the first two legs – and Agyemang split 21.70 to set up Beasley, who anchored in 21.31.

Rowan led four schools under 1:29 in a very fast race, with SUNY Geneseo 2nd in 1:28.59.

Rowan broke the meet record of 1:27.45 that they set last year with the lineup of Robert McKinney, Ageymang, Conte and Beasley.

Rowan is now responsible for five of the six all-time sub-1:28 times in NCAA Division 3 history, including that 1:27.45 last year and the 1:25.86 and 1:26.43 this year.

According to the World Athletics rankings, Rowan’s time is 2nd this year in the world only to LG Stadtwerke München, a German team that ran 1:25.43 at Helmut-Körnig-Halle in Dortmund last month.

Rowan’s 1:25.86 would rank 8th in NCAA Division 1 history, behind only performances by Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Charleston Southern and South Carolina. It’s faster than the Division 2 record of 1:25.98 set in 1985 by Abiline Christian.

Only one D-3 school has run faster outdoors – Dubuque of Iowa ran 1:25.74 this past April in the Drake Relays.

Rowan’s time is also fastest by any college 4-by-2 in any division since Mississippi State ran 1:25.20 at the Armory in 2016 and the fastest by any U.S. 4-by-4 since the Bullis School – a private high school in Potomac, Md.  – set the national high school record of 1:25.60 at the Virginia Showcase in Lynchburg in 2019.

Here’s my best effort at an all-time U.S. list. Unfortunately, nobody keeps U.S. indoor records because USATF is a joke!

1:22.71 … National Team, March 3, 1991
1:23.79 …… National Team, Feb. 13, 1993
1:24.31 …… National Team, Feb. 13, 1994
1:24.91 … Pitt, University Park, Nov. 11, 2014
1:25.05 … Rutgers, Jan 13, 2007
1:25.18 … Arkansas,. Feb. 2, 1985
1:25.20 … Mississippi State, New York, Feb. 6, 2016
1:25.24 …… Pitt, Feb. 8, 2014
1:25.47 … Charleston Southern, Feb. 6, 2010
1:25.52 … Penn State, University Park, Jan. 5, 2013
1:25.56 …… National Team, New York, Feb. 4, 2017
1:25.60 … Bullis School, Lynchburg, Va., Jan. 19, 2019
1:25.67 … St. Augustine’s, University Park, Jan. 25, 2013
1:25.81 … South Carolina, New York, Feb. 2, 2013
1:25.86 … Rowan, New York, March 6, 2023

Hot 800 Saturday and a near school record for St. John’s junior Nia Holden, a graduate of Highland and transfer from American.

Holden ran 2:10.46 in the ECAC Trials in Boston, advancing to Sunday’s final.

Racing in the 4th and final heat, Holden needed to run faster than 2:10.74 to qualify for the final, so she needed a PR just to advance, and she came up huge with a nearly one-second lifetime best.

She was out fast in 31.21 and 64.11 and after a 33.43 she closed in 32.91.

Holden’s time is No. 2 in St. John’s history and fastest since Stephanie Van Pelt set the school record of 2:09.43 at the 2016 Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.

Holden spent her first three years at American University in Washington, D.C, where she ran 2:14.43 indoors and 2:14.76 outdoors. She ran XC this past fall for American, but two months after her last cross country race for the Eagles, she resurfaced at St. John’s, located in Jamaic, Queens.

It didn’t take her long to enjoy a breakthrough at St. John’s with a 2:11.90 at the Armory in January in her first 800 for the Red Storm. She lowered her PR to 2:11.03 at Boston University last month and then ran 2:11.06 at the Big East Championships two weeks ago in Chicago.

The women’s 800 final at the ECAC Championships is scheduled for 12:20 p.m. Sunday, and Holden will line up in Lane 4.

Here’s a look at the updated St. John’s all-time indoor 800 list:
2:09.43 … Stephanie Van Pelt, 2016
2:10.44 … Nia Holden, 2023
2:10.73 … Chandel Marion, 1990
2:10.82 … Olive Smart, 1998
2:11.42 … Marion Irwink, 1989
2:11.99 … Theresa Jaeger, 1980
2:12.06 … Marlow Shulz, 2015
2:12.57 … Veronica Thompson, 2014
2:13.09 … Dina Carpena, 1992
2:13.54 … Jasmine Barreto, 2006

Holden ran 2:18.00 indoors and 2:14.96 outdoors at Highland.

Washington Township grad Jayden Greene, a St. Joe’s sophomore, lowered his 800 PR for the 3rd time this winter Saturday at the IC4A Championships at Boston University.

Green ran 1:51.10, the 4th-fastest qualifying time for Sunday’s final and will go into the final as the No. 6 seed as the 2nd-fastest non-auto qualifier. Green, racing in the 4th of four heats, finished behind Drake Prince of Yale, who ran 1:50.03.

Greene was out fast, in 26.22 for the first 200, and came through 400 in 53.58 and 600 in 1:21.73 before closing in 29.32.

The 800 final is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. Sunday.

His previous PR of 1:51.81 came in a meet at Boston University last month. Before January, his lifetime best was a 1:54.10 outdoors in Williamsburg, Va., and his indoor PR was 1:55.51 last February at the Atlatnic 10 Championships in Fairfax, Va.

Sadly, St. Joe’s is one of the few Division 1 schools in the country that doesn’t have an all-time top-10 on its web site. There is a “media guide” with an all-time roster in case you wanted to know that someone named “Donnelly” ran track for the Hawks in 1926.

Click to access MTXC_Record_Book.pdf

But if you’re like me and want to know where Greene’s 1:51.10 ranks in St. Joe’s history, I got nothing.

We just know the school record is 1:50.39 set by Bob Jackson in 1994, so Green is only 71-100ths of a second from that.

I did check back on old TFRRS performance lists, which reveals that Greene’s 1:51.10 is fastest by a St. Joe’s half-miler since at least 2009, which is far back as available records go.

The indoor IC4A Championships date back to 1921. IC4A stands for Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America.

Delsea did something at Easterns this week that had never been done, at least as far back as the last 50 years.

Junior Greg Masso, sophomore Jonathan Harris and junior Tyler Habersham-Agbermenu all placed in the top six, the first time in at least half a century that three boys from the same high school placed in the top six in any event at Easterns.

And you don’t want to know how long it took me to look that up!

At the 88th annual Easterns Wednesday night at the Armory, Masso threw 53-11 ½ for 3rd, Harris 52-0 for 5th and Habersham-Agbermenu 51-6 for 6th.

There are no full results available anywhere before 1972, so it’s possible it happened at some point. The meet was first held (under a different name) in 1934. But I don’t think schools were allowed to enter more than two athletes per event back in those days.

The closest instance I could find came in 1999, when Danye Brown and Dwight Ruff of Camden went 1-2 in the 55-meter hurdles, and Wilson’s Jeff Young was 3rd. So that was a 1-2-3 sweep by the Camden district.

Masso leads South Jersey at 54-8 from the Cherokee Throw Down #2 in January. He’s No. 7 seed in the Meet of Champions on Sunday

Harris’s 52-0 was not only a PR but his first time over 50 feet. Not to mention his first time over 49, 48 and 47 feet. His previous PR was a 46-8 at the Bubble in January. Harris, a 1st-time thrower this winter, is now the No. 3 sophomore in the state and No. 1 in South Jersey. His throw is best by a S.J. sophomore indoors since Bridgeton’s Braheme Days Jr. threw 55-6 ½ in 2011 and the best by a Gloucester County sophomore since Kwabena Keene of Washington Township had a 53-2 in 2007.

Habersham-Agbermenu s 51-6 was also a PR and also his first time over 50 feet. He’s also a 1st-year thrower and had a previous PR of 49-4 ¼ at sectionals last month at the Bubble.

Harris and Habersham-Agbermenu won’t be in action at the Meet of Champions, but another Delsea 50-footer – Jake Phelan – will be. He earned a wild-card after placing 7th at the state Group 3 meet. Phelan has a PR of 50-9 ½ from the Cherokee Thrown Down #3.

Incredibly, Delsea is the only school with two 50-footers this winter – and they have four.

Technically, Bergen Catholic has two – Justin King has thrown 52-9 and Ben Shue 55-10 ¼. But Shue – who threw 60-9 and 198-5 last spring – is competing unattached this winter and only competed in one meet.

Buena graduate Maria Muzzarelli, a sophomore at Widener, won the 60-meter dash by 4-100ths of a second Saturday at the AARTFC Championships at the Armory.

Muzzarelli, the Middle Atlantic Conference champion, ran 7.77 and edged Vassar’s Traci Francis, who was second in 7.81. The first four finishers are ran within 7-100ths of a second of each other.

The AARTFC is the All-Atlantic Regional Track and Field Conference.

Muzzarelli broke the school record at 60 meters last week with her 7.68 at the conference meet in Reading. The previous record was set by teammate Jayla Gore, who ran 7.81 last month at the Armory. Gore was third Saturday in 7.83.

Muzzarelli had PRs of 7.50 for 55 meters and 12.77 for 100 meters. She was 2020 Group 1 sectional champ in the 55 and placed 4th at states.

Muzzarelli ranks 17th in NCAA Division 3 with today as the deadline for qualifying for nationals. The top 20 performers in each event are invited to nationals, which will be held next weekend in Birmingham.

The 55th annual Meet of Champions starts at 10 a.m. Sunday at Ocean Breeze, and if this meet is like the previous Meet of Champions held on a real track – the 2020 MoC was also held at Ocean Breeze – it should be a heck of a meet with tremendous performances all over the place.

If you can’t make it to Staten Island, these links will help you enjoy the annual highlight of the indoor season.

The boys meet started in 1969 and the girls meet in 1979. Both have been held every year since, other than 2021. The meet was held at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym through 2006 and moved to the Bubble – the Bennett Center – in Toms River in 2007. It was held at the Bubble from 2007 through 2019 and again last year. For the sake of the athletes and fans, hopefully it remains at Ocean Breeze until New Jersey finds a way to build a suitable venue for a championship indoor track meet.

(It was brought to my attention that the Order of Events listed in the NJSIAA’s own official meet program is incorrect.  How does the NJSIAA get something that important incorrect in its own official program? Good question. I’ve replaced the official and incorrect Order of Events with the correct one from MileSplit.)

Meet of Champions Link Dump
Live Results
Order of Events
Corrected Order of Events
All-Time Meet of Champions winners
NJSIAA MoC Program (with 29 pages of ads deleted)
Meet of Champions All-Time Boys Performance List
Meet of Champions All-Time Girls Performance List  
“Showcase Events” Entries
Boys Performance List
Girls Performance List 
Previous Results (1997-2022)
Previous Results (1969-1996)
MileSplit live video link (subscription needed)

 

Turns out Isabelle Deal is more than just a terrific javelin thrower.

The Washington Township graduate, now an Ursinus senior, broke her own school record in the shot put Friday at the All-Atlantic Regional Track and Field Championships at the Armory.

Deal, a senior, placed second with a throw of 42-6 ¾ on her final attempt of the competition. She was sitting in 5th place through five rounds before her clutch final-throw bomb.

Deal broke her own school record of 42-5 ¾, which she set last month at a meet at her home facility in Collegeville.

Stockton senior Shahyan Abraham of Orange won the event with a 42-7, moving up from 7th to 1st on her fifth throw. That’s only 8 1/4 inches off the school record of 43-5 1/4 set in 2005 by Cherokee’s Jessica Caccamo.

Deal’s series started out modestly with throws of 40-2 ¼, 41-2 ½ and 41-8 ½ in the trials and then a 39-9 ¼ and 40-8 ¾ on her first two attempts in the finals.

The AARTFC Championships are a last-chance qualifier for the NCAA Division 3 Championships next weekend in Birmingham, Ala. The qualifying deadline is Saturday.

Deal has always been an elite javelin thrower, and the only similarity between the javelin and shot put is that they’re both throws.

But Deal hasn’t been content to simply throw the javelin outdoors and sit around and do nothing indoors, and she’s gradually become a very good shot putter as well.

She had high school PRs of 36-0 indoors and 37-8 outdoor and then surpassed 40 feet once her freshman year at Ursinus – she threw 40-9 at an indoor meet in Winchester, Va. – and once more her junior year – she threw 40-1 ½ outdoors last spring at Gwynedd-Mercy.

But this winter, she’s been over 40 feet in all nine meets, including her PR and school record Friday. She placed second in the shot (and sixth in the weight throw) at the Cenennial Conference Championships last weekend in Lancaster, and her weight throw PR of 45-6 ¼ is only five inches off the school record. She’s not listed among the entrants in the weight throw on Saturday.

As for the javelin, Deal has a PR of 144-10 – also the school record – from a meet last spring in Princeton and earned All-America honors for the second time with a 6th-place finish at Division 3 nationals at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. She placed 8th in 2021 with a 135-1 in Greensboro.

Bridgeton graduate Shamar Love shattered the Rowan University school record in the 60-meter dash Friday at the AARTFC Championships at the Armory.

Love ran 6.85 in the AARTFC trials, breaking the record of 6.87 set last year by Nana Agyemang at last year’s New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship at Ocean Breeze.

Love advanced to the final at 11:50 a.m. Saturday. He’s the 3rd-fastest qualifier, behind Ithaca’s Jalen Loneard-Osbourn (6.78) and Elizabethtown’s Myron Holland (6.81).

Love’s previous PR was a 6.92 for 2nd place in this year’s NJAC meet at Ocean Breeze behind Ramapo’s Cheickna Traore, the NCAA Division 3 runner-up in the 200 last spring.

From 2020 through 2022, Love played football and ran track at Westminster University in New Wilmington, Pa., near the Ohio border in western Pennsylvania. He was an NCAA Division 3 All-America as anchor of Westminster’s 7th-place 400-meter relay team at the NCAA Division 3 Championships at SPIRE Institute at Geneva, Ohio.

His 6.85 ranks 22nd this year in NCAA Division 3. The top 20 performers qualify for nationals, and the cut-off is Saturday. Going into the final weekend of qualifying, the 20th-best mark was 6.84.

At Bridgeton, Love had PRs of 6.74 for 55 meters and 24.63 for the 200 indoors and 11.15 and 23.21 outdoors. He ran on Bridgeton’s 400-meter relay team that set a Cumberland County record of 42.05 at the 2018 state Group 3 meet at Central Regional in Bayville. Basil Williams, Revell Williams and Taz’Mire Burton were also on that team, which ranked No. 5 in the state.

The NCAA Division 3 Championships are scheduled for March 10-11 at the Birmingham (Ala.) CrossPlex.

Masai Byrd of Rancocas Valley, a Rowan freshman, also qualified for the 60 final. He ran 6.94 in the trials, the 7th-fastest qualifying time. His previous PR was a 7.01 in his first collegiate meet back in December at Ocean Breeze.

Bordentown graduate Carson Lathom, a Stockton freshman, just missed reaching Sunday’s 60 final with a PR 7.01 in the trials. He had run 7.04 at a meet in Haverford in January.

In the final, Love will be in the middle of the track in Lane 4, and Byrd will be in Lane 2.