Lenape senior Justin Penny led a ridiculously fast and deep 800 Thursday night at the South Jersey Elite meet at Delsea.

The deepest 800 ever run in South Jersey produced 8 of the top 15 times in New Jersey this year, with Penny running a New Jersey-No. 2 1:54.60 and leading six half-milers under 1:57 and 15 under two minutes. Which is insane.

The top 12 runners all PR’d – by an average of 2.46 seconds per runner.

Penny obliterated his PR of 1:58.46, which he ran indoors at the Bubble at the state Group 4 meet in February. It was his fastest outdoor 800 by more than four seconds. He ran 1:59.0 in a dual meet.

His time is No. 3 in Lenape history, behind Clayton Baloche [1:53.54 in 1992] and Ryan Garvin [1:53.84 in 2009].

Penny edged Camden Catholic senior Billy Clewell, who was second in 1:54.88, No. 3 in the state this year. Clewell’s previous PR was 1:56.87 at the indoor Meet of Champions in March, also at the Bubble. Clewell’s outdoor PR was 1:58.56 at last year’s Meet of Champions in South Plainfield. Clewell missed the school record of 1:54.87 – set by Colin Pierlott at the 2013 state Parochial A meet at South Plainfield – by 1-100th of a second.

Cherokee junior Patrick Ditmars placed 3rd, leading four Cherokee runners under two minutes. Ditmars was 3rd [1:55.01], senior Conor Jacob 4th [1:56.26], sophomore Robert Poplau 8th and [1:57.54] and junior Thomas Bromley 10th [1:59.23].

Those four combined to run the equivalent of a 7:48.04 for the 3,200-meter relay.

Ditmars’ time is No. 4 in New Jersey this year and Jacob is No. 8. Ditmars is also now No. 1 among New Jersey juniors, and Poplau is No. 2 among sophs.

In all, five Cherokee runners PR’d. Ditmars’ previous best was a 1:59.40 last May in a dual meet, Jacob ran 1:57.06 last June at Group 4 sectionals at Washington Township, Poplau eclipsed a 2:00.8 in a dual meet last month, and Bromley was 10th, lowering his PR from 2:00.22 from a meet in Westfield last month. And senior Lucas Hatch ran Cherokee senior Lucas Hatch 1:59.86, giving the Chiefs six runners this year under two-flat – including five underclassmen.

Ocean City senior Owen Ritti placed 5th in 1:56.33, No. 9 in New Jersey this year. Ritti’s previous lifetime best was a 1:57.01 in June at the state Group 3 meet at Pennsauken. His time is fastest by an Ocean City half-miler since Brett Johnson ran 1:53.49 at the 2008 state Group 3 meet at South Plainfield.

First-year junior Matthew Iuvara was next across the line, taking 6th in 1:56.94, snapping his PR of 1:59.20 from the indoor state Group 2 meet at the Bubble, where he placed second.

The first sophomore finisher was Timber Creek’s Robert Wakefield, who ran the fastest 800 this year in New Jersey by a sophomore, placing 7th in 1:57.60. His previous PR was 2:01.06 in February at the Armory.

Another sophomore, Pennsauken’s Ladanian McGrath, placed 8th in 1:58.93, lowering his PR from 2:01.40 from a dual meet last month.

Also under two minutes were Highland junior Cole Knoedler [11th in 1:59.42], Clearview junior Cavan Agatone [1:59.43], Lower Cape May senior Zeb Hinker [13th in 1:59.71] Cinnaminson junior Derek Coceano [15th in 1:59.93].

Previous PRs were 2:01.67 for Knoedler, 2:01.63 for Agatone, 2:01.86 for Hatch and 2:01.86 also for Coceano.

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Thjis meet was so good we’ll have posts on every winner over the next week. Check back here a few times a day for the latest updates!

Kevin McDonnell, a 2008 Camden Catholic graduate, placed 12th out of more than 25,000 runners Sunday in the Broad Street Run.

McDonnell ran 49:50 in the 10-mile race down Broad Street from Central High School in Northeast Philadelphia to this year’s finish on Pattison Avenue in front of the Eagles’ practice facility. That’s 4:58 pace per mile.

McDonnell, who lives in Cherry Hill, covered his first five miles in 24:39 and his second five miles in 25:11.

According to his profile on World Athletics’ web site, this was McDonnell’s first-ever 10-mile road race.

He has track PRs of 14:03.52 for 5,000 meters in Williamsburg, Va., and 29:16.01 for 10,000 meters in Lewisburg, Pa., both in 2013.

On the roads, he PR’d at 5K in April with a 15:01 in Boston and in the marathon with a 2:28.43 in January in Houston. Among his other road PRs are a 30:51 for 10K in Camden in 2013 and 1:07.54 half-marathon in Hardeeville, S.C., in December.

McDonnell ran for St. Joe’s and placed 10th in the 10,000 at the 2013 NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore. He won the 2012 Atlantic 10 10,000  in Amherst, Mass.

Also in the top-100 were Nick Crits of Swedesboro [31st in 51:56], former Paul VI runner Michael Rankin [38th in 52:32], former Hammonton runner Shawn McBride of Haddon Township [45th in 52:52], Tyler Fisher of Cherry Hill [50th in 52:56], Tim Malloy of Cinnaminson [72nd in 54:18], John Wiseman of Thorofare [80th in 54:52] and Brett Milden of Blackwood [97th in 55:43].

Top South Jersey finisher in the women’s race was Erica Green of Collingswood, who placed 18th in 58:26.

Also in the top 100: Katie Florio of Cherry Hill [27th in 59:36], former Millville runner Amanda Eller of Woodbine [36th in 1:01.31], Emily Schaeffer of Avalon [49th in 1:02.42], former Washington Township runner Dina Iacone [53rd in 1:03.17], Jessica Pescatore of Mullica Hill [92nd in 1:06.36] and Jessica Rosetti of Ocean City [94th in 1:06.41].

With two South Jersey legs, Monmouth shattered the school record in the distance medley at the 126t Penn Relays at Franklin Field.

Burlington Township graduate Jalen Jones, a senior, ran the 400 and Kingsway graduate Stone Caraccio, a sophomore, handled the 800 as Monmouth won the college DMR in 9:46.43.

That broke the school record of 9:48.26 set on the same track at the 2013 Penn Relays by Andrew Langille, John Malespina, Alex Leight and Abegami’s Ford Palmer.

Ocean Township’s James Hoffman led off with a 2:58.71 leg for the 1,200 and Jones ran a personal-best 46.90 split to move the Hawks past Ohio State and South Carolina and into the lead. Jones’ 400 leg was fastest in the race.

Caraccio then split 1:51.38, dropping Monmouth a fraction of a second behind Ohio State. But Raritan’s Louis DiLaurenzio anchored in 4:09.46 to bring Monmouth home in first.

Rutgers placed 3rd in 9:48.74, with Rancocas Valley’s Micah Wood splitting 1:52.58 on the 800 leg.

Pennsauken didn’t finish first in the South Jersey Large-School 1,600-meter relay, but the Indians did win the race.

With Bryce Tucker anchoring in 47.97, Pennsauken ran 3:20.38 – fastest by a South Jersey school this year – in the annual Penn Relays South Jersey Large-School race.

The problem is meet officials mistakenly placed Westwood High from Bergen County in the race, and Westwood won in 3:19.21.

Westwood was scheduled to run in one of the numerous class races but with the meet running 15 minutes ahead of schedule Westwood missed its race, and officials in the paddock placed them in whatever the next race was.

And the next race on the track was the South Jersey Large-School Relay. Which is open only to schools from the seven South Jersey counties – Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem.

So by no fault of its own, Westwood wound up winning a race that it wasn’t eligible for.

The whole thing was complicated by the fact that the official results listed Toms River North as the winning team, even though TRN wasn’t in the race.

In any case, meet officials quickly declared Pennsauken winner of the South Jersey Relay. Westwood’s 3:19.21 is not currently listed in the ranked 1,600-meter performance list.

Pennsauken’s time is 23rd-fastest of the 416 schools that raced the 4-by-4 Saturday and 5th-fastest among New Jersey schools.

The time qualified Pennsauken for the Philadelphia Area Championship race, which is scheduled for 5:50 p.m. Saturday. Timber Creek and Rancocas Valley also qualified.

For Pennsauken, Nadir Paige led off with a 51.74 split, followed by Premier Wynn, who ran 48.62. Joel Oquendo ran 52.07 to set up Tucker’s anchor leg.

Timber Creek won the Small-School race in 3:26.25, with Haddon Heights [3:28.35] and Willingboro [3:28.78] also under 3:30.

For Timber Creek, Nasir Ali, Robert Wakefield, Zyheem Coleman-Frazier and Austin Brown ran, with Brown anchoring in 49.80.

Masai Byrd, Rahmier Patterson, Antoine Brown and Terrance Howard ran for R.V., with Patterson splitting 49.54.

In the large-school race, Kingsway [3:25.26], Winslow Township [3:27.91] and Washington Township [3:28.45] also ran sub-3:30.

Cherokee graduate John Shea ran the fastest 5,000 ever by a South Jersey high school alum Friday night at Stanford.

Shea ran 13:44.57 and placed third in the 5,000 at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.

Shea placed third, only a second behind winner Peter Lynch of Tulsa, who won the race in 13:43.52.

The previous South Jersey alumni record was 13:48.61 by Eastern graduate Karl Savage at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., in April of 2003.

Shea’s previous PR was 13:55.92 from the Husky Classic indoors in Seattle in February, and his outdoor PR was 13:56.52 from the Stanford Invitational on the same track earlier this month.

Shea, in 6th place with 1,600 meters to go, was out in 32.03 for his first 200, then reeled off his next 12 laps in 63.26, 67.72, 65.96, 68.42, 66.85, 68.03, 64.65, 70.23, 67.39, 65.83, 63.39 and 59.38.

So he closed in 4:17.69 for his final 1,600, 2:02.77 for his final 800 and 59.38 for his final 400.

Next up for Shea is the Big Sky Conference Championships in Pocatello, Idaho, May 11-12.

Schalick and Elizabethtown graduate Samuel Gerstenbacher placed 2nd in the Penn Relays Open 5,000 Friday night at Franklin Field and destroyed his PR.

Gerstenbacher ran 14:06.23, finishing just two meters behind winner Ben Flanagan, the former Michigan runner. Flanagan ran 14:04.90.

Gerstenbacher’s previous PR was 14:21.79, which he ran at Princeton earlier this month. Before that it was 14:54.79 from 2019 in the York (Pa.) Twilight Meet. So he’s now lowered his 5,000 PR 48 ½ seconds in 28 days.

The races at Princeton and Penn are his first track 5,000s since May of 2019, his senior year at Elizabethtown.

On Friday, Gerstenbacher came through 200 meters in 33.26 and then reeled off his next 12 laps in 69.95, 66.80, 66.65, 68.68, 69.33, 70.26, 69.60, 68.03, 69.50, 69.66, 66.28 and 58.28. So he closed in 2:04.56 for his final 800. Flanagan closed in 57.18 and 2:03.35.

Also in the race were Haddon Township graduates Jacob Dinerman [14:33.28] and Luke Petela [14:36.83]. Dinerman lowered his 5,000 PR from 14:39.76, which he ran two weeks ago in Edison, and Petela lowered his PR from 14:37.63, which he ran in Albana in May of 2019.

The Clayton girls ran the fastest time by a South Jersey 1,600-meter relay team in 20 years Friday and placed 6th in the Penn Relays Championship of America.

Clayton ran 3:44.67, No. 3 in South Jersey history and No. 12 in state history. It’s the fastest time by a South Jersey school since Willingboro ran 3:44.64 in 2002.

The Clippers finished behind only three schools from Jamaica and one each from Maryland and New York.

Unfortunately, full splits are not available, but Bridge Program seniors Ariel Sharpe, Arianna Sharpe and Amirah Sharpe along with Kelsey Thomas shattered the Gloucester County record of 3:47.39 that they set on Thursday at Penn to qualify for the Championship race.

The only schools in state history to run faster are Union Catholic (four times), Columbia (three times), Willingboro (twice) and Montclair and Plainfield (once).

Clayton’s time is No. 6 in the U.S. this year according to the MileSplit national database. Both of Willingboro’s times in 2001 and 2002 came at Nationals, so it looks like Clayton’s time is the fastest ever run by a South Jersey school at Penn.

Here’s the all-time state sub-3:45 list:

3:35.90 … Union Catholic, 2015
3:38.92 … Union Catholic, 2017
3:40.36 … Columbia, 2013
3:41.03 … Montclair, 1998
3:41.19 … Columbia, 2014
3:42.54 … Columbia, 2010
3:42.59 … Union Catholic, 2016
3:42.97 … Union Catholic, 2019
3:43.3h … Plainfield, 1981
3:43.94 … Willingboro, 2001
3:44.64 … Willingboro, 2002
3:44.67 … Clayton, 2022
3:44.9h … Columbia, 1980

The Cherokee girls overcame a near disaster to place 4th in the Championship of America 3,200-meter relay Friday at the 126th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field.

Junior Kelsey Niglio was tripped with about 100 meters to go on her leadoff leg when a runner from Holmwood Tech of Christiana, Jamaica, fell to the track, but Niglio bounced back up quickly and was able to handoff to sophomore Kerry O’Day in fifth place. Niglio still managed to split 2:17.23.

Despite the mishap, Cherokee ran an outdoor school-record 9:17.77 and finished 3rd among U.S. schools. Edwin Allen of Frankfield, Jamaica, won the race in 8:54.58, followed by Cuthbertson of Waxhaw, N.C. [9:04.67], and Union Catholic of Scotch Plains [9:06.14]. Holmwood was unable to finish the race.

O’Day split 2:25.86, freshman Megan Niglio 2:20.59 and senior Nicole Clifford anchored in 2:14.10.

Cherokee’s time is No. 12 in South Jersey history outdoors and No. 5 in Burlington County history.

Here’s the all-time South Jersey list:

9:00.51 … Haddonfield, 2021
9:05.62 … Lenape, 2012
9:05.83 … Lenape, 2008
9:06.30 … Haddonfield, 2008
9:10.32 … Haddonfield, 2000
9:12.30 … Haddonfield, 2019
9:15.61 … Ocean City, 2014
9:15.19 … Lenape, 2007
9:15.92 … Haddonfield, 2015
9:16.57 … Seneca, 2017
9:16.79 … Haddonfield, 1999
9:17.77 … Cherokee, 2022
9:18.22 … Kingsway, 2016
9:18.37 … Haddonfield, 2019
9:18.57 … Seneca, 2018
9:18.71 … Lenape, 2011
9:18.93 … Haddonfield, 2018
9:18.94 … Lenape, 2006
9:19.15 … Wilson, 2002
9:19.68 … Kingsway, 2017

Lumberton’s Greg Foster, sitting in second place through four jumps, popped an outdoor PR on his fifth attempt to win the long jump Friday morning at the 126th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field.

Foster became the first long jumper from New Jersey to win at Penn in 19 years, since Edgewood’s Anthony Miles won the 2003 meet with a 24-6 ½ leap. Foster’s 24-11 is No. 5 in meet history.

Uroy Ryan of Jamaica College in Kingston had jumps of 24-2 ½, 24-2 ¼ and 24-1 ¾ through four jumps, and Foster’s best was a 23-5 ¼ at that point. But he sailed 24-11 on his fifth attempt with a legal wind of 1.4 meters-per-second to take the lead.

Ryan hit 24-1 ½ and 24-9 on his last two jumps and Foster, a senior at Lawrenceville School, fouled on his final attempt, so Uroy finished with five of the six-best jumps of the competition, but Foster took home first place.

Foster’s PR is a 25-4 ½ from Ocean Breeze Nationals in March. His previous outdoor PR was 23-6 from a home meet last week.

Foster’s 24-11 ranks 8th in state history. He broke the Mercer County outdoor record of 24-0 set at the 2018 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington by A’nan Bridgett of West Windsor-Plainsboro South.

All-Time New Jersey Long Jump List
26-6 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], 1979
25-2 ½ … Anthony Averett [Woodbury], 2013
25-0 ½ … Corey Crawford [Indian Hills], 2010
25-0 … Justes Nance [Blair Academy], 2015
25-0 … William Spearmon [Woodrow Wilson], 1996
24-11 ½ … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains], 1977
24-11 ½ … Anthony Miles [Winslow Twp.], 2002
24-11 … Darius Pemberton [Hackensack], 1993
24-11 … Greg Foster [Lawrenceville School], 2022
24-8 ½ … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1989
24-8 … Isaac Samuels [Willingboro-Kennedy], 1983

Monmouth freshman Sebastien Reed ran the 2nd-fastest 5,000 in school history Thursday night at the Penn Relays at Franklin Field.

Reed, a Pitman High School graduate, ran 14:15.94, missing the school record by only three seconds.

His time is No. 7 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference so far this year.

Nick Pellegrino from Marlboro High School set the record of 14:12.67 in 2004 at the IC4A Championships at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

Reed broke his PR of 14:22.05, which he set indoors at Boston University in February. That’s also No. 2 in school history. Reed’s previous outdoor 5,000 PR was a 14:50.44 earlier this month at Lehigh.

In addition to his two No. 2 rankings in the 5,000, Reed is the Monmouth school record holder in the 3,000 indoors [8:10.69], and he’s No. 3 in the 10,000 [30:21.10]. He’s also run 1:56.49 for 800 meters this spring.