Williamstown’s Ciara Demarest opened her senior year with an indoor shot put PR and the No. 8 throw in Gloucester County history.

Demarest threw 40-5 ½ at the SJTCA meet at the Toms River Intermediate East School adjacent to the Bubble, just beyond her indoor PR of 40-5 set when she won the South Jersey Group 4 sectionals last February. She went on to place 3rd at states and 5th at the Meet of Champions.

Her throw Monday is her second-best ever. She hit 41-0 ¼ last May at the Delsea Crusader Field #1 meet. She also surpassed 40 feet in four other meets, including the Meet of Champions, where she placed 7th.

Demarest’s throw is best by a Gloucester County girl indoors since Emily Hilt of Kingsway threw 40-8 ¾ at the 2017 state Group 4 meet. She’s closing in on the school record of 42-7 ¾ set by Typhanie Bates on her first throw at the 1995 state Group 3 meet at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym.

Here’s the all-time Gloucester County indoor list:

44-3 ½ … Jocelyn White [Delsea], 2004
43-4 ½ … Victoria Imbesi [Our Lady of Mercy], 2009
43-3 … Janiece Rose [Delsea], 2011
42-7 ¾ … Typhanie Bates [Williamstown], 1995
42-5 ½ … Genevieve Rybicki [Our Lady of Mercy], 2007
41-3 … Tara Daniels [Kingsway], 2013
40-8 ¾ … Emily Hilt [Kingsway], 2017
40-5 ½ … Cierra Demarest [Williamstown], 2022
39-10 ½ … Gianni Johnson-Slater [Delsea], 2022
39-8 ¼ … Karen Johnson [Williamstown], 2006

Timber Creek junior Naylah Jones moved into the all-time South Jersey top-25 in the 55-meter dash Saturday in her 2022-23 season debut.

Jones’s PR before Saturday was 7.36 from her 3rd-place finish in the state Group 3 meet last year at the Bubble. She lowered that to 7.23 in the trials Saturday at the Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational at the Armory before blazing a 7.16 in the final.

Her time is No. 12 in Camden County history and only 5-100ths of a second outside the all-time Camden County top-10.

Jones placed 3rd in the final, behind two girls from Nassau County, N.Y. – Ashley Fulton of Elmont (7.07) and Sariah Doresca of Baldwin (7.10). Their times rank 6th, 9th and 13th nationally in the early going this indoor season on the MileSplit U.S. database.

Jones shaved 3-100ths of a second off the Timber Creek school record, which was held by Adia Starnes, who ran 7.19 in the trials of the 2017 Ocean Breeze Invitational. She went on to place 4th in the Meet of Champions on the slower Bubble track in 7.28.

Here’s a look at all the girls in Camden County history who’ve run 7.20 or faster:

6.90y … Patti Dunlap [Camden], 1979
6.91 … English Gardner [Eastern], 2010
6.95 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], 2014
6.95 … Denise Mitchell [Edgewood], 1983
7.06 … Jailya Ash [Eastern], 2019
7.07 … Aliya Harrison [Sterling], 2018
7.07 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
7.09 … Ste’yce McNeil [Winslow Twp.], 2012
7.09 … Emily Carson [Haddonfield], 2013
7.11 … Jamie Walker [Haddon Hts.], 2006
7.12 … Asante Johnson [Camden], 2009
7.16 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2023
7.17 … Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp.], 2006
7.19 … Adia Starnes [Timber Creek], 2017 —
7.20 … Medina Salaam [Camden], 1994
7.20 … Fametta Lewis [Wilson], 2007
7.20 … Cidae’a Woods [Winslow Twp.], 2013

 

Washington Township’s Yashahya Brown opened his junior year with the No. 6 high hurdles time in Gloucester County history.

Brown ran 7.51 to win the Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational Saturday at the Armory. He finished first among 51 hurdlers who entered the event.

Brown’s indoor PR over the 55-meter hurdles coming into the meet was an 8.05 from the Collegeville Invitational at Ursinus’s Floy Lewis Bakes Fieldhouse this past January. He blew that away with a 7.65 to lead all qualifiers in the trials before edging Anthony Collins of Harry S Truman in Levittown, Pa., by 1-100th of a second in the final.

Brown had a breakthrough outdoor season last spring that included a PR 14.08 to win the Olympic Conference meet on his home track in Turnersville. Over the summer, he ran 55.88 in the 400 intermediates and placed 2nd in both the highs and intermediates at the USATF Youth National Championships at Icahn Stadium in New York.

His 7.51 is only 3-100ths of a second off the school record of 7.49 set by Devon Carter when he won the 2010 Easterns at the Armory and matched four days later when he won the Meet of Champions at the Bubble.

Brown also ran a PR 6.83 in his first lifetime 55-meter dash.

Here’s a look at the top times in Gloucester County history:

7.18 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 1996
7.42 … Kevon Brown [West Deptford], 2009
7.42 … Naseem Smith [Deptford], 2019
7.48 … Tyrell Ross [Clearview], 2005
7.49 … Devon Carter [Washington Twp.], 2010
7.51 … Yashahya Brown [Washington Twp.], 2023

In her first meet competing for Ocean City High School, Sophia Curtis popped the No. 2 indoor triple jump in South Jersey history Saturday and broke the Cape May County record.

Curtis, who spent her freshman and sophomore years at Padua Academy in Wilmington, Del., jumped 38-4 ½ to win the triple jump at the Bishop Loughlin Games at Ocean Breeze on Staten Island.

She matched her indoor lifetime-best that she set this past February at the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Indoor Championships at Hytche Athletic Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princesss Anne, Md.

Her overall PR is 38-8 ¾ from the DIAA Meet of Champions this past May at Salesianum’s Abessinio Stadium in Wilmington.

The South Jersey indoor record in the triple jump is 40-1 ½ by Atlantic City’s Claudine Smith at the 2019 New Balance Nationals at the Armory. Curtis moved half an inch ahead of She’quell Higgs of Winslow Township for the No. 2 spot. Higgs jumped 38-4 at the 2013 Poreda Invitational at Lavino Fieldhouse in Lawrenceville.

Curtis’s jump is No. 15 overall in South Jersey history indoors and out.

The previous Cape May County indoor record was 35-6, set this past March at Nike Indoor Nationals at Ocean Breeze by Elaina Styler, who is now a senior at Ocean City.

The overall Cape May County record was 36-10 ½, set by Yvonne Wolef of Middle Township when she placed 5th at the 2010 state Group 3 meet at South Plainfield.

After opening with her 38-4 ½, Curtis hit 37-1 on her second attempt before finishing the first round with a foul. In the finals, she jumped 37-5 ¾ and after another foul finished with a 37-8.

Her four legal jumps averaged 37-7 ¾, which is nearly a foot farther than the previous Cape May County overall record. One meet into her career at Ocean City, she owns the four-best triple jumps in Cape May County history.

Lizzie Schreiber of Walt Whitman High in Huntington Station, Suffolk County, N.Y., placed second at 37-3 ¾, so Curtis had the three-best jumps of the competition.

Curtis also placed 5th in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.82 after a 9.01 in the trials. She just missed her hurdles PR of 8.78, which she set when she won the Delaware state title in February.

Curtis was a triple winner this past spring at the the Delaware state championships, winning the 100 hurdles in 15.02, the 300 hurdles in 44.57 and the triple jump at 38-4.

Eastern’s Eva Sprewell opened her junior year with a huge high jump PR at the Bubble in Toms River.

Sprewell cleared 5-4 Friday, four inches above her previous PR of 5-0, which she cleared eight times last year – four times indoors and four times outdoors.

That’s the best high jump clearance by a girl from Eastern in six years, since Tamika Voltaire cleared a school-record 5-4 ¼ at the Bubble in January of 2017.

Thanks to @Eastern_Track for posting copies of some results pages from the meet since meet organizers and the meet’s timing company seem to have zero interest in anybody ever getting meet results.

Winslow freshman Ma’Syiah Brawner, in her first high school meet, cleared 4-10 for second place.

Mainland sophomore Sofia Day opened her season with an impressive two-mile win Saturday at  the Bishop Loughlin Games at Ocean Breeze.

Day ran 11:18.57 for the full two miles and finished 15 meters Ava Gumb of nearby St. Joseph Hill Academy in Staten Island, who ran 11:21.79.

Day was in third place with one lap to go, 10 meters behind Gumb and four meters behind Emily LaMena of John Glenn High in Elwood, N.Y., on Long Island.

But she ran her final 200 in a sizzling 31.48 to blow away the field.

Day ran her first three half miles in an evenly paced 2:50.85, 2:52.59 and 2:51.85 before closing in 2:43.28 for her final 800, 74.61 for her final 400 and 31.48 for her final 200.

Day’s time converts to 11:14.63 for 3,200 meters, which isn’t far off her PR of 11:08.72 from last year’s Meet of Champions at the Bubble. She didn’t compete last spring, so this was her first track race since the Meet of Champions in March.

Day is coming off a XC season where she placed 11th at the Meet of Champions.

There was definitely an Olympic Conference track meet at the Bubble yesterday  because MileSplit has videos on the site.

But results? They don’t seem to be anywhere.

Track and field for years had a problem getting results out in a timely and accurate manner and most of this has been solved by timing companies that provide instant live results. Venues like the Armory and Ocean Breeze even provide results in real-time as events are taking place.

But we’re not so lucky with the Bubble. The timing company that according to MileSplit timed the meet last night – JBAC Timers – doesn’t even seem to have a working web site.

It’s hard to write about a meet when the results aren’t available. So if anyone has ’em or knows where they are or how to find ’em please let us know in the comment section!

Maya Drayton of Cherry Hill East opened her senior year at Georgetown with a win at the VMI Team Challenge in Lexington, Va.

Drayton easily won the 400-meter dash in 56.61, outracing the field by more than 1 ½ seconds. Freshman teammate Jadah Fitzgerald was second in 58.35.

That ranks her No. 17 in the early going in NCAA Division 1 and No. 1 in the Big East Conference, with DePaul’s Jade Pope from Pennsauken No. 2 at 57.35.

Drayton was a Big East medalist in the 400 this past spring in Storrs, Ct., with a 4th-place finish in a personal-best 54.46. Her indoor PR is 54.78 from her 3rd-place finish at Big East at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, in March 2000. She ranks No. 7 in Georgetown history in the 400 outdoors and No. 14 outdoors.

Drayton also teamed up with Fitzgerald, Renee Newton and Rebecca Ochan to win the 1,600-meter relay in 3:50.59.

Egg Harbor Township graduate Anthony Vazquez opened his junior year at Syracuse with a monster PR and a spot in the all-time Syracuse top-10.

Vazquez won the 60-meter high hurdles at the Greg Page 2022 Invitational at Ithaca’s historic Barton Hall in 7.95. His previous PR was an 8.01 at the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg this past January.

Vazquez ran 8.03 to lead all qualifiers in the trials before recording his first sub-8.00 performance.

His time is No. 1 on the 2022-23 Puerto Rico performance list and No. 6 on the all-time Puerto Rico list.

It’s also No. 17 in the NCAA Division 1 so far this year and No. 2 in the ACC, behind Clemson senior Giano Roberts, who has run 7.80. Roberts placed 4th at the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene this past  June in 13.45.

At Egg Harbor, Vazquez was the 2020 indoor Easterns champ in the 55-meter hurdles over the 39-inch barriers in 7.45 and the Meet of Champions winner in 7.31.

Is there an event Millville’s Bryanna Craig isn’t good at? We haven’t found one yet.

Craig, a two-time national champ in the heptathlon and pentathlon, is now a freshman at Purdue, and while she hasn’t participated in a collegiate multi-event yet, she showed just how much she’s improved her middle-distance fitness with a crazy 800 performance over the weekend.

After winning the high jump at 5-7 ¼ on Friday, Craig ran an eye-opening 2:14.27 to win the 800 at the Edmonds-Wilt Invitational at Purdue’s Lambert Fieldhouse in West Lafayette, Ind.

This isn’t just impressive, it’s important in terms of multi-events, since the 800 is the closing event of the women’s multis – the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon.

Craig’s previous PR at 800 meters was 2:18.06 finishing off her win at the Ocean Breeze Nationals in Staten Island, N.Y., in March. Craig was competing for Ruston (La.) High School after spending her first two years at Millville.

In pentathlon scoring, the difference between 2:14.27 and 2:18.06 is 53 points (903 vs. 850), which could be critical in big meets.

Craig’s 800 time is fast enough to rank her third among freshmen in NCAA Division 1 in the early going, behind Macey Hilton of SMU [2:10.49] and Jacey Farmer of BYU [2:11.02].

Purdue freshman Jessica Lyons from Allentown High in Monmouth County was second in 2:16.02.

Craig was out in 30.30 for her first lap and then ran 34.16, 35.78 and 34.04 splits for 64.46 and 69.82.

Craig’s pentathlon PR is her 3,780 at Ocean Breeze, No. 6 in scholastic history. Her heptathlon PR is 5,388 from the USATF Under-20 Championships in Eugene in June.

Craig has PRs of 25.29 in the 200, 58.14 in the 400, 2:14.27 in the 800, 8.31 in the 55 hurdles, 9.01 in the 60 hurdles, 5-8 in the high jump, 18—0 in the long jump and 30-10 ½ in the shot put indoors and 25.11 in the 200, 2:19.42 in the 800, 14.08 in the 100 highs, 5-9 in the high jump, 18-8 in the long jump, 34-7 in the shot put and 118-6 in the javelin outdoors.