Tionna Tobias opened her indoor season over the weekend with a long jump PR in Iowa City.

Tobias, an Iowa junior from Winslow Township, jumped 20-1 ¾ to win the Jimmy Grant Invitational at Iowa’s Rec Center.

Her previous PR was 20-1 ½ from the Larry Wieczorek Invitational at the same facility this past January. Her outdoor PR is 19-11 from the Big Ten Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., in March of 2021.

After opening with an 18-9 ½, Tobias soared past 19-9 on her next three jumps – 19-9 ¼, 19-9 and 19-9 ¾ – before a foul on her 5th attempt. She saved her best for last, hitting 20-1 ¾ on her final attempt.

She won by over a foot over Aliyah Adams of Western Illinois, who jumped 18-9. So Tobias had the five-best jumps of the competition.

Tobias’s mark is No. 3 in Iowa history, behind only Jahisha Thomas (21-0 ¾ in 2018) and Zinnia Miller (20-4 ¼ in 2014).

It’s also No. 5 in NCAA Division 1 so far this year and No. 1 in the Big Ten Conference.

It’s also No. 5 among U.S. women and No. 9 in the world in the very early stages of the indoor season.

Tobias also ran a near-PR 8.44 to place 3rd in the 60-meter hurdles behind teammates Myreanna Bebe [8.29] and Paige Magee [8.33]. Tobias’s PR is 8.40 from the pentathlon at the Big Ten Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, this past February. That’s No. 8 in school history.

Eastern graduate Jailya Ash, now a sophomore at Connecticut, opened her season over the weekend with a PR in the 60-meter hurdles and a near-miss at the school record.

Ash won the 60 highs at the Joe Donahue Games Opener at The Track at New Balance in Boston in 8.31, winning easily over teammate Felicia Quainico, who ran 8.73.

Her previous PR was 8.54 from the Rutgers Open in February at the Armory. She actually lowered it to 8.52 in the trials.

The only faster time on record by a Uconn woman belongs to Phylicia George, who ran 8.24 in the prelims at the 2010 NCAA Championships at Randall Tyson Track at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She missed qualifying for the final by 2-100ths of a second.

Ash’s time is No. 7 in NCAA Division 1 after two weeks of the indoor season and has her ranked No. 5 among U.S. women, 1-100th of a second behind Rancocas Valley graduate Jasmine Staten of Holy Family College in Philadelphia, who according to World Athletics ran 8.30 in the trials at the Fastrack Season Opener at Ocean Breeze on Dec. 2, although the meet results show an 8.36 and the Track and Field Results Reporting System doesn’t even list any times from the prelims, perhaps because of a timing irregularity.

UConn hasn’t updated the school records on its web site since 2015, but last year I took a couple hours and put together an all-time Huskies hurdles top 10, and here’s what that looks like now.

All-Time UConn 60-meter hurdles list
8.24 … Phylicia George, 2010
8.31 … Jailya Ash, 2023
8.33 … April Garner, 2005
8.45 … Madalayne Smith, 2012
8.55 … Chantal Scott, 2014
8.61 … Shavon Briscoe, 2012
8.61 … Tia Strackman, 2018
8.62 … Ashley Wiggins, 2017
8.63 … Toni-Ann Moore, 2015
8.67 … Gillian Flemmings, 2002

It took one jump for Greg Foster to move into 4th place on the all-time Princeton University long jump list.

Foster, a Lumberton native and Lawrenceville School graduate, began his collegiate jumping career with a 25-2 jump Saturday at the Joe Handelman Invitational at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym.

That was his only legal jump. He fouled twice, then passed on his last three attempts, but still won the event by more than four feet over Jadon Ra-Akbar of Morgan State, who was 2nd in 21-0 ¾.

Foster’s jump is 2nd-best by a Princeton athlete indoors in the last quarter century. Aviram Shwarzbard jumped 25-6 ¼ at Heps in February at the 168th Street Armory.

Foster’s jump was only 2 ½ inches shy of his indoor PR of 25-4 ½, which he jumped in his last indoor meet – when he won the Nike Indoor Nationals at Ocean Breeze in March. His lifetime best is 25-6 ¼ when he won New Balance Outdoor Nationals in June at Franklin Field.

Last weekend, in his first career college meet, Foster won the 60-meter hurdles at The College of New Jersey Opener at the Armory in 8.06, No. 9 in Princeton history.

Through two weekends, Foster is ranked No. 4 in NCAA Division 1 in the long jump and No. 1 among freshmen. He’s 29th in the hurdles and No. 6 among freshmen.

Here’s a look at the top 10 indoor long jumpers in Princeton history:

26-3 … Al Dyer [1990]
25-6 ¼ … Aviram Shwarzbard [2022]
25-5 ½ … Ugwunna Ikpeowo [1996]
25-2 … Greg Foster [2022]
25-1 ¾ … Tom Hopkins [2014 ]
25-0 ½ … Vince Smith [1990]
24-9 ¼ … Damon McLean [2013]
24-9 ¼ … Joe Sinisi [1988]
24-9 … Dwaine Banton [2005]
24-8 ½ … Bob Igoe [1985]
24-8 ½ … Jay Diamond [1986]

Former Millville star Bryanna Craig, who recorded the 11th-highest scholastic heptathlon score in history last spring, won the high jump Saturday in her college debut for Purdue.

Craig, a freshman at Purdue, where her dad Raffael is an assistant coach, cleared 5-7 ¼ on her first attempt before missing three tries at 5-9 ¼ at the Edmons-Wilt Invitational at Lambert Fieldhouse in West Lafayette, Ind.

Craig passed at 4-9, 4-11 and 5-1, cleared 5-3 on her first try, passed 5-5, and then cleared 5-6 and 5-7 ¼ on her first attempts.

Craig’s overall PR is 5-10 from the Little Caesars Chief Relays at West Ouachita High School in West Monroe, La., in April. Her indoor PR is 5-9 ¾ at the LSU Last Chance Qualifier this past February at LSU Fieldhouse in Baton Rouge, La.

She’s scheduled to race in the 60-meter hurdles later Saturday.

Craig was born and raised in Millville and led Millville High School’s track team to the 2019 state Group 4 championship. She won the national scholastic heptathlon as a Millville freshman and set the national freshman record. She graduated from Ruston (La.) High School this past spring.

Kylie Anicic, racing off her XC peak, shattered the Edinboro school record in the 5,000 Friday at the Grand Valley State Universitry Holiday Open at State-Laker Fieldhouse in Allendale, Mich.

Anicic, a Kingsway graduate, ran 16:26.23, finishing 12 meters behind Western Michigan’s Makayla Perez, who ran 16:23.94. Perez, a Michigan transfer, has run as fast as 16:01.57 outdoors.

Anicic’s time is No. 1 in NCAA Division 2 so far this indoor season and a provisional qualifier for the NCAA Division 2 Championships in Virginia Beach in March.

Just seven days earlier, Anicic earned All-America honors with a 31st-place finish in the NCAA Division 2 cross country championships at Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place, Wash., where she ran 21:14 for 6,000 meters.

Anicic’s previous 5,000 best was 16:39.84 when she won the Mountaineer Twilight in Morgantown, W. Va. Her indoor 5,000 PR was 16:47.87 at a home meet in Edinboro’s Zafirovski Rec Center in February.

Anicic broke the school record of 16:44.22 set by Rachael Lanzel when she won the 2009 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships at East Stroudsburg.

Paul VI grad Aliya Garozzo blasted a hot 600 to open her sophomore year at Penn Friday at Ocean Breeze in Staten Island.

Garozzo, who dipped under a minute in the 400-meter intermediates as a Penn freshman, ran 1:32.49 Friday to win the three-lap event at the Seahawk Shootout.

It was the first lifetime 600 for Garozzo, who ran 1:13.98 for 500 meters last winter and lowered her 400 PR to 56.31 last spring.

Garozzo led a Penn sweep of the first five places in the race. Sophomore Isabella Whitaker was second in 1:32.64

Garozzo ran 59.76 to place second in the 400IH the Ivy League Championships in New Haven in May.

Here’s a new one: The Penn women’s track “history and record” book doesn’t include school records! https://s3.amazonaws.com/penn.sidearmsports.com/documents/2020/3/25/Women_s_Track_Field_Fact_Book.pdf

Garozzo’s bio page on Penn’s web site hasn’t been updated in two years, and the Penn women’s track page hasn’t been updated since May.

 

Quite collegiate debut for Stockton freshman Connor Wright of Hammonton, who popped four lifetime bests on his way to winning the long jump at the College of New Jersey Indoor Open at the Armory over the weekend.

Wright had a huge series, opening with a 22-3 ¼, then hitting 22-9, 22-10 and 22-9 again with a couple fouls mixed in there as well. Wright averaged 22-7 ¾ on his four legal jumps.

He finished just ahead of Princeton’s Illay Furman, who jumped 22-7 ¾ on his final attempt of the competition.

At Hammonton, Wright had a PR of 22-2 ¼ outdoors at the Eagle Relays this past April at Central Regional in Bayville. His indoor PR was 22-0 ½ from the Meet of Champions in March at the Bubble in Toms River, where he placed 5th.

So his average jump on four attempts Saturday was 5 ½ inches beyond his PR coming into the meet.

Wright ranks No. 8 in NCAA Division 3 one weekend into the 2022-23 season, and his jump is best so far by a NJAC athlete.

It’s also the best mark by a Stockton jumper since nine-time All-America and two-time NCAA Division 3 triple jumper Jared Lewis went 23-7 ¼ at a meet in 2018 at Shippensburg.

Stockton’s long jump record of 24-8 ½ was set in 1988 at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., as part of a horizontal jumps double by Shawnee graduate Greg Foster, whose son Greg won the 60-meter hurdles at the same meet Saturday in his first race for Princeton.

Pennsauken graduate Jade Pope, a sophomore at DePaul in Chicago, won the 400 with an indoor collegiate PR over the weekend in her season opener.

Pope ran 57.35 at the Blue and Gold Invitational at Notre Dame’s Loftus Center in South Bend, Ind, finishing just ahead of Notre Dame senior Kaitlin Ryan, who was second in 58.58.

Pope is coming off an outdoor season in which she ran a personal-best 54.93. She ran on DePaul’s winning 4-by-4 team last winter at the Big East Championsips in Chicago.

At Pennsauken, Pope ran slightly faster indoors, with a 56.98 to win the state Group 3 title at the Bubble in Toms River.

Rancocas Valley graduate Ian Moore, in his first race in 19 months, won the 1,000 Saturday at the Rutgers Holiday Classic at the Armory.

Moore, a junior at Monmouth, ran 2:29.11, edging Columbia’s Jacob Van Orden, who ran 2:29.44. Cherokee grad Nico Grilli, a freshman in his first collegiate race on the track, was 3rd in 2:30.55.

Moore did not compete last year and hadn’t raced since May 8, 2021, when he ran 1:54.12 in the 800 at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships at Rider in Lawrenceville.

Moore ran 1:51.98 earlier in the spring of 2021, which ranks No. 10 in Monmouth outdoor history. He also ranks No. 6 in the 600 (1:22.09), No. 9 in the indoor 800 (1:52.76) and No. 6 in the 1,000 (2:26.29). He was the MAAC indoor 800 champ in February of 2020.

It was Grilli’s first track race since he ran a PR 4:19.51 at the 2021 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield and his first indoor race since February of 2019.

In his first college race, Greg Foster ran the 9th-fastest 60-meter hurdles time in Princeton history.

Foster, a Lumberton native who graduated from Lawrenceville Prep, opened his collegiate career by winning the hurdles in 8.06 at the The College of New Jersey Indoor Opener Saturday at the Armory.

Foster was a five-time national scholastic champion in the horizontal jumps at Lawrenceville, but he didn’t jump Saturday, opting to focus only on the hurdles, his 3rd event in high school.

But he ran 8.20 in the prelims in his first race ever over the 42-inch hurdles and led all qualifiers into the final, where he edged sophomore teammate Philip Kastner as part of a 1-2-3-4-5 Princeton sweep. Kastner was 2nd in a PR 8.10.

Here’s a look at the all-time Princeton top-10:

7.76 … Christian Brown [2022]
7.77 … Joey Daniels [2020]
7.91 … Rob Mohr [2013]
7.95 … Greg Caldwell [2016]
7.96 … Ray Lenihan [2006]
7.98 … Adrian Mullings [2003]
8.02 … Jovan Aigbekaen [2022]
8.05 … Chris Vasich [2009]
8.06 … Greg Foster [2023]
8.08 … Taraje Whitfield [2022]

The only other South Jersey athletes I see on the Princeton men’s indoor all-time top 10 are Bridgeton’s Royce Reed No. 7 in 300 at 34.74 in 1995], West Deptford’s Cameron Atkinson [8th in 200 at 21.63 in 2002 and 6.38 in 55 in 2001]