Cinnaminson graduate Prisca Blamon, a Monmouth senior, threw an indoor shot put of 45-6 1/4 Friday when she won the competition at the Great Dane Classic at Ocean Breeze.

Blamon came up just shy of her lifetime best of 45-7 3/4, which she set outdoors at a meet at Monmouth this past April. She also had a 45-7 1/4 in a meet at Rider last April.

Blamon’s previous indoor PR was 45-3, which she threw last month, also at Ocean Breeze.

It was a very strong series for Blamon, who opened with a 45-4 3/4 and then after a 42-1 3/4 threw 44-6 1/4 and 44-11 before hitting her 45-6 1/4 on her fifth attempt. She fouled on her final throw.

Blamon’s five legal throws averaged 44-6, so her average throw was only nine inches off her previous indoor PR.

Blamon ranks 3rd in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference behind Manhattan senior Alexandra Preckajlo [47-10] and Rider junior Natya Glasco [45-9 3/4].

Her throw moved her up to 6th on the all-time Monmouth indoor performance list. She’s also 6th on the outdoor list with her 45-7 3/4. And she ranks 8th in the weight throw at 56-2 from 2020.  

Blamon is a Monmouth grad student studying criminal justice.

Pitman graduate Sebastien Reed continued his tremendous indoor season for Monmouth Friday when he won the 3,000 at the Great Dane Classic at Ocean Breeze.

Reed ran an insane PR of 8:21.11 and won by 10 meters over Stony Brook junior Colin Ross, second in 8:22.80.

Reed destroyed the Monmouth freshman 3,000 record of 8:35.22, set in 2013 by Domenick D’Agostino from Wallington High School in Bergen County at the Terrier Classic at Boston University.

Reid’s time is No. 2 in Monmouth history behind school record holder Kyle Mueller, who ran 8:12.79 at the Albany Invitational in 2020.

Reed’s time is also No. 2 in the Metro Atlantic Conference so far this year, behind only Iona sophomore Nick Soldevere, who ran 8:09.57 in December at Boston University. 

A week earlier, Reed ran a huge mile PR of 4:12.15, No. 10 in Monmouth history. 

His time is equivalent to an 8:58.04 3,200. He had an indoor high school PR of 9:27.16 at the Bubble and an outdoor PR of 9:27.52.

In his only prior 3,000, earlier this month, Reed ran 8:34.60 in a meet at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse in Bethlehem, Pa.

Just a few days after one Gloucester County alum broke Monmouth’s freshman mile record, another Gloucester County alum broke it again.

Last weekend, Pitman graduate Sebastien Reed ran 4:12.15 at Ocean Breeze to break the Monmouth University freshman class mile record of 4:14.57, set in January 2019 by Louis DiLaurenzio of Raritan High, also at Ocean Breeze.

On Friday, Kingsway graduate Stone Caraccio, another Monmouth freshman, shattered Reed’s record when he ran 4:11.49 at the Great Dane Classic, also at Ocean Breeze.

Caraccio’s time is No. 7 in Monmouth history and 2nd-fastest ever by a South Jersey runner. Ford Palmer of Absegami ran 4:00.46 at the NYU Fasttrack Team Challenge at the Armory in 2013. Palmer went on to run 3:55.60 outdoors in 2016, fastest ever by a South Jersey native.

Last weekend, Caraccio ran an indoor PR of 1:53.58 for 800 meters, No. 3 in the Metro Atlantic Conference this indoor season.

In his only previous collegiate mile, Caraccio ran 4:20.25 at Lehigh earlier this month.

Caraccio’s previous full mile PR was a 4:15.35 as a Kingsway senior in February 2020 at the Millrose Games at the Armory. 

He ran 4:13.46 for 1,600 meters outdoors at the 2019 state Group 4 meet at Franklin Township High, which is equivalent to a 4:14.93 full mile (although technically you can’t convert into a longer distance). 

Caraccio’s time ranks No. 3 this year in the MAC, behind Siena sophomore Brandon Olden [4:07.67] and DiLaurenzio [4:10.76].

Caraccio and Reed are the only MAC freshmen under 4:16.

In the same race that Caraccio ran 4:11, Lenape graduate Kevin Lauer, a Rowan junior, ran a PR 4:17.79. His previous mile PR was a 4:19.66 from a week earlier, also at Ocean Breeze. He ran 4:18.96 for 1,600 meters outdoors and 4:22.24 indoors at Lenape.

Another South Jersey runner on the MAC top-10 so far this season is Rider senior Ben Woodward from highland, who ran a PR 4:17.11 earlier this month at – where else – Ocean Breeze. He’s No. 9 on the MAC performance list.

Kingsway graduate Allie Pierontoni became the second South Jersey runner to shatter Monmouth’s freshman mile record on Friday. 

Racing at the Great Dane Classic at Ocean Breeze, Pierontoni ran a huge PR of 4:59.74, her first lifetime race at 1,600 meters or the full mile under 5 minutes.

She broke the Monmouth women’s freshman record of 5:01.63, set in 2019 by Sarah Crissman, also at Ocean Breeze.

The Woolwich Township native negative split the race, going out in 2:31.34 and coming back in 2:28.40. She closed in 73.62 for her final 400 and 35.81 for her final 200.

Pierontoni ran 5:06.79 earlier this month in her only previous collegiate mile. She ran 5:02.92 for 1,600 meters at Group 4 states at the Bubble in February of 2020. Her outdoor PR is 5:03.71, also for 1,600 meters. 

She did run a 4:42.56 for 1,500 meters in a dual meet in March with Army outdoors at Shea Stadium in West Point, N.Y., which converts to a 5:05.16 full mile.

Pierontoni’s time is 2nd-fastest in Monmouth indoor track history by a South Jersey woman. Millville graduate Amanda Eller ran 4:58.57 in 2012, also at West Point but indoors at the Gillis Fieldhouse.

Pitman graduate Sebastien Reed annihilated his mile PR last weekend at Ocean Breeze, destroying the Monmouth freshman record along the way.

Reed, a 2nd-year freshman at Monmouth, ran 4:12.15 to place 4th at the Villanova Invitational.

Reed’s time is No. 9 in Monmouth history and broke the indoor freshman mile record of 4:14.57, set in January of 2019 by Louis DiLaurenzio of Raritan High at the Penn 8-Team Select on the same track on Staten Island. DiLaurenzio PR’d at 4:10.76 winning the same race Reed ran his 4:12.15.

In his only other full mile race, Reed ran 4:19.17 in February of 2020 as a Pitman senior in the North Shore Invitational at the Armory.  

He had run 3:59.53 for 1,500 meters outdoors at West Point in March, which converts to a 4:18.69 full mile.

Reed’s time is No. 3 in the Metro Atlantic Conference behind Brandon Olden of Siena [4:07.67] and DiLaurenzio.

Reed has also run 8:34.60 for 3,000 meters this winter in a meet at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse. That’s also No. 3 in the MAC this winter, behind Iona sophomore Nick Soldevere [8:09.57] and Marist sophomore Ramsey Little [8:25.69].

In the same race at Ocean Breeze, Reed’s former Colonial Conference rival Brady Shute of Woodbury, a freshman at Cornell, ran a PR of his own with a 4:16.76. It was his first race on the track as a collegian.

This was Shute’s first indoor race in two years, since he ran his previous indoor PR of 4:31.66 for 1,600 meters at Group 1 sectionals in Toms River in 2020. He finished second to Reed in both that race and 3,200 at states that day. Shute’s outdoor PR is 4:18.07 for the slightly shorter 1,600-meter distance. He ran that at the Haddonfield Invitational in May.

In his first open 800 of the season, Kingsway graduate Stone Caraccio ran an indoor PR last weekend at Ocean Breeze.

Caraccio, a second-year freshman at Monmouth, ran 1:53.58, placing 3rd at the Villanova Invitational.

This was Caraccio’s first collegiate 800 indoors. His  previous indoor PR was a 1:54.53 as a Kingsway senior in February of 2020 at the Morris County Coaches Invitational on the same track in Staten Island, N.Y.

Caraccio has a lifetime 800 best of 1:52.32 from May in a meet at Rowan University in Glassboro.

The Monmouth top-10 performance list goes down to 1:53.22, so Caraccio didn’t quite make it onto the all-time list, but he’s less than half a second away.

Caraccio placed third behind Villanova sophomore Miller Anderson [1:53.21] and 1-100th of a second behind Long Island University junior Lucas Fernandez [1:53.57].

Caraccio got out slowly and was in 11th place after a 28.5 lap. He split 27.9 for his second lap and moved up to 8th, coming through the 400 in 56.4. He moved up to 5th with a 28.8 third lap and closed in 28.9 to finish 3rd.

Winslow Township graduate Tionna Tobias joined the 20-foot club over the weekend.

Tobias, a University of Iowa sophomore leaped a PR 20-1 1/2 at the Larry Wieczorek Invitational at the Iowa Rec Center in Iowa City. That’s the No. 1 mark in the Big Ten Conference this year.

That is the No. 3 mark in Iowa history, behind Jahisha Thomas’s school record of 21-0 3/4 from 2018 and Zinnia Miller’s 20-4 1/4 in 2014. She’s Iowa’s fifth 20-footer including indoor and outdoor competition.

Her previous college best was 19-9, which she hit outdoors last May at the Billy Hayes Invitational at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. Her previous indoor PR was 19-8 1/4 as a Winslow senior at 2018 Easterns at the Armory in New York. Her collegiate indoor best before this past weekend was 19-4 at the Hawkeye B1G Invitational in Ames last February. At Winslow, Tobias had an outdoor PR of 19-11 in the spring of 2018 at the state Group 3 meet at Central Regional.

With the 20-1 1/2 jump, Tobias ranks No. 17 among U.S. women on the IAAF performance list and No. 15 among collegians (including foreign collegians).

Looks like Tobias is the first 20-foot jumper from South Jersey since 2017, when Cidae’a Woods, another former Winslow athlete, hit 20-3 1/2 indoors in a Tennessee-Indiana dual meet in Bloomington, Ind., and 21-0 at the SEC Championships in Columbia, S.C., outdoors while competing for Tennessee.

Tobias only had three legal jumps in her series. She opened with a foul, then jumped 19-1 1/2 before another foul and then finished with 19-2 1/4 and 20-1 1/2 before finishing with a third foul.

But Tobias isn’t just a long jumper. She also PR’d in the 60-meter hurdles in the same meet, her 8.44 breaking her previous PR of 8.45 by 1-100th of a second. That 8.44 is tied for No. 7 in school history and No. 7 so far this winter in the Big Ten.

Tobias also has PRs of 13.59 in the 100-meter hurdles, 5-6 3/4 in the high jump and 5,083 points in the heptathlon, No. 5 in school history, and she’s scored as high as 3,625 points indoors in the pentathlon, No. 7 in Iowa history.

Kristen Niedrach, a 2012 Shawnee graduate, ran an indoor 800-meter PR recently in Belgium.

Niedrach ran 2:12.20 in a meet held at the Topsporthal Vlaanderen in Gent, Belgium. There are no results from the meet available anywhere on-line and honestly I can’t even find out what meet she competed in. But her performance does appear on the IAAF performance list, so it did happen.

Her previous indoor 800 PR was 2:12.40 2:12.40 from a meet at Penn State in January of 2016, the last time she raced indoors at any distance.

Niedrach, 28, ran lifetime bests of 2:07.18 for 800 meters in Kortrijk, Belgium, and 4:22.06 for 1,500 meters in Portland, Ore., last spring.

Niedrach ran for Cornell and ranks 8th in Cornell history outdoors at1,500 meters with her 4:22.45 in a meet at Bucknell in April of 2016.

At Shawnee, Niedrach an 800 PR of 2:21.55 at the 2010 Group 4 sectionals at Egg Harbor and 5:01.86 for the 1,600 when she won the state Group 3 indoor title at the Bubble in Toms River.

Ocean City senior Owen Ritti won the 800 at the Metropolitan Invitational Wednesday at the Armory with the fastest time in the state this year and the No. 2 indoor time Cape May County history.

Ritti ran 1:58.18 and won by 14 meters over Noah Brightman of Pawling (N.Y.) High, who placed second in 2:00.31. Ritti took the lead for good on the third lap.

He ran all his laps between 29.43 and 29.73, coming through the 400 in 58.98 and coming back in 59.20.

Ritti ran just over half a second off the Cape May County record of 1:57.59, set at the 2011 state Group 3 meet at the Bubble by Ocean City’s Miles Schoedler.

Before Wednesday, the top New Jersey time this year belonged to Jessier Soriano of Pascack Valley High in Little Falls, who ran 1:58.24 at the Passaic County Championships at Ocean Breeze on Saturday.

Ritti is the third South Jersey runner under two minutes so far this indoor season. Kingsway senior Kyle Rakitis ran 1:58.68 at the Bubble last week, and senior Cole Sharpnack of Pitman ran 1:59.51 in the same race. Kingsway senior Jeffrey Heineman came up just short of two minutes with a 2:00.16 in that race as well.

Ritti’s previous indoor PR was 2:00.25 at the Marine Corps Holiday Classic at the Armory last month. His outdoor PR is a 1:57.01 last spring at the state Group 3 meet at Pennsauken.

Huge breakthrough race for Eastern graduate Jewel Ash in her first 400 of the year.

Ash, a second-year freshman at Charleston Southern, ran 55.61 at the Clemson Invitational, a big indoor-outdoor PR. Her previous fastest 400 was an outdoor 57.32 at the 2018 state Group 4 meet at Franklin Township. 

Since she specializes in the 400 hurdles, she never runs the flat 400 outdoors. Indoors, her previous PR was 57.33 in a meet this past February at South Carolina.

Ash has also run 9.45 for the 60-meter hurdles and 25.24 for 200 meters this winter.

Ash’s 55.61 is No. 2 in school history and fastest in 13 years, since Dionne Gibson set the school record of 54.60 at the 2009 New Balance Invitational at the Armory in Manhattan.

Only four Charleston Southern women have run faster than 55.61 outdoors, including Gibson’s school-record 54.39 at the 2008 Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta.

Ash ran a PR 59.50 for the 400IH last spring in the semis of the Big South Championships in High Point, N.C., and went on to win the conference championship with a slightly slower time.