Rancocas Valley’s Micah Wood of Monmouth led a 1-3-4 South Jersey finish at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference 400-meter hurdles Sunday afternoon.

Wood won the race in a PR 52.91, Willingboro graduate Jayaire King of St. Peter’s in Jersey City was third in 54.01 and Monmouth’s Daniel Fenton of Millville was fourth in 54.26.

Wood, a freshman, broke his PR of 53.14 set two weeks ago in a meet at Rowan University in Glassboro. Before that he lowered his PR from a 55.49 in high school to 53.78 in a meet at Lafayette in March and then 53.71 in a meet at Monmouth last month.

His time is No. 8 in Monmouth history and only 33-100ths of a second off the school’s freshman record of 52.58 set by Chris Rutherford at the 2009 Northeast Conference Championships in West Long Branch.

Wood is the first Monmouth runner from South Jersey to win a conference title in the intermediates since Shawnee graduate Jim Angermeier ran 53.86 to win the Northeast Conference 400IH in 1997.

Wood’s PR of 55.49 at Rancocas Valley came from the 2019 state Group 4 meet at Franklin High School, where he placed fifth.

King shattered his PR of 54.72 that he ran for Willingboro in the spring of 2019 at the South Jersey Invitational at Delsea. His collegiate best was a 54.77 from a meet in Newark in March.

Strangely, the St. Peter’s web site men’s track and field records page does not list a record for the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, so no idea whether King holds it or if not how close he is.

Fenton ran 54.26, just off his PR of 54.04 from a meet at Rider last month. His best time at Millville was 55.17.

In Saturday’s qualifying heats, Wood led all qualifiers at 54.53, Fenton ran 55.50 and King 55.94.

She pole vaulted, ran the 800, threw the javelin, ran the hurdles and even competed in a couple heptathlons.

One thing Jessie Klenk never did until this year was run the mile (or its metric equivalent).

Now, just a few months after her first college mile attempt resulted in a 5:42 and a 29th-place finish in a meet at Ocean Breeze, Klenk is a conference champion.

Klenk, a Stockton University junior from Sterling, won the New Jersey Athletic Conference 1,500 title Saturday on her home track in Galloway Township in 5:00.71, thanks to a 71-second final lap.

She won the conference title less than four months after her first collegiate 1,500 or mile and only six weeks after her first outdoor 1,500 or mile.

At Sterling, Klenk was Camden County champion in the pole vault, Woodbury Relays medalist in the javelin and a sectional medalist at 800 meters. 

She did run some occasional 1,600s – her PR was a 5:44.58 that got her 18th place at the 2018 Camden County Championships at Haddon Township, 35 seconds behind winner and teammate Madison Coppolino.

Just goes to show you that persistence and determination pay off. Everyone improves at their own rate, and Klenk stuck with track, found her best event and is now a conference champion.

KIenk also ran a personal-best 2:24.46 to place third in the 800 for Stockton, which finished second to The College of New Jersey.

Klenk’s brother Max, a Stockton freshman, placed third in the NJAC decathlon Wednesday and Thursday with 4,458 points. 

Shawnee graduate Amanda Demko, a College of New Jersey freshman, won the 400-meter dash at the NJAC Championships Saturday at Stockton University in Galloway Township.

Demko ran 57.91, leading a 1-2-3-4 TCNJ sweep, good for 29 team points in one event.  Sophomore Megan Gasnick was second in 58.47.

Demko ran just off her PR of 57.46, which she set last month in a meet at Franklin Field in West Philadelphia.

TCNJ won its first team title since 2014 with 309 1/2 points. 

Unfortunately, TCNJ does not have a list of all-time conference champions on its web site (or much of anything else). So can’t tell you the last TCNJ woman to win a conference title in the 400.

But winning a conference title as a true freshman is quite an accomplishment for Demko, who also placed fourth in the 200.

Bordentown graduate Genesis Walker, now a sophomore at Rider, ran a lifetime best in the 100 and a collegiate best in the 200 Saturday at the MAAC Championships in Lawrenceville.

Walker ran 12.29 in the 100 trials and 25.40 in the 200 trials, qualifying for both finals on Sunday. Her 12.29 led all qualifiers in the 100. Her 25.40 was 4th-fastest among 200 qualifiers. There was no wind information listed for either race on the official results.

Walker moves into the No. 6 spot in Rider history in the 100 and the No. 8 spot in the 200.

Walker’s previous collegiate PRs were 12.44 in the 100 and 25.51 in the 200. She ran the 12.44 at the 2019 Rider Invitational on the same track and the 25.51 at the 2019 Metro Atlantic Athletic Championships in West Long Branch.

Her previous lifetime best in the 100 was a 12.30 at the South Jersey Group 2 sectionals at Delsea in May of 2018. Her high school 200 best was a 25.29 the same weekend, when she won the sectional title. 

The 100 final is scheduled for 1:20 p.m. Sunday at Rider and the 200 at 2:15 p.m.

Missed this one but Olympic shot put hopefuly Josh Awotunde, a Delsea graduate, uncorked the second-biggest throw of his life late last month in a meet in Columbia, S.C.

Awotunde threw 68-2 3/4, second outdoors only to his 69-3 3/4 from April of 2019 in Los Angeles. He currently ranks No. 16 in the world according to the IAAF international performance list and No. 6 among Americans. 

One of the problems with track in the U.S. is tracking down post-graduate results. The USATF is a disgrace when it comes to results and performance lists (and pretty much everything else), so you have to rely on the IAAF lists, which don’t give much meet information. So all we know is that Awotunde’s 68-2 3/4 came in Columbia, S.C., but no idea what meet he did it at or who he was competing against.

The 25-year-old Awotunde, a four-time All-America during his years at South Carolina, ranks No. 41 in U.S. history with his 69-3 3/4 (and No. 131 in world history). 

He’s also thrown 69-11 3/4 indoors, No. 27 on the all-time U.S. indoor list.

The intermediate hurdles final will have a heavy South Jersey flavor Sunday at the MAAC Championships in Lawrenceville.

Three of the top five seeds are South Jersey natives, and all three are freshmen. The eight-runner final is scheduled for 1:50 p.m. Sunday at Rider.

Rancocas Valley grad Micah Wood, a Monmouth freshman, posted the fastest qualifying time, winning the second of two qualifying rounds in 54.53.

Teammate Daniel Fenton, a freshman from Millville, ran 55.50 in the second heat and earned an auto qualifier as the second-place finisher.

And Willingboro graduate Jayaire King, a freshman at St. Peter’s, ran 55.94, the fastest non-auto qualifying time and also advanced.

The top two runners in each of two heats plus the next four-best times qualified for Sunday’s final.

Wood’s PR is 53.14, Fenton’s is 54.04 and King’s is 54.72 with a collegiate-best of 54.77.

Monmouth freshmen Stone Caraccio of Kingsway and Ian Moore of Monmouth easily advanced iced to Sunday’s 800 finals at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships in Lawrenceville.

Caraccio, running in the first of five heats, ran 1:53.39, and Moore, running in the second heat, ran 1:54.12.

Damien Dilcher of Iona was the top qualifier, running 1:52.93 in the first heat.

The winner of each heat and the next three fastest runners advanced to the eight-runner final, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Moore is considered the No. 2 seed as the second-fastest auto qualifier. Caraccio is the No. 6 seed although he had the second-fastest qualifying time since he was the fastest non-winning qualifier.

Overall, Dilcher, Caraccio and Moore were the three-fastest of the 34 entries.

Other finalists are Nick Soldevere of Iona, Louis DiLaurenzio of Monmouth and Kevin Heredia, Tamrat Snyder and Mike Mazzei of Rider.

So the field consists of three half-milers from Rider, three from Monmouth and two from Iona.

Heredia, DiLaurenzio, Snyder and Moore have all run under 1:52 this year. Caraccio has run 1:52.32.

Snyder, Moore, Dilcher, Caraccio and Soldevere are all freshmen.

Two South Jersey natives who are now college freshmen hooked up in a titanic long jump battle Saturday at the MAAC Championships in Lawrenceville.

Haddon Heights graduate Jabari Higgs -Salaam, a freshman at St. Peter’s, won the competition by less than an inch over Pennsville graduate Zach Manorowitz, a freshman at Rider.

Both soared over 24 feet for the first in their lives – on back-to-back jumps – and both left the long jump pit with huge PRs.

This is legendary stuff.

Manorowitz has had an incredible freshman year considering his best high school jump was 21-6 at 2019 Group 1 states at Franklin Township. He’s been over 23 feet in every meet he’s entered and brought a PR of 23-5 3/4 into the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships Saturday afternoon.

Higgs-Salaam, who had a high school-best of 22-11 from the 2019 Woodbury Relays, brought a PR of 23-7 1/4 into the conference meet from a meet at his home track in Jersey City in early April. He jumped 23-1 1/2 indoors when he placed third at the conference meet at the Armory. (Manorowitz didn’t jump indoors).

On Saturday, the two South Jersey jumpers took their games to another level in a riveting back-and-forth battle for conference honors.

Higgs-Salaam led after the first round with a 23-5 1/2, but Manorowitz took the lead with a 23-6 on his second jump and then improved to 23-7 1/2 on his third jump.

Higgs-Salaam came within three-quarters of an inch of Manorowitz with a 23-6 3/4 on his first jump of the finals and then took the lead with a 24-5 3/4 on his next attempt. Manorowitz, on the very next jump, hit 24-5, this time missing Higgs-Salaam by three-quarters of an inch.

On his sixth and final attempt, Higgs-Salaam hit 24-5 and Manorowitz closed with another 24-foot jump at 24-1 1/2.

So two jumpers who never went 24 feet before both surpassed 24 feet on each of their two final attempts!

Each jumper had five legal jumps of at least 23-5!

Higgs-Salaam averaged 24-0 on his five legal jumps and Manorowitz averaged 23-7 1/2 on his six legal jumps.

What a competition!

I’d love to be able to tell you the last time a MAAC long jump competiti0n was this close or the top two places were both over 24-5, but the conference’s lame web site has no record of previous winners or previous meet results. (Seriously, what do these SIDs do all day?)

Higgs-Salaam came within 2 1/4 inches of the school record of 24-8 1/4 set in 2012 by someone listed on the school’s web site as “A Lucas” in 2012. A few Google clicks revealed that to be Aaron Lucas, who hit 24-8 1/4 at the 2012 IC4A meet at Princeton.

Manorowitz’s 24-5 is No. 2 in Rider history, behind only Desmond Hamilton’s 25-8 1/4 when he placed fifth in the 2007 NCAA Championships.

The previous best long jump by a South Jersey jumper at Rider was 23-10 by Pemberton graduate Tony Johnson in 1988.

Higgs-Salaam 24-5 3/4 was wind-legal at 1.1, and his 24-5 was listed with no wind information. 

Manorowitz’s 24-5 was 2.8, but his 24-1 1/2 was wind-legal at exactly 2.0.

Bishop Eustace graduate Montel Johnson won the hammer throw Saturday at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships in Lawrenceville.

Johnson’s day began inauspiciously with fouls on his first two attempts. In jeopardy of missing the finals, he threw 161-2 on his final attempt of the trials, moving into third place.

In the finals, he fouled again two more times and was still in third place and down to his final attempt when he threw the hammer 188-0 to win his second lifetime conference title. He won the 35-pound weight throw at the 2020 indoor conference meet at the Armory in New York.

Johnson came into this season with a hammer PR of 190-4 but hit 197-7 at a meet last month at Lehigh University in Bethlehem. That’s No. 5 in Monmouth history.

Johnson is Monmouth’s first conference champion in the hammer throw since Monmouth joined the MAAC in 2014 and first conference champ overall in the hammer since Vincent Elardo won the event in 2012 at the Northeast Conference Championships.

Johnson, a native of Gibbstown, is one of three South Jersey natives over 190 feet this spring in the hammer throw. Cherry Hill East graduate Jude Misko of Rutgers-Camden ranks No. 1 in NCAA Division 1 at 200-9 and Egg Harbor Township’s Darren Wan of Stockton University is No. 7 in D-3 at 190-10.

Rancocas Valley ran the fastest 400-meter relay in the state this year and the No. 3 time in Burlington County history Friday night at the Cherokee Relays in Marlton.

The Red Devils ran 42.11, only a fraction of a second off the school record of 42.03 from when they won the 2015 Meet of Champions 4-by-100 at South Plainfield.

Junior Masai Byrd led off for R.V., followed by junior Herb Quarterman, senior James McGhee and senior Isaiah Arzu.

Rancocas Valley’s time is more than a full second faster than any other New Jersey school so far this year. Elizabeth is No. 2 at 43.29. Pennsauken, which was second in the race at Cherokee, is No. 3 with its 43.44.

RV’s time is No. 38 in South Jersey history.

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

41.69 … Willingboro, 1982
42.03 … Rancocas Valley, 2015
42.11 … Rancocas Valley, 2021
42.12 … Rancocas Valley, 2017
42.24 … Willingboro, 1988
42.1h …. Kennedy, 1988
42.31 … Moorestown, 2010
42.34 … Willingboro, 2000
42.44 … Willingboro, 2001
42.49 … Cherokee, 2008