Moronta’s previous PR was a 1:52.46 indoors at the 2020 Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze, where he edged Old Bridge’s Nicholas Medeiros and Delaware Valley’s Kyle Reers, who also ran sub-1:53.
His previous outdoor PR was 1:54.74 from New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., in the spring of 2019.
Moronta has also run 1:52.66 this spring, at a meet at Auburn, so he’s been well under his outdoor PR in his only two collegiate races. He hadn’t raced since the end of the 2020 indoor season in March of 2020.
Moronta also ran a leg (split not listed in official results) on Mississippi State’s 7:43.74 3,200-meter relay team at the Bulldog Relays last month on MSU’s home track in Starkville.
It took Jordon Floyd one collegiate meet to shatter his long jump PR. It took him one more meet to shatter it again.
Floyd had a long jump PR at Rancocas Valley of 20-8, which he hit at an indoor meet at the Bubble in February of 2020, and an outdoor PR of 19-6 1/2 from 2018 Group 4 sectionals at Washington Township.
RV’s 2020 outdoor season was wiped out, as was Kutztown’s 2021 indoor season, so Floyd is now competing for the first time since March of 2020 and competing outdoors for the first time in two years.
But in his first collegiate long jump competition, the 38th annual Millersville (Pa.) Metrics earlier this month, he jumped an outdoor PR 20-5 1/4 on his first jump, a lifetime-best 20-10 on his fourth jump and another PR of 21-0 3/4 on his sixth jump. All three jumps were wind-legal.
His next meet was the Bill Butler Invitational at West Chester and although his series isn’t available – West Chester’s results don’t list them – he popped at least one more PR, jumping 21-8.
That means he’s now added a foot to his PR in the first month of his college career, and he’s added more than two feet to his outdoor PR.
Floyd has also tripled jumped 43-5 1/4 and high jumped 6-0 3/4 for Kutztown so far this spring. His lifetime best in the triple is 44-7 1/2, again from 2019 Group 4 sectionals, and his high school high jump PR was 6-2, which he hit eight times.
He ranks in the top 10 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in both horizontal jumps.
Prisca Blamon, a Cinnaminson grad, bombed her second shot put PR in a week Sunday at the Monmouth Spring Invitational in Long Branch.
Blamon, a Monmouth junior, threw 45-7 3/4, adding half an inch to her PR of 45-7 1/4 from the previous weekend in a meet at Rider in Lawrenceville.
Before that her PR was 45-1 1/2 from an indoor meet in January of 2020 at Navy in Annapolis, Md., and her outdoor PR was 44-7 1/2 from March of 2019, also at her home track at Monmouth.
Blamon ranks 3rd in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, behind two Manhattan throwers – Alexandra Preckajlo (48-6 1/4) and Lasma Padedze (47-3).
Her 47-7 3/4 ranks 6th in school history and is the best by a Monmouth woman in four years.
Blamon also ranks 6th in the MAAC in the hammer throw (143-11) and 12th in the discus (116-6).
At Cinnaminson, Prisca had PRs of 38-6 1/4 in the shot and 130-3 in the discus. She also triple jumped 34-11 and was a sectional medalist.
Blamon’s older sister Faith ranks 4th in Monmouth history in the javelin with a throw of 162-7 and placed 13th at the USATF Championships in Sacramento in 2017.
Stockton junior Hunter Daly from Florence hit a high jump PR of 6-6 3/4 at the Bill Butler Invitational at West Chester.
Daly finished second on misses to Earnest Daniel of Rowan, a Kingsway graduate, but it was his first lifetime clearance of 2.0 meters, a significant barrier for high jumpers.
Daly’s previous lifetime best was 6-6 1/4 indoors in a meet at Ocean Breeze in February of 2020. His previous outdoor PR was 6-6, which he achieved twice – at Cortland, N.Y., in May of 2019, Stockton’s last outdoor meet before last month, and also back in the spring of 2017, his senior year at Florence, when he won the Woodbury Relays.
As for Daniel, his PR is 6-8 3/4 from a meet in Orlando in March of 2019. He’s also a 47-foot triple jumper
Daly and Daniel share the No. 14 ranking in NCAA Division 3 and the No. 1 ranking in the NJAC along with Alex White of Penn State Harrisburg, who cleared 6-6 3/4 earlier this month at a different meet in West Chester. White has a 6-8 1/4 PR from the spring of 2018.
Daniel also triple jumped 47 feet at Kingsway and has gone as far as 45-11 1/4 for Rowan. He’s only tripled once this spring, going 44-4 1/4 at West Chester, No. 4 in the conference.
Ash had a PR of 1:01.46 entering college from from the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.
She actually tied that exactly last month at a meet in Columbia, S.C., before blowing it away this past weekend.
Ash’s time is No. 2 in school history, behind only Dotrine’ Jacobs, who ran 59.52 at the 2014 Florida Relays.
Her time is No. 16 in NCAA Division 1 among freshmen and No. 1 in the Big South Conference. Ash is also No. 2 in the conference in the 100-meter high hurdles (14.26).
Ash also ran the leadoff leg on Charleston Southern’s 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:47.59, No. 8 in school history. Her split wasn’t listed in the official results or on Charleston Southern’s web site.
Rancocas Valley’s Ian Moore ran his first sub-1:52 800 Sunday, winning a fast race at the Monmouth Spring Invitational in West Long Branch.
Moore ran 1:51.98, lowering his PR from 1:52.76 indoors at Ocean Breeze in February of 2020. His outdoor PR was 1:53.24 from last week at Rider.
Moore’s high school PR was 1:56.43 from the 2018 South Jersey Invitational at Delsea.
Six runners broke 1:54, and Moore out-raced Fordham’s Zalen Nelson for the win, edging Nelson by two meters. Nelson ran 1:52.52.
Moore ran even splits, out in 55.56 and back in 56.42.
In the same race, Egg Harbor Township graduate Gobi Thurairajah, a Rider sophomore, ran a massive PR of 1:53.99. His previous best was 1:56.30 earlier this month in a home meet in Lawrenceville.
Thurairajah’s high school PR was a 1:58.05 at the 2019 Cape-Atlantic Championships at Bridgeton.
As for Moore, his time is No. 4 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this year behind Kevin Heredia of Rider [1:51.53], Moore’s Monmouth teammate Louis DiLaurenzio [1:51.61] and Rider’s Tamrat Snyder [1:51.71].
Moore’s time is No. 9 in Monmouth history:
1:47.20 … Dylan Capwell, 2019
1:50.07 … David Gaines, 2007
1:50.0h … Mel Ullmeyer, 1978
1:50.33 … Andrew Langille, 2015
1:50.97 … Chris Marco, 2018
1:51.01 … Ford Palmer, 2013
1:51.59 … Felix Olivo, 1999
1:51.61 … Lou DiLaurenzio, 2021
1:51.98 … Ian Moore, 2021
1:52.26 … Kris Landers, 2002
Shawnee graduate Amanda Demko, a freshman at The College of New Jersey, had a nice breakthrough race for The College of New Jersey this weekend.
Racing at the Quaker Invite at Franklin Field, Demko ran 57.46, the fastest time so far this spring by any NCAA Division 3 freshman. She bumped Alyssa Pfadenhauer of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, who ran 57.54 earlier this month in a meet at Waverly, Iowa.
Demko lowered her collegiate PR more than a second, from 58.84 to 57.46. She had run 58.84 at a meet last month at Stockton University. She placed 4th behind three quarter-milers from Temple and Penn.
Her time is No. 8 in NCAA Division 3 this year and No. 1 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, ahead of teammate Megan Gasnick, who ran 58.20 in the same race Saturday in West Philly.
Before this weekend, Demko had a lifetime best of 58.66, which she ran twice while attending Shawnee – first at the Rowan Open in May of 2019 and again at the South Jersey Group 4 sectionals a few weeks later at Washington Township.
Demko also ran a leg on TCNJ’s 4-by-4 team that ran 3:54.63 at a meet at West Chester University last weekend, the No. 5 time in NCAA Division 3. Splits are not listed on TCNJ’s web site or on the official meet results. Also on that team were Gasnick and Alli Uhl, both from Park Ridge High, and Samantha Gorman (Scotch Plains-Fanwood).
Heck of a race Sunday by Monmouth freshman Stone Caraccio, who ran 3:54.32 to place a close second in the 1,500 at the Monmouth Invite in West Long Branch.
Caraccio, a freshman from Kingsway, closed in 59.9 for his final 400 and 2:03.9 for his final 800. He took second to Rider’s Kevin Heredia, who won the race in 3:53.19 with a final-lap 59.3.
Caraccio’s 3:54.32 is the equivalent of a 4:11.59 for 1,600 meters and 4:13.07 for a full mile. His previous 1,500 PR was a 3:56.63 from a meet in West Point, N.Y., last month. His high school 1,600/mile PR was 4:13.46 for 1,600 at Group 4 states at Franklin in 2019 along with a 4:15.35 indoor full mille at the Millrose Games at the Armory, which is a bit slower.
Either way, this is a lifetime best in only his second collegiate 1,500 or mile race. His time is No. 10 so far this year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and No. 5 among freshmen.
Monmouth’s school record was set by another South Jersey runner, Absegami graduate Ford Palmer, who ran 3:44.90 at the George Mason Spring Invitational in 2013. Palmer went on to run 3:54.92 indoors in Boston in 2017, a South Jersey alumni record and 3rd-fastest ever by a New Jersey native.
Another South Jersey freshman, Camden Catholic graduate Richie Castañeda, a freshman at Rider, placed 5th in 3:55.70, just off his PR of 3:53.41 from Penn last month.
Photo courtesy Rider Sports Information Department.
Kristin Siegle, a Rider senior from Buena, continued her hot racing streak Sunday with a massive 1,500 PR and another school record at the Monmouth Spring Invitational in West Long Branch.
Siegle, who raced to a 3-second 800 PR last weekend with a school-record 2:10.83, ran a 6-second 1,500 PR Sunday, crossing the line in 4:28.75.
She broke the school record of 4:28.76, set by Emily Ritter at the 2014 Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton.
Her previous PR was a 4:34.78 earlier this month in a meet at Rider. Before that it was 4:39.94 from a meet in the spring of 2019 at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
That means she’s lowered her 1,500 PR by more than 11 seconds this month.
A 4:28.75 is the equivalent of a 4:48.56 for 1,600 meters or a 4:50.25 full mile. Her mile PR is 4:55.34 from the ECAC Championships indoors in Boston in March of 2020, her last race for a year.
With two laps to go, Siegle, Monmouth’s Katie Locker and Siena’s Morgan Serkes were all together, all coming through 700 meters in 2:09-point. But Siegle closed in 70.8 and 68.6 for a final 800 of 2:19.4 – faster than she ever ran for 800 meters until her junior year at Monmouth.
Locker, a graduate of Elizabethtown (Pa.) Area, finished second with a huge PR of her own at 4:33.89 and Serkes was third at 4:35.02.
Siegle’s time is No. 3 this year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, behind two Iona grad students – Gemma Nuttall [4:23.68] and Kaitlyn Ohrtman [4:26.65].
To get a sense for how much Siegle has improved, her high school PRs were 2:20.03 for 800 meters – she ran that at the state Group 2 meet at South Plainfield in 2015 – and 5:15.98 for 1,600 meters, which she ran at the 2014 Cape-Atlantic Championships at Egg Harbor, when she placed second to Bridget Flynn of Ocean City.
Siegle has now cut her 1,600 equivalent PR nearly half a minute since high school!
In an earlier version of this story, I had Siegle attending Monmouth. I know she goes to Rider! It was a mistake. I try not to make very many but we all make some, last I checked. I apologize to Kristin and the Rider and Monmouth programs and everybody else in New Jersey! 🤦
Villanova sophomore Ashley Preston, a 2018 Delsea graduate, hit a new pole vault PR Saturday at the Quaker Invite at Franklin Field.
Preston cleared 13-3 3/4 on her second attempt to break her lifetime best of 13-3 1/2, which she cleared winning the 2020 indoor Big East Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Her previous outdoor PR was a 13-2 1/4, which she cleared at the 2019 outdoor Big East Championships at Icahn Stadium in New York. Preston has won all four Big East Championship pole vaults that have been held since she entered Villanova.
Preston’s mark Saturday makes her the No. 3 performer in Villanova history, behind Alexandra Wasik, who cleared 13-10 at the Gotham Cup at the Armory in 2015, and Ashyln Llerandi, who cleared 13-5 3/4 indoors at the ECAC Championships in Roxbury, Mass., in March of 2020. Her mark is tied for No. 2 in Villanova outdoor history, behind only Wasik’s 13-7 1/4 at the 2014 NCAA East Regional prelims in Jacksonville and tied with McPhillips’ mark at the 2015 Big East Championships at Villanova.
At the Quaker Invite, Preston passed the first five heights and entered the competition at 12-5 1/2, which she cleared on her first attempt. She cleared 12-11 1/2 and 13-3 3/4 on her second attempts. With the win locked up, she had the bar moved up to 13-5 3/4 and missed her three tries.
Preston’s mark is No. 1 this year in the Big East. U. Conn junior Emma Chee is No. 2 at 13-5 earlier this month in a meet in Storrs.
At Delsea, Preston was a Group 3 state champ and Meet of Champions runner. She had a high school PR of 12-7 1/2 when she placed third at the 2018 Penn Relays at the same pole vault facility where she PR’d this weekend. She’s No. 2 in South Jersey scholastic history, behind only Shawnee’s Danielle O’Reilly, the former national scholastic indoor record holder with her 13-5 at the 2004 Varsity Classic at the Armory. O’Reilly’s outdoor best was 13-3 at the 2004 Olympic Conference meet at Pennsauken.
