Strong collegiate debut for Winslow’s Isaiah Lewis Friday.

In his first official race ever over the 42-inch hurdles, the Syracuse freshman ran 8.10 in the trials of the 60-meter high hurdles at the Doc Hale Virginia Tech Elite in Blacksburg, Va.

He came back and ran 8.11 for fourth place in the final.

Lewis was one of three Syracuse hurdlers from South Jersey who made the finals. 

It was Lewis’s first race in nearly a year, since the indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze, where he placed third in 7.39 over the 39-inch hurdles at 55 meters. 

Lewis’s 8.10 is the No. 3 time among ACC freshmen, behind only Tyson Williams of Florida State (8.02) and Sims. It’s also No. 6 among freshmen so far in NCAA Division 3.

Syracuse sophomore Jamil Adams, also from Winslow, ran 8.15 for 5th in the final after an 8.17 in the trials. His PR is 8.06 from the Crimson Elite in Cambridge, Mass., in January of 2020.

Also, Syracuse sophomore Naseem Smith of Deptford ran 8.22 for 8th in the final after running 8.25 in the trials. He’s got an 8.08 PR, also from the Crimson Elite. 

Another freshman from South Jersey, Egg Harbor graduate Anthony Vasquez, just missed the final, opening his collegiate career with an 8.32 in the trials.

Syracuse’s fifth hurdler from South Jersey, senior Tyler Garland of Deptford, who has a PR of 7.86, was a scratch.

Gloucester County half-milers Katherine Byrne and Carly Nicholson finished 6-100ths of a second apart Friday in the 800 meters at the East Coast Invitational in Virginia.

Byrne, a senior at Clearview, ran a personal-best 2:21.79 and Nicholson ran 2:21.85 at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Byrne shattered her indoor PR of 2:27.03 from a SJTCA meet at the Bennett Center last February and also ran well under her outdoor PR of 2:23.30 set in May of 2019 at the Gloucester County Championships at Delsea, when she was second to Amirah Sharpe, who ran 2:21.47.

It was Byrne’s first race on the track since that SJTCA meet more than a year ago.

Nicholson, a Delsea senior, was running her second race of the season but her first since a meet at the Armory in October, when she was timed in 2:24.59. She came up just shy of her indoor PR of 2:21.32 set at 2019 indoor states, when she placed sixth.

North Carolina State freshman Kevin Antczak, in his first collegiate track race, ran 8:24.42 for 3,000 meters on Monday, the equivalent of a 9:01 for 3,200 meters.

Antczak raced at the Virginia Beach Invite at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Antczak’s time is No. 1 on the 2021 IAAF world under-20 performance list, albeit in an event that has not been contested very much this indoor season.

It was the first healthy track race for Antczak since the end of the 2019 outdoor season, when he ran 4:19.65 and 9:09.38 for Mainland Regional.

Antczak was out in 2:12 through 800 meters and 4:26 through the 1,600 and then came through 2,400 in 6:41. 

Antczak was hurt last indoor season and missed outdoors because of the pandemic. His last healthy indoor race was a 9:18.59 for fourth in the 3,200 at the 2019 Meet of Champions at the Bennett Center two years ago this month.

Antczak, 8th in the fall of 2019 at the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego, had a strong XC season this past fall, running 23:59 at the ACC Championships in Cary, N.C., where he was the the sixth freshman across the line.

8:24.42 converts to about 9:01.6 for 3,200 meters or 9:04.8 for a full two-miles. Antczak had never run an indoor 3,000. His previous overall 3,000 PR was an 8:59.16 at the 2019 Penn Relays. 

Antczak’s 3,200 PR was that 9:18.59 from two years ago, but he clearly was ready to run a lot faster coming off a senior year XC season when he ran 15:29 at Holmdel, fastest time on the legendary 5K course by a South Jersey runner in 31 years.

Rutgers sophomore Claudine Smith of Atlantic City High triple jumped 40-1 1/2 at a recent meet at Penn State, the No. 3 mark in the Big Ten Conference so far this year.

Smith placed second at the Nittany Lion Opener earlier this month. She also ran 8.87 in the 60-meter hurdles.

The 40-1 1/2 is Smith’s second-best mark as a collegian. She set an indoor PR of 41-7 1/4 at the Vanderbilt Invitational a year ago in Nashville.

Smith’s outdoor PR is the South Jersey-record 42-2 from the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington. That’s also No. 3 in state history. She has yet to compete outdoors as a collegian.

St. Augustine senior David Kenny ran a four-second 800 PR Sunday, clocking 1:58.84 at the 757 Showdown in Virginia Beach.

Kenny was racing his first 800 since February of last year, when he PR’d at 2:02.11 for sixth place in the Parochial A state meet at the Bennett Center.

Kenny, running unattached, placed seventh overall. His outdoor PR is 2:02.37 from the 2019 South Jersey Invitational at Delsea, so this was an overall PR as well.

His time is a school record and fastest by any South Jersey non-public half-miler since Bishop Eustace’s Brian Laskowski ran 1:56.50 at the Armory in January of 2008.

Kenny ran out of an unseeded heat, winning the fourth of six sections by over two seconds, then watching as only one runner ran faster in the fifth race and five in the fastest section.

He also ran 52.40 in the 400. He’s got a 51.80 PR from last month at the Armory.

Tionna Tobias, a University of Iowa sophomore from Winslow, moved into the No. 8 spot in school history in the pentathlon Saturday.

Tobias placed seventh in the Big Ten Conference multi-event championships at the University of Illinois in Champaign, with a score of 3,470 points.

Her score is No. 9 in NCAA Division 1 among freshmen and No. 2 among Big Ten freshmen, behind Wisconsin’s Mackenzie Heyroth, who scored 3,496 points Saturday.

Tobias’s best event was the 60-meter hurdles, where she ran 8.79 for 954 points. She had the 5th-fastest time overall.

She recorded her a PR of 2:26.88 for 732 points in the 800. She won the first of two 800 sections and finished fourth overall.

Tobias also cleared 5-1 in the high jump for 678 points, long jumped 17-3 1/4 for 631 points and threw the shot put 30-0 3/4 for 475 points.

Tobias has run 8.50 in the highs, long jumped 18-11 1/4 and high jumped 5-5 in the past couple weeks, so there’s plenty of room for her to build on that 3,470 score.

In her only previous pentathlon, last year at Nebraska, Tobias scored 2,724 points, failing to clear a height in the high jump and scoring zero points in the event.

Iowa pentathlon all-time top-10
4,200 … Tria Simmons, 2019
4,123 … Jenny Kimbro, 2019
3,974 … Tammilee Kerr, 2008
3,798 … Chris Davenport, 1983
3,701 … Kamesha Marshall, 2005
3,511 … Tiff Pedersen, 2004
3,472 … Sarah Ryan, 2013
3,470 … Tionna Tobias, 2021
3,427 … Maureen Abel, 1979
3,421 … Allison Wahrman, 2017

Paulsboro senior Amirah Sharpe ran a personal-best 57.15 and twin sister Arianna Sharpe ran 58.49 Saturday in the 400-meter dash at the 757 Showdown! 2021 track meet at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Amirah Sharpe’s time is No. 3 in Gloucester County history and it’s 1-100th of a second off the fastest South Jersey Group 1 time ever. In 2014, Penns Grove’s Faleesha Dowe ran 57.14 to win the state Group 1 meet at the Bennett Center.

Amirah, a three-time state Group 1 champ at 800 meters, placed 4th racing in the 24th of 25 sections Saturday and Arianna finished 10th overall competing in the 22nd section. 

Amirah Sharpe’s previous indoor (and overall) PR was a 57.58 earlier this month on the same track. Arianna Sharpe’s indoor PR is a 58.40 last month, also on the same track. She’s run 57.62 outdoors from the 2018 state Group 1 meet at Franklin Township High.

Amirah Sharpe’s time is No. 24 in South Jersey history and No. 3 in Gloucester County history:

The Sharpe sisters competed unattached because the New Jersey indoor season hasn’t officially started yet and New Jersey schools aren’t permitted to compete out of state this year. 

Here are all the sub-58 times in Gloucester County indoor history:

55.83 … Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2016
56.21 … Dana Burnett [Williamstown], 1997
57.15 … Amirah Sharpe [Paulsboro], 2021
57.44 … Nicole Tiernan [Washington Twp.], 2011
57.47 … Briana Crofton [Delsea], 2011
57.57 … Audrey Wilson [Deptford], 2008
57.58 … Thailia Cooper [Kinsgway], 2015
57.80 … Megan Tiernan [Washington Twp.], 2010
57.85 … Jackie Dim [Washington Twp.], 2008

Palmyra graduate To’Mara Carmichael, now a senior at NCAA Dvision 2 Queens College in Charlotte, N.C., opened her season Friday by winning the 20-pound weight throw at the Winter Relays at Virginia Military Academy in Lexington,Va.

Carmichael threw 51-9, winning by nearly four feet.

Carmichael set her PR of 58-1 1/4 last year when she won the South Atlantic Indoor Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. 

She also was a conference champ outdoors in the shot put in 2018 at Johnson . Smith University in Charlotte with a throw of 42-8 3/4.

Carmichael also placed 4th in the shot put at the indoor conference meet last year with a 41-7 3/4. Her shot PR is 44-1 1/2, but she didn’t throw the shot Friday.

Carmichael ranks No. 2 in Queens history in the shot and No. 1 in the weight throw indoors and is the school record outdoors in the shot (42-8 3/4), hammer (161-10) and discus (144-9) outdoors.

Carmichael was a three-time state Group 1 discus champion, winning the event in 2015, 2016 and 2017 for Palmyra High. She PR’d at 139-8 at the 2016 meet – No. 13 in South Jersey history – and in 2017 went on to place 3rd at the Meet of Champions.

 

Paulsboro seniors and twin sisters Amirah and Arianna Sharpe ran two of the fastest 500s in state history recently in a meet in Virginia.

Both ran under the existing South Jersey record in the infrequently run middle-distance race.

Amirah and Arianna, competing unattached since the New Jersey indoor season hasn’t officially begun, placed 2nd and 4th in the 2 1/2-lap race at the Virginia Showcase at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Halyn Senegal of St. Louis High in Lake Charles, La., won the race in 1:14.92, Amirah was 2nd in 1:15.73, Charlee Crawford of St. Georges Tech in Middletown, Del., was 3rd in 1:16.09, and Arianna placed 4th in 1:17.18.

Amirah and Arianna now rank No. 5 and No. 9 in state history. The previous South Jersey record was 1:17.31, set last year by Pleasantville’s Maya Harper at the New Balance Games at the Armory.

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

All-Time New Jersey 500-Meter List
1:10.22 … Athing Mu [Trenton], 2020
1:12.99 … Janine Davis Queen of Peace 2005
1:13.51 … Olivia Baker [Columbia], 2011
1:14.35 … Hazel Clark Columbia 1995
1:15.73 … Amirah Sharpe [Paulsboro], 2021
1:16.36 … Alexis Roper [North Hunterdon], 2011
1:16.77 … Sam Anderson [Matawan], 2016
1:17.06 … Lexi Del Gizzo [Tenafly], 2016
1:17.18 … Arianna Sharpe [Paulsboro], 2021
1:17.31 … Maya Harper [Pleasantville], 2020

The Sharpe twins also went 1-2 in the 400 at the Technique Holiday Invitational on the same track at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Amirah won the race in 57.58 and Arianna was second in 58.40.

For Amirah, the time is an indoor-outdoor PR. She ran 57.69 in an AAU summer track meet in North Carolina in June of 2019 but her high school PR was 58.15 from the 2019 state Group 1 meet at Franklin township High. 

Amirah is a three-time New Jersey Group 1 state champ in the 800 and has a PR of 2:15.05 from the 2018 outdoor state meet, but she didn’t run the 800 in Virginia and actually hasn’t run an open 800 since the 2019 outdoor Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington, when she was seventh in 2:16.29 as a Paulsboro sophomore.

The 57.58 is a school record and ranks No. 7 in Gloucester County indoor history. It’s also fastest by a South Jersey Group 1 girl indoors since Faleesha Dowe of Penns Grove ran 57.14 in 2014.

Amirah has also run 7.66 for the 55-meter dash this winter and 25.84 for 200.

Arianna Sharpe’s 58.40 is an indoor PR. She ran 57.62 at the 2018 outdoor state meet. She also won the 200 in Virginia with a PR time of 25.31.

Even though the Sharpes were competing independently, because their marks were made during the indoor season, they are eligible for records and all-time lists.

Amirah Sharpe’s time is No. 9 in the world this year, according to the IAAF international performance list, which is pretty cool to see even though the 500 has only been contested this winter at a handful of high school meets, mainly in Virginia.

University of Iowa freshman Nylah Perry, a 2020 graduate of Winslow, ran 56.33 in her first collegiate 400.

Perry won the 400 at the Husker Triangular on the University of Nebraska’s Devaney Center in Lincoln, outleaning sophomore Danielle Josephs of Minnesota by 4-100ths of a second.

It was Perry’s first 400 since she won the Meet of Champions last March at Ocean Breeze with an indoor PR of 56.19. She’s run as fast as 55.97 outdoors.

Perry’s  time is No. 9 among all freshmen in NCAA Division 1 so far this year, No. 8 in the Big Ten Conference and No. 2 among Big Ten freshmen, behind Minnesota’s Abigail Schaffe, who ran 55.53 this past weekend.

Perry also ran a 56.5 anchor split on Iowa’s 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:45.23, finishing second to Minnesota’s 3:43.88.