Looks like Sincere Rhea can sprint, too!

Rhea ran a rare 200 on Thursday at the Cape-Atlantic League Championships and blasted a 21.56, which is No. 2 in South Jersey this year and No. 3 in New Jersey, according to the MileSplit database. The only South Jersey sprinter who’s gone faster this spring is Jahmir Beasely of Sterling, who ran 21.50 at the Camden County meet last week.

It was Rhea’s first serious outdoor 200 since last May, when he ran 22.88 for sixth at sectionals. His previous PR was a 22.21 at last year’s South Jersey Invitational at Delsea.

Rhea, the No. 3 high hurdler in the U.S. and the New Balance indoor national champion, also easily won the high hurdles at the CAL meet in 14.03.

Rhea’s 200 time is No. 5 in Atlantic County history.

ALL-TIME S.J. 200-METER DASH LIST
21.41 … T.J. Johnson (Egg Harbor Twp.), 2010
21.52 … Fabian Santiago (Oakcrest), 2012
21.55 … Anthony Maturano (Hammonton), 2015
21.56 … Sincere Rhea (St. Augustine), 2019
21.59 … John Stone (Mainland Reg.), 1997
Race with Unknown Timing Irregularity
21.00 … Fabian Santiago (Oakcrest), 2012
21.38 … Reginald Morton (Oakcrest), 2012

ALL-TIME S.J. 200-METER DASH LIST
20.51 … Antonio Tarantino (Paul VI), 2018
21.06 … Dennis Mitchell (Edgewood), 1984
21.14 … Reuben McCoy (Winslow Twp.), 2004
21.30 … T.J. Johnson (Egg Harbor Twp.), 2010
21.39 … Martin Booker Jr. (Pennsauken), 2017
21.40 … Rob Gary (Lenape), 1998
21.40 … Todd Dutch (Washington Twp.), 2001
21.40 … Jamaad Muse (Timber Creek), 2012
21.41 … Dorian Bryant (Kingsway), 2002
21.41 … T.J. Johnson (Egg Harbor Twp.), 2010
21.43 … Barry Cephas (Winslow Twp.), 2008
21.46 … Brondon Jenkins (Delran), 1994
21.46 … Sabli Gonnet (Eastern), 2007
21.47 … Curtis McIntyre (Bridgeton), 1992
21.50 … Jahmir Beasely (Sterling), 2019
21.51 … Reuben McCoy (Winslow Twp.), 2004
21.52 … Fabian Santiago (Oakcrest), 2012
21.53 … Robert Hargrove (Vineland), 1996
21.53 … A.J. Bunton (West Deptford), 2006
21.53 … Jonathan Taylor (Salem), 2017
21.54 … Derek Ward (Kingsway), 1992
21.55 … Anthony Maturano (Hammonton), 2015
21.56 … Ron Hillian (Eastern), 2002
21.56 … Bruce Owens (Deptford), 2005
21.56 … Darrell Bush (Woodbury), 2011
21.56 … Sincere Rhea (St. Augustine), 2019
21.56 … Amir Brock (Egg Harbor Twp.), 2017
21.57 … Mar-Quel Davis (Deptford), 2017
21.58 … Antraye Miles (Winslow Twp.), 2003
21.59 … John Stone (Mainland Reg.), 1997
21.60 … Juwan Johnson (Glassboro), 2013
Race with Unknown Timing Irregularity
21.00 … Fabian Santiago (Oakcrest), 2012
21.24 … Jamaad Muse (Timber Creek), 2012
21.38 … Reginald Morton (Oakcrest), 2012

Winslow junior John Purvis PR’d again this week, popping a 168-9 discus throw at the Olympic Conference Championships at Washington Township.

That added 2 1/2 feet to his PR of 167-1 that he just set two weeks earlier at the South Jersey Invitational at Delsea.

Purvis’s throw is No. 1 in South Jersey this year and No. 5 in the state, No. 2 by a junior behind Chris Tavarone of Morris Knolls, who has thrown 173-3. It’s the best by a junior at the Olympic Conference Championships in at least a decade.

The conference title is the first for Purvis. He placed second twice in the shot put.

Purvis opened with a 157-8 throw, then followed with a near-PR 166-9 before hitting the 168-9 on his third attempt. He fouled on his fourth and final throw.

Rowan sophomore Myiah Sturdivant, a Timber Creek graduate, ran a personal-best 56.24 and won the 400-meter dash Thursday at the All-Atlantic Regional Championships at SUNY Cortland.

Sturdivant led an NJAC sweep of the top three spots, with two TCNJ runners — Samantha Gormon of Scotch Plains (57.03) and Megan Gasnick of Park Ridge (57.35) — placing second and third.

Sturdivant’s previous PR was a 56.30 when she won last year’s NJAC Championships at TCNJ in Ewing. She won two more NJAC 400 titles this past winter at Ocean Breeze and earlier this month at Stockton University.

That 56.24 ranks No. 13 this year in NCAA Division 3. Her previous-best time this spring was a 57.39 at the NJAC meet so that just came down by a full second and change.

Sturdivant also teamed with Sidney McLeod-Whitener, Aaniyah Robinson and Danielle Cross to win the 400-meter relay in a season-best 47.64, No. 13 in NCAA Division 3. She led off Rowan’s 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:52.46, No. 20 nationally.

Sturdivant’s high school PR was just 59.21. She never placed in a sectional meet in high school, so her improvement has been remarkable.

Allison Reuter of Clayton, a senior at Widener, won the hammer throw at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships with a throw of 168-4 at her home facility in Chester, Pa.

Reuter threw 168-4 on her final attempt and won by nearly seven feet over Taylor Run of King’s (Pa.) College in Wilkes-Barre, who threw 161-9. Reuter actually had the two-best throws of the competition with a 162-9 prior to her winning throw.

Reuter PR’d in March with a bomb of 175-2 at the Danny Curran Invite at West Chester’s Farrell Stadium, where she actually had three throws over 170 feet and won by more than 25 feet.

The conference title was Reuter’s third. She won the hammer throw last spring at 168-8 and the spring of 2017 at 148-5 and also won the weight throw this past winter at 53-9 1/4 at the indoor MAC meet at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse in Bethlehem in February.

Reuter ranks ninth in NCAA Division 3 with that 175-2. That broke her own school record of 173-6, which she set last year. Reuter is also fifth in school history in the discus at 128-4 back in 2017. It’s also a MAC record.

Reuter threw Monday night at the Swarthmore Last-Chance meet and threw 157-0 in cold, rainy conditions for second place.

At Clayton, Reuter was focused on the discus and javelin, since New Jersey high school track doesn’t have a hammer throw. She took second to Palmyra’s Tamara Carmichael in the 2015 state Group 1 meet in the discus with a throw of 123-10, which was her high school discus PR. She did win a sectional discus title as a junior back in 2014 with a throw of 101-2.

Reuter will compete at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships at SUNY Cortland, which begins Wednesday.

The Rowan men blasted a season-best 3:14.28 in the 1,600-meter relay Wednesday at the All-Atlantic Championships at SUNY Cortland.

Sophomore Justin Bishop of Mainland Regional ran a 47.67 anchor for the Profs.

Schalick graduate Chris Mesiano, a senior, led off, followed by sophomore Vincent Delle of Old Bridge and Airrion Scott of Ewing setting up Bishop.

Rowan placed second behind NYU, which set a meet record of 3:13.97, breaking Rowan’s record of 3:14.45 set last year with Bishop and Delle in the lineup.

Rowan’s previous-best time this year was a 3:16.26 at the Penn Relays.

Rowan’s time is No. 11 in NCAA Division 3 going into NCAA nationals.

 

Rowan’s Tyler Garland, a Deptford High graduate, continued his terrific sophomore season Wednesday afternoon with a PR in the high hurdles and the top qualifying time into the finals of the All-Atlantic Region Championships.

Garland ran a legal 14.28 on the SUNY Cortland track to lead all qualifiers into the finals.

Garland won the first of three heats by more than half a second over Oneonta freshman Nick Michalowski, who ran 14.88. The next-fastest qualifier was Eddie Mahana, a junior at St. John Fisher, who ran 14.39 in the third and final heat.

Garland’s time is No. 3 in NCAA Division 3.

His previous PR was 14.30 at a meet in Orlando back in March, but that was wind-aided. His previous wind-legal PR was a 14.31 at a different meet in Orlando in March.

Earlier this month, Garland won his second NJAC title in the highs. He’s also run as fast as 54.09 this spring in the 400 intermediates.

The All-Atlantic 110-meter finals at SUNY Cortland are scheduled for 1:10 p.m. Thursday.

It doesn’t count. But it was really fast.

St. Augustine senior Sincere Rhea, the indoor national scholastic champion, made the long trip to the 52nd annual Glenn Loucks Invite at White Plains (N.Y.) High School, where he ran the third-fastest time in New Jersey history in the 110-meter high hurdles.

Rhea, racing in Lane 4, exploded out of the blocks and took command of the race coming off the first hurdle. He ran away from the field, winning in 13.52, then clapped his hands when he saw the scoreboard at the finish line reading an unofficial 13.55.

Second place was a full second behind.

He kept running beyond the finish line and through an opening in a fence well beyond the track.

The wind-reading of 3.1, however, was well over the legal limit of 2.0 meters per second, so the performance technically isn’t eligible for records and all-time lists.

However, most marks on the all-time New Jersey lists were recorded without wind gauges, so people who keep lists generally include all marks. Otherwise, athletes would be penalized for competing in meets with a wind gauge.

In any case, Rhea has a wind-legal PR of 13.68 from the trials of the South Jersey Invitational last Thursday at Delsea.

That mark is No. 3 nationally this year. The 13.52 is fastest under any conditions in the country this year.

Rhea ran 13.81 in the trials with a legal wind of 1.2 meters per second, so if you’re a stickler for these things, that will be considered the meet record.

http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/417522/27888064/1524067828850/Loucks+Top+10+After+2017.pdf?token=Q9c9htEWu06IzdJdMdH98ehuVRw%3D

The only times under any conditions faster than Rhea’s in New Jersey history were turned in by Camden’s Dayne Brown, who set the state record of 13.43 in 1999, and Cory Poole of East Orange, who ran 13.46 in 2017. Todd Matthews of Notre Dame also ran 13.52, back in 1998.

ALL-TIME N.J. HIGH HURDLES LIST
13.43 … Danye Brown [Camden], 1999
13.46 … Cory Poole [East Orange Campus], 2017
13.52 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 2019
13.52 … Todd Matthews [Notre Dame], 1998
13.59 … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1990
13.62 … Christopher Stephens [Plainfield], 2001
13.66 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 1997
13.66 … Emmanuel Deux [Linden], 2001
13.67 … Jermaine Collier [Trenton], 2012
13.70 … Chris Alexander [Christian Brothers], 2015

(Author’s note: I can tell you for a fact this isn’t the first time a huge performance has been negated by a wind reading at the Glenn Loucks Invitational. At the 1978 meet, a triple jumper named Sanya Owolabi from Sleepy Hollow High School just north of White Plains jumped 53-something and broke the national scholastic record, but the wind was barely over the 2.0 limit at 2.1. I know this because tthe person working the wind gauge that day was an injured White Plains distance runner (me). The entire Sleepy Hollow track program raced over and began screaming at me, but I stuck to my guns and that mark is still listed in the record books as wind-assisted. Owolabi did eventually break the national record with a jump of 53-3 1/2 at the old IPI national championships in Naperville, Ill.)

Big night Monday for Oakcrest graduate Kierston Johnson, who won the 100 at the Swarthmore Last-Chance Qualifier with a PR of 12.40 with a legal wind.

Johnson, a Rowan freshman, entered the meet with a collegiate PR of 12.57 from last weekend’s NJAC meet at Stockton University. She won the second of three sections and finished first overall in a field of 19 women.

She finished 5-100ths-of-a-second ahead of Sara Arbogast of Susquehanna in her race. Lusmer Quintana of Ithaca, who won the first section, was second overall in 12.45.

Johnson’s overall PR until Monday night was a 12.46 from the 2017 Cape Atlantic Championships at Bridgeton, where she placed second to Neyshka Garcia Perez of Absegami, who ran 12.38.

Johnson was a three-time state Group 3 sprint medalist at Oakcrest and also a 17-foot long jumper.

Another huge steeplechase race for Elizabethtown junior Samuel Gerstenbacher of Schalick Monday night in cold, rainy conditions at the Swarthmore Last-Chance Meet.

Gerstenbacher beat a field of 30 runners in the 3,000-meter steeple in a personal-best 9:00.21. He finished 20 meters ahead of second-place Greg Jaindl of Moravian, who PR’d in 9:03.89.

Gerstenbacher’s time is No. 4 this year in NCAA Division 3, and Jaindl’s is No. 7.

Gerstenbacher broke his own school record of 9:08.71, which he ran at the Penn Relays. Before that it was 9:11.20 from the same Swarthmore meet last spring.

So he’s dropped 11 seconds off his PR in the last month.

Gerstenbacher tripled at the Landmark Conference Championships earlier this month at Goucher College in Baltimore, cruising to wins in the 1,500 in 3:59.02, the 5,000 in 15:08.09 and the steeple in 9:27.35. Jaindl finished second in all three races. They also finished 1-2 in the Landmark Conference XC Championships this past fall and in the 3,000 at the indoor conference meet.

Next for Gerstenbacher is the NCAA Division 3 Championships May 23-25 at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, outside Cleveland. The steeplechase qualifying rounds are scheduled for 5:50 p.m. that Thursday, May 23, with the finals following at 11:45 a.m. two days later.

Gerstenbacher ran 1:56.33, 4:20.31 and 9:40.31 at Schalick. He ran one steeplechase, at the 2016 Woodbury Relays, with no water jump, and took third in 9:47.30

Collingswood High School graduate Adam Hunt won the discus and placed second in the hammer and shot put, Paulsboro’s Edgar Rosa won the javelin and Josh Varghese of Williamstown won the shot and led a 1-2-3 sweep of the top three spots as the Rowan College Gloucester County throwing team led the Roadrunners to their second straight NJCAA Division 3 national championship.

The Deptford Township school, formerly Gloucester County College, scored 69 points in the four throws.

Rowan College Gloucester County outscored second-place Suffolk Community College of Selden, N.Y., 131-115. Harper College of Palatine, Ill. (104) and Triton College of River Grove, Ill., (100) were the only other schools nationally to outscore RCGC’s throwers.

Varghese, Hunt and Adetomiwa Awogbamila of Pitman swept the top three spots in the shot. Rosa won the javelin. Hunt, Varghese and Rosa went 2-3-4 in the hammer.

Deptford High graduate Glenn Abott won the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.08, out-racing second-place Marquise Young of Camden County College via Sterling High School. Young also took second in the intermediates in 55.51.

Also for Rowan, Mike Dowd of Williamstown won the steeplechase in a hand-timed 9:54.7. Devonte Watson of Winslow was third in the intermediates with a 56.87, Derek Gatling of Kingsway jumped 22-8 for third in the long jump.

For Rowan College Gloucester County’s women’s team, Delsea graduate Elisia Lancaster won the hammer (170-11), shot put (43-5 1/4) and discus (126-1). Emily Hilt of Kingsway was second in both the hammer and shot.

The meet was held at something called MVCC Track in Utica, N.Y.

Here are the results. Have fun converting all the field marks: https://d2o2figo6ddd0g.cloudfront.net/w/y/gwbjbyz41d0uw0/results.pdf

 

Allison Reuter of Clayton, a senior at Widener, won the hammer throw at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships with a throw of 168-4 at her home facility in Chester, Pa.

It was her fourth MAC title and third in a row in the hammer.

Reuter threw 168-4 on her final attempt and won by nearly seven feet over Taylor Runo of King’s (Pa.) College in Wilkes-Barre, who threw 161-9. Reuter actually had the two-best throws of the competition with a 162-9 prior to her winning throw.

Reuter also placed sixth in the discus.

Reuter PR’d in March with a bomb of 175-2 at the Danny Curran Invite at West Chester’s Farrell Stadium, where she actually had three throws over 170 feet and won by more than 25 feet.

The conference title was Reuter’s third. She won the hammer throw last spring at 168-8 and the spring of 2017 at 148-5 and also won the weight throw this past winter at 53-9 1/4 at the indoor MAC meet at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse in Bethlehem in February.

Reuter ranks ninth in NCAA Division 3 with that 175-2. That broke her own school record of 173-6, which she set last year. Reuter is also fifth in school history in the discus at 128-4 back in 2017. It’s also a MAC record.

Reuter threw Monday night at the Swarthmore Last-Chance meet and threw 157-0 in cold, rainy conditions for second place.

At Clayton, Reuter was focused on the discus and javelin, since New Jersey high school track doesn’t have a hammer throw. She took second to Palmyra’s Tamara Carmichael in the 2015 state Group 1 meet in the discus with a throw of 123-10, which was her high school discus PR. She did win a sectional discus title as a junior back in 2014 with a throw of 101-2.

Reuter will compete at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships at SUNY Cortland, which begins Wednesday.