La Salle senior Ariel Mitchell continued her terrific indoor season with a PR at the Villanova Invitational Saturday at the Ocean Breeze track in Staten Island.

Mitchell, a Lenape graduate, ran 7.60 to place third in the 60-meter dash after a 7.66 in the trials.

This is actually the third straight meet she’s PR’d in the 60. She came into the season with a 7.70 PR  from a meet early last season at Haverford, but she ran 7.66 and then 7.63 in her 2019 debut at Fordham and then 7.62 at a meet last weekend at Penn State.

Mitchell broke her own school record of 7.62.

Junior Emily Wallace set a Collingswood school record of 7.42 in the 55-meter dash, sophomore Sophie Steidle recorded two wins, and the Collingswood girls scored a ridiculous 110 points Saturday in winning their second straight sectional title.

Collingswood outscored neighboring high school Audubon 110-51 to win the South Jersey Group 1 title at the Bennett Center.

Wallace won the 55 in 7.46 after her 7.42 in the trials. She was also second in the 400 in 61.18 and fourth in the high hurdles in 9.33.

Steidle won the 1,600 in 5:28.45 and the 3,200 in 11:58.27 and was also fifth in the 800 in 2:31.39. The 800 and 3,200 times were PRs and the 1,600 time was half a second off her PR.

Senior Samantha Hamrick won the 800 in 2:28.18 and was fifth in the high hurdles in 9.33 — an interesting double!

Senior Dash Cruz scored in both the 55 (third in 7.68) and 400 (fourth in 61.37).

And senior Quinn Basewitz scored 20 points on her own with second-place finishes in the 1,600 (5:40.86) and 3,200 (12:27.87) and a fourth in the 800 (2:30.96)

Collingswood also won the 1,600-meter relay in 4:15.86 and got points from senior Deriana Bryant (second in shot, 31-3), senior Josie Cook (fifth in pole vault, 7-6), freshman Emily Waldron (sixth in pole vault, 7-0) and sophomore Hailey Spencer (fifth in shot, 28-2 1/2).

Trey Henry, Anthony Vasquez, Ruben Momodu and Joshua Cohen all won their events, and all but Vasquez PR’d, to lead Egg Harbor to its sixth sectional title in the last eight years.

Egg Harbor outscored Cherokee 47-42 Saturday to win the South Jersey Group 4 meet at the Bennett Center.

Henry won the 55-meter dash in 6.62, reducing his PR from 6.68 from the trials at Eastern’s last year. Vasquez won the 55-meter hurdles in 7.81. Momodu cleared 6-2 in the high jump for the first time. And Cohen cleared 14-1 in the pole vault, an inch higher than his previous PR.

Those four wins accounted for 40 of EHT’s 47 points, but the Eagles also got points from Ryan Lagroteria, who cleared a PR 12-6 for fourth in the pole vault; Gobi Thurairajah, who took sixth in the 800 in 2:01.83; and the 4-by-4 team, which was fifth in 3:34.16.

Here’s a look at the S.J. Group 4 team winners since the inception of the indoor sectionals in 2008:

2008: Toms River East
2009: Washington Twp.
2010: Toms River North
2011: Washington Twp.
2012: Egg Harbor
2013: Egg Harbor
2014: Lenape
2015: Egg Harbor
2016: Egg Harbor
2017: Trenton
2018: Egg Harbor
2019: Egg Harbor

Cohen’s 14-1 clearance is best by an Atlantic County pole vaulter indoors in 27 years, since Brandon Kurtz went 14-6 1/4 in 1991. It’s No. 2 all-time on the Atlantic County indoor list.

Senior Te’seanna Harris, the state 100-meter hurdles champ last spring, doubled the 55-meter dash and 55-meter hurdles to lead Camden to its first indoor sectional title in 10 years.

Harris led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 55-meter dash with a 7.46 win and ran 8.56 to win the hurdles.

Thanks in large part to 24 points in the 55, Camden outscored Willingboro 59-46 to win the Central Jersey Group 1 sectional championship at the Bennett Center in Toms River.

This is Camden’s third indoor sectional title and first since the 2009 team won South Jersey Group 2 in 2009. Camden also won South Jersey Group 3 in 2008.

Harris, freshman Jakarta Nock (7.65) and junior Simone Hopkins (7.82) swept the 55. Hopkins was the key after posting only the sixth-fastest qualifying time.

Nock and sophomore Braniya Mansfield went 3-4 in the 400, Nock running 63.72 and Mansfield 64.11. They also ran on Camden’s third-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 4:18.90.

In the shot, sophomore Makiyah Watson (31-4 3/4) and senior Jahmara Smith (31-0) scored 14 big point, placing second and third.

The Willingboro boys won their fifth straight sectional title and seventh in the last nine years Saturday, outscoring second-place New Providence by a whopping 22 points in the Central Jersey Group 1 meet at the Bennett Center.

The Chimeras out-distanced New Providence 70-48 for their third straight Central Jersey Group 1 title after winning Central Jersey Group 2 in 2011 and 2012, Central Jersey Group 1 in 2015 and South Jersey Group 2 in 2016.

Only Rahway (8) and Morris Hills (7) have won more indoor sectional titles since the meet was introduced in 2008.

Boro scored huge points in the field events, netting 44 of their 70 points in the shot, high jump and pole vault.

Juniors Kameron Smith and Nate Robertson both cleared 6-0 for 18 big points in the high jump, and juniors Jason Dingle (12-0) and Dontavis Wilson (10-6) went 2-3 in the pole vault for 14 more points.

In the shot, sophomore Deonte Allen (42-5 3/4) and senior Emmanuel Lewis III (42-0) and Nyle Thompson (40-10) added 12 points.

Senior Jayaire King won the 400 in 51.39, placed third in the high hurdles in 7.74 and ran on Willingboro’s fourth-place 1,600-meter relay team.

The Chimeras also got points from junior Zaire Clement (fifth in 55 in 6.86) and senior Kevin Peterson (fourth in hurdles in 7.87).

Want a little history?

Here’s a complete list of every state and sectional title the Willingboro program has produced:

BOYS
State Relays (14)
1982 [Group 4]
1983 [Group 4]
1985 [Group 3]
1986 [Group 3]
1987 [Group 3]
1990 [Group 4]
1996 [Group 4]
2000 [Group 3]
2001 [Group 3]
2002 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]
2005 [Group 3]
2012 [Group 3]
2015 [Group 1]
2017 [Group 1]
2018 [Group 1]
2019 [Group 1]

Indoor Sectionals (4)
2011 [CJ-Group 2]
2012 [CJ-Group 2]
2015 [CJ-Group 1]
2016 [Group 2]
2017 [CJ-Group 1]
2018 [CJ-Group 1]
2019 [CJ-Group 1]

Indoor States (12)
1983 [Group 4]
1986 [Group 3]
1987 [Group 3]
1988 [Group 3]
1989 [Group 3]
1990 [Group 4]
1995 [Group 4]
1997 [Group 4]
2000 [Group 3]
2002 [Group 3]
2012 [Group 2]
2018 [Group 1]

Outdoor Sectionals (15)
1977 [Group 4]
1978 [Group 4]
1979 [Group 4]
1980 [Group 4]
1982 [Group 4]
1986 [Group 3]
1988 [Group 3]
1990 [Group 4]
1991 [Group 4]
1993 [Group 4]
2000 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]
2004 [CJ-3]
2005 [CJ-3]
2012 [Group 2]
2018 [Group 2]

Outdoor States (12)
1979 [Group 4]
1981 [Group 4]
1982 [Group 4]
1986 [Group 3]
1988 [Group 3]
1989 [Group 3]
1990 [Group 4]
1991 [Group 4]
1993 [Group 4]
1994 [Group 4]
2002 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]

GIRLS
State Relays (9)
1992 [Group 4]
1993 [Group 4]
1995 [Group 4]
1997 [Group 4]
2002 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]
2004 [Group 3]
2005 [Group 3]
2010 [Group 2]
2019 [Group 1]

Indoor Sectionals (1)
2010 [Group 1]

Indoor States (6)
1980 [All-Groups]
1981 [Group 4]
1998 [Goup 3]
2002 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]
2004 [Group 3]

Outdoor Sectionals (6)
1980 [Group 4]
1981 [Group 4]
1985 [Group 3]
1992 [Group 4]
1999 [Group 3]
2003 [Group 3]

Outdoor States (4)
1980 [Group 4]
1981 [Group 4]
1999 [Group 3]
2002 [Group 3]

Samuel Gerstenbacher, a Schalick graduate, broke a 16-year-old Elizabethtown (Pa.) school record Friday night when he ran 3,000 meters in 8:33.17.

Gerstenbacher, racing at the NYU Invitational, placed second to Matt Tuohy of Ramapo, who ran 8:32.59 over the banked 200-meter track at the 168th Street Armory.

Gerstenbacher broke the school record of 8:33.80 set in 2003 by Steve Sanko at a meet at Susquehanna, Pa.

It was the oldest record in the Elizabethtown indoor track record book.

Gerstenbacher’s previous 3,000 PR was 8:40.82 in December at a meet at Franklin & Marshall University in Lancaster, Pa.

Sanko also holds the outdoor record of 8:26.78, which he set on Elizabethtown’s home track in April of 2004. Gerstenbacher’s time is No. 2 in school history indoors or out.

Sanko ran scholastically at Bishop Hafey High in Hazleton, Pa., which has since closed.

Iyanla Kollock, a Rutgers freshman out of Our Lady of Mercy, ran a 60-meter dash PR of 7.69 Friday at the Metropolitan Indoor Championships at the Ocean Breeze track in Staten Island.

She placed third out of 33 sprinters, behind only Fairleigh Dickinson junior Kylia Smith and senior teammate Oniesha Clarke, who ran 7.54 and 7.60.

Kollock entered the meet with a PR of 7.77 from the trials of the John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston University last weekend. She lowered that to 7.75 in the trials before lowering it again in the finals.

Kollock was state Parochial B champ in the 100 last spring won state titles in the 200 as a sophomore and senior. She was also a two-time state champ in the 55 indoors at the Newfield, Gloucester County, school.

St. Augustine senior Sincere Rhea lowered his hurdles PR and Camden County record to 7.29, tied for sixth-fastest in state history, at the Bullis Champion Speed Invitational at the Armory this weekend.

Rhea placed third in a loaded field. The race was won by national outdoor 110 highs champ Kurt Powder of Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake, Va., who ran a personal-best 7.04. Andre Turay of the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., was second in 7.26.

Those are the top three times in the U.S. so far this year, according to the MileSplit USA rankings. Powdar’s 7.04 is No. 2 in U.S. history.

Rhea’s previous PR was a 7.32 at the Armory last month.

Rhea, fourth at nationals last spring and the Meet of Champions winner last winter, is now tied for third-fastest in South Jersey history behind only Sultan Tucker of Delsea, who ran 7.18 in 1996, and Willingboro’s Isaac Williams, who ran 7.22 at the 2012 Meet of Champions.

ALL-TIME N.J. 55-METER HURDLES LIST
7.07 … Cory Poole [East Orange Campus], 2017
6.9h … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains], 1985
7.18 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 1996
7.19 … Jermaine Collier [Trenton], 2012
7.22 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
7.22 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], 2012
7.29 … Nate Harley [Pleasantville], 1996
7.29 … Danyne Brown [Camden], 1999
7.29 … Will Brown [Palmyra], 2006
7.29 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 2019
7.31 … Akeem Lindo [East Orange Campus], 2018
7.32 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 2018
7.32 … Stephan Fletcher [Princeton], 1983
7.32 … Jon Dickey [Penns Grove], 1985
7.32 … Jeff Porter [Franklin Twp.], 2003
7.32 … Al-Tariq Dunson [East Orange], 2018
7.32 … Isaiah Greene [Newark West Side], 2018
7.34 … Chais Hill [Highland], 2015
7.34 … Barry McClain [Trenton], 1981
7.34 … Devon Hill [Trenton], 2008
7.1h … Jon Dickey [Penns Grove], 1985
7.35 … Todd Walthall [Seton Hall], 1988
7.35 … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1990
7.35 … Darius Pemberton [Hackensack], 1993
7.35 … Devon Hill [Trenton], 2008
7.36 … Tony Davis [Scotch Plains], 1982
7.36 … Jerome Pemberton [Hackensack], 1986
7.36 … Chris Stephans [Plainfield], 2001
7.36 … Christian Boateng [Old Bridge], 2011
7.36 … Greg Caldwell [West Windsor-Plainsboro North], 2012
7.37 … Ihmir Marsette [Weequahic], 2017
7.37 … Benjamin Aidoo [Sayreville], 2016
7.37 … Basil Campbell [Ewing], 2003
7.37 … Andrew Aguilera [Governor Livingston], 2017
7.38 … Mike Wasko [Sayreville], 1982
7.39 … Rashad Baker [Wilson], 2000

ALL-TIME S.J. 55-METER HURDLES LIST
7.18 … Sultan Tucker [Delsea], 1996
7.22 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
7.22 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], 2012
7.29 … Nate Harley [Pleasantville], 1996
7.29 … Danyne Brown [Camden], 1999
7.29 … Will Brown [Palmyra], 2006
7.29 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], 2019
7.32 … Jon Dickey [Penns Grove], 1985
7.34 … Chais Hill [Highland], 2015
7.1h … Jon Dickey [Penns Grove], 1985
7.1h … Jim Little [Moorestown], 1976
7.1h … Marc Dickerson [Willingboro], 1979
7.1h … George Bland [Penns Grove], 1987
7.35 … Gerard Reynolds [Willingboro], 1990
7.39 … Rashad Baker [Wilson], 2000
7.42 … Kevon Brown [West Deptford], 2009
7.42 … Anthony Acklin [Triton], 2001
7.43 … Danyne Brown [Camden], 1999
7.43 … Edwin Alston [Winslow Twp.], 2015
7.45 … Kevin Hagamin [Timber Creek], 2014
7.46 … Syteek Farrington [Camden], 2010
7.47 … Darius Holmes [Willingboro], 2012
7.48 … Reuben McCoy [Winslow Twp.], 2004
7.48 … Tyrell Ross [Clearview], 2005
7.49 … Devon Carter [Washington Twp.], 2010
7.49 … Vince Rawlins [Eastern], 1991
7.49 … Chris Nichols [Willingboro], 1991

Woodbury senior Josh Washington annihilated his 55-meter dash PR this weekend at the Ocean Breeze Invitational.

Washington lowered his PR from 6.58 to 6.49 — nearly a 10th of a second — when he placed second to Daiyaan Hawkins of the Haverford School for Boys in suburban Philly.

In the trials, Hawkins led all qualifiers in 6.52 and Washington ran 6.58, which tied his PR from the Ursinus College Holiday Open last month in suburban Philly.

In the finals, Hawkins won in 6.45, outlining Washington, who was second in 6.49.

Washington’s time is No. 4 in New Jersey this year, No. 1 in South Jersey and also fastest by any Group 1 runner state-wide.

Washington is closing in on the school record of 6.43 set at the 2013 Meet of Champions by Anthony Everett, when he placed second by a 100th of a second to Haddon Heights’ Dominique Irons.

Washington’s time is No. 6 in Gloucester County history

The Gloucester County record is 6.34 by A.J. Bunton of West Deptford in 2006.

6.34 … A.J. Bunton [West Deptford], 2006
6.38 … James Brown [Glassboro], 2009
6.43 … Anthony Averett [Woodbury], 2013
6.47 … Thomas Hampton [Clayton], 2018
6.48 … Clayton Crosse [Washington Twp.]. 2016
6.49 … Josh Washington [Woodbury], 2019

The South Jersey and state Group 1 races are shaping up to be terrific battles between Washington and Clayton’s Thomas Hampton, the top-ranked Group 1 sprinters in the state this winter, both from Gloucester County.

Here’s every South Jersey runner that’s run sub-6.50 fully automatic in the 55-meter dash:
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6.30 … Jamar Ervin [Camden], 2001
6.31 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], 1984
6.34 … A.J. Bunton [West Deptford], 2006
6.36 … Kenny Reynolds [Willingboro], 1986
6.37 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], 1979
6.38 … James Brown [Glassboro], 2009
6.39 … Damiere Byrd [Timber Creek], 2009
6.41 … Chris Church [Millville], 2007
6.42 … Thomas Walls [Wilson], 2006
6.42 … Dominique Irons [Haddon Heights], 2013
6.43 … George McKey [Willingboro], 1982
6.43 … Anthony Averett [Woodbury], 2013
6.45 … Paul Wheeler [Willingboro], 1983
6.45 … Sherron Bullock [Camden], 2004
6.45 … Rob McGriff [Camden], 2006
6.45 … Antonio Tarantino [Paul VI], 2018
6.46 … Albert Newkirk [Camden], 1996
6.46 … Darnell Charles [Oakcrest], 2012
6.46 … Kashif Miller [Haddon Heights], 2014
6.47 … Anthony Jones [Edgewood], 1982
6.47 … Darren Ford [Vineland], 2004
6.47 … Reggie Morton [Oakcrest], 2012
6.47 … Curtis Fitzpatrick [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2013
6.47 … Jonathan Taylor [Salem], 2016
6.47 … Thomas Hampton [Clayton], 2018
6.48 … Gary Gordon [Willingboro], 1995
6.48 … Fabian Santiago [Oakcrest], 2012
6.48 … Caleb Williams [St. Joe’s-Hammonton], 2015
6.48 … Clayton Crosse [Washington Twp.]. 2016
6.49 … Louis Smith [Burlington Twp.], 1997
6.49 … Michael Bolling [Willingboro], 2001
6.49 … Martin Booker [Pennsauken], 2016
6.49 … Ryquell Amstead [Millville], 2014
6.49 … Josh Washington [Woodbury], 2019

Ocean City sophomore Alexa Palmieri recorded a big 3,200 PR Monday night at the Bennett Center and moved into the No. 2 spot on the 2019 South Jersey list with an 11:09.51 win.

Palmieri ran 11:09 despite winning by nearly 80 seconds, about a lap and a half  on the flat 200-meter track in Toms River.

Palmieri’s previous indoor PR was an 11:17.80 last year at states on the same track, so she reduced that by over eight seconds. Her overall PR was 11:15.24 at last spring’s Cape Atlantic meet at Bridgeton, where she placed second, only four seconds behind Mainland’s Alyssa Aldridge.

The only faster time so far this winter by a South Jersey girl over 3,200 meters belongs to Eustace senior Katy Storti, who ran 11:07.82 at the Bennett Center two weeks ago.

Palmieri’s time is No. 9 in the state so far this year. She’s the third Ocean City girl to run sub-11:10 since 2015, joining Meet of Champs winner Devon Grisbaum (10:45.20) and Alexa Weber (11:05.02 in 2017).