Winslow Township junior Tionna Tobias shattered the all-groups state championship long jump record Friday when she won the Group 3 title with a 19-11 1/2 leap at Central Regional in Bayville.

Tobias broke her PR of 19-8 1/4, set this past February at Easterns at the Armory, and broke her outdoor PR of 19-7 1/2, set at last year’s Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.

She leaped just HALF AN INCH from becoming the eighth 20-foot jumper in state history and only the third in South Jersey history.

Nonetheless, her jump is No. 8 in state history including indoor and outdoors marks and No. 3 in South Jersey history and the best by a South Jersey jumper in 26 years.

Tobias broke the school record of 19-9 1/4, set by Cidae’a Woods at the 2013 state Group 3 meet at South Plainfield, by just 2 1/4 inches.

She broke the overall state meet record of 19-10 1/2 set in 1984 by Rahway’s Claire Connor. That was also the Group 3 mark.

The only South Jersey jumpers who’ve gone farther than Tobias are two-time long jump Olympian Carol Lewis of Willingboro, who set the U.S. high school record of 21-7 3/4 in 1980, and Tenecia Smith of Cherry Hill East, who jumped 20-0 1/2 in 1992.

Tobias’s jump is No. 5 in the country among high school juniors, according to the MileSplit database. She’s already qualified for the USATF junior nationals later this month in Bloomington, Ind.

https://www.iaaf.org/records/toplists/jumps/long-jump/outdoor/women/u18/2018?regionType=world&windReading=regular&page=1&bestResultsOnly=true

Here’s the all-time state list, with every 19-foot jumper indoors or outdoors:

21­-7 ¾ …… Carol Lewis (Willingboro), 1980
20-11 ¾ … Keturah Orji (Mount Olive), 2014
20­-9 ………. Clair Connor (Rahway), 1984
20-7i ………. Sydney McLaughlin (Union Catholic), 2017
20-2 ………. Keturah Orji (Mount Olive), 2013
20­-0 ½ ….. Teneacia Smith (Cherry Hill East), 1992
20­-0 ½ ….. Cassandra Grant (Passaic), 1980
20-0 ……… Caitlyn Salisbury (Hawthorne), 2016
19-11 ½ …. Tionna Tobias (Winslow Twp.), 2018
19-9 ¼ ….. Cidae’a Woods (Winslow Twp.), 2013
19­-8 ¾ ….. Demeika Tweedy (Plainfield), 1993
19-7 ½ ….. Helen Wilks (Bridgeton), 1993
19­-6 ………. Sharon Johnson (Newark Central), 1982
19-6i ………. Iana Amsterdam (Newark Tech), 2013
19-5 ¾ …… Tatiyanna Sanders (Paramus Catholic), 2014
19-5 ¾ …… Kayla Richardson (Columbia), 2014
19-5 ¼ …… Mariah Browne (South Brunswick), 2010
19-5 ………. Essence Mayers (Lakewood), 2010
19-5 ……… Nyamekye Opoku-Agyemang (Union), 2017
19­-4 ¾ …… LaShonda Carter (Rahway), 2006
19-4 ¾ …… Gabrielle Farquharson (Williamstown), 2011
19­-4 ………. Jen McDermott (Ridgewood), 1989
19-4 ………. Linda Hayes (Monmouth), 1985
19-4 ………. Emily Carson (Haddonfield), 2012
19-3 ¾ …….Hannah Taylor (Montgomery), 2016
19­-8i ………. Celeste Holder (Parisppany), 2006
19-3 ………. Tionna Tobias (Winslow Twp.), 2017
19-2 ¾ …….Asia Young (Holy Spirit), 2016
19-2 ½ ….…Gabrielle Bennett (Winslow Twp.), 2015
19-2 ¼ ….…Chino Anukwuem (Hanover Park), 2016
19­-2 ………. Robin Taylor (Deptford), 1980
19-1 ¾ …… Timia Joseph (Morris Knolls), 2016
19­-1 ½I ……. Carlene Cummings (Englewood), 1997
19-1 ¼i ……. Kelsey Viera (Hillsborough), 2015
19-1 ¼ …….Sydney McLaughlin (Union Catholic), 2015
19­-1 ……….. Nena Moore Cherry Hill W), 1995
19­-1 ………. Alaina Alfano (Hanover Park), 2005
19-1 ………. Yvonne Wolef (Middle Twp.), 2012
19-1 ………. Tiffany Bautista (Paramus Catholic), 2017
19­-0 ¾ …… Jen Schweizer (Morris Knolls), 1989
19-0 ½I ……. Natalia Hinton (Newark Tech), 2013
19-0 ¼ ….. Morgan McLaughlin (Union Catholic), 2012
19-0 ¼ …… Jasmine Staten (Lenape), 2016
19­-0 ………. Leticia Beverly (Newark Central), 1984
19-0 ………. Adriene Davis (Newark Central), 1988
19-0 ………. Danielle Grady (Notre Dame), 1996

Hammonton senior Alexa Gardner popped a 135-7 to win the state Group 3 javelin title Friday at Central Regional in Bayville.

Gardner won by more than 10 feet over junior Kali Grayson of Long Branch.

It was the second straight state Group 3 javelin title for Gardner, who won last year’s meet with a 142-1 bomb.

Ayana Culhane of Absegami won the 2016 meet with a 143-11, so Atlantic County girls have won the state Group 3 javelin title three years in a row.

Gardner’s top throw this year is a 138-8 last weekend at sectionals. She has now been over 130 feet in four straight meets, and she’s unbeaten since placing second to Oakcrest’s Brielle Smith’s 150-3 at the Atlantic County meet at Buena.

Gardner is the first girl to win consecutive state Group 3 javelin titles since Hannah Mayer of Northern Highlands in 2009 and 2010

Cinnaminson sophomore Austin Gabay became Cinnaminson’s fourth sub 4:18 miler Friday when he PR’d with a fast 4:17.79 for fifth place at the state Group 2 meet at Central Regional in Bayville.

Gabay joins Matt Poskus (4:14.60 in 2007), Jon Anderson (4:15.28 in 2004) and Brian Tetreault (4:15.44 in 2007), who have all ran for ace distance coach Dan Fourney.

Gabay’s previous PR was a 4:21.58 at the Cherokee Night of Racing Tuesday night and before that it was 4:23.20 at the South Jersey Invitational. So he’s lowered his PR 5 1/2 seconds this week.

It looks like Gabay broke the Burlington County sophomore class record of 4:18.46 set at the 2008 state meet by Shawnee’s David Forward.

ALL-TIME BURLINGTON COUNTY SUB-4:19 LIST
4:11.15 … Ryan Garvin (Lenape), 2009
4:11.83y … Marc Pelerin (Cherokee), 2002
4:11.69 … Shawn Wilson (Cherokee), 2013
4:13.0y …  Rick Jacques (Burlington Twp.), 1968
4:14.60 … Matt Poskus (Cinnaminson), 2007
4:14.8y … Vance Watson (Willingboro), 1982
4:15.28 …  Jon Anderson (Cinnaminson), 2004
4:15.49 … Steve Burkholder (Cherokee), 2010
4:15.44 … Brian Tetreault (Cinnaminson), 2007
4:15.77 … Anthony Kelhower (Lenape), 2005
4:16.71y, i … David Forward (Shawnee), 2009
4:16.6y … Herb Gordon (Willingboro), 1982
4:16.86 … Mark Miller (Shawnee), 2017
4:16.93 … Ian Waterhouse (Rancocas Valley), 2004
4:17.34 … Chris Martin (Northern Burlington), 2014
4:17.39 … Chris Sallade (Shawnee), 1990
4:17.4y … Bob Mann (Willingboro), 1979
4:17.7y … Joe League (Holy Cross), 1972
4:17.79 … Austin Gabay (Cinnaminson), 2018
4:18.43y … Josh Joseph (Cherokee), 2000
4:18.52 … Rob Novak (Bordentown), 2005
4:18.3 … Rey Johnson (Willingboro), 1980
4:18.3 … Keith O’Brien (Shawnee), 1992
4:18.64 … Joshua DeJesus (Rancocas Valley), 2015
4:18.6 … Bryant Walker (Pemberton), 1983
4:18.7y … Mark Strucko (Rancocas Valley), 1979
4:18.91 … Steve Unger (Shawnee), 2003
4:19.96 … Kevin Lauer (Lenape), 2017
4:18.9y … Terry Delaney (Moorestown), 1979

Seneca senior Sydny Warner broke five minutes in the 1,600 for the first time at the state Group 3 meet at Central Regional in Bayville Friday.

Warner placed fifth in 4:59.80, lowering her PR of 5:04.50, which she ran at sectionals last weekend. Her PR before that was a 5:07.04 from last year’s Meet of Champions.

Warner broke the school record of 5:01.74 set in 2010 by Nicole McGrainer at the state meet.

Her time is fastest in South Jersey this year, pending other results from Friday.

The Group 3 race was crazy fast, with senior Caroline Sullivan of Northern Valley Old Tappan winning in 4:50.76, and senior Madison Brand [4:54.59], Allentown senior Devon Hoernlein [4:57.01], Colonia senior Shelby Picnic [4:58.32] and Warner all under 5:00.

Here’s the updated all-time Burlington County list. Warner is the eighth Burlington County girl to run under five minutes. She also moved ahead of Liz Moore, who was a teammate at Shawnee in the 1990s of her coach at Seneca, Karen O’Neil.

Here’s every Burlington County girl that’s ever run 5:02 or faster.

4:52.95 … Caitlin Orr (Lenape), 2009
4:55.66 … Megan Lacy (Cherokee), 2012
4:56.01 … Natalia Ocasio (Lenape), 2012
4:56.08 … Megan Quimby (Lenape), 2016
4:56.81 … Julia Despirito (Shawnee), 2014
4:57.96 … Erika Kemp (Rancocas Valley), 2013
4:59.60 … Brittnee Bynoe (Willingboro), 2004
4:59.80 … Sydny Warner (Seneca), 2018
5:00.14y … Lisa Burkholder (Cherokee), 2003
5:00.42 … Camille Franklin (Lenape), 2015
5:00.73i … Monica Olkowski (Cherokee), 1990
5:00.6h … Kari Vigerstol (Holy Cross), 1993
5:01.48 … Casey Doyle (Shawnee), 2008
5:01.63 … Alex Woltjen (Lenape), 2017
5:01.5h … Liz Moore (Shawnee), 1993
5:01.74 … Nicole McGrainer (Seneca), 2008
5:01.86i … Kristen Niedrach (Shawnee), 2012
5:01.9h … Kathy Sjolie (Kennedy), 1978

Pennsville junior Arianna Smith not only won a state title Friday, she did it with a MONSTER personal-best!

Smith, who entered competition with a 400-meter intermediate hurdles PR of 1:05.53 — from sectionals last weekend — lowered that by nearly three seconds on the Franklin track with a 1:02.76 to win the state Group 2 title.

Her time is fastest by a Salem County girl since Courtney Smith won the state Group 1 title with a 1:01.40 at South Plainfield in 2004.

Smith will also run the high hurdles and 400 at states and long jump.

Moments after Paul VI sophomore Aliya Rae Garozzo won the Parochial A 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 1:01.46 at Franklin Township, Eastern sophomore Jewel Ash nearly matched her with a 1:01.71.

They are the two-fastest times by South Jersey sophomores in the last 15 years!

Ash, second in last year’s state Group 4 meet, lowered her PR from 1:02.11 from last year’s Meet of Champions in winning the state Group 4 title.

Another South Jersey sophomore, Cinnaminson’s Meredith Updike, won the Group 2 race in 1:02.71, lowering her PR from 1:03.95. She became Cinnaminson’s first outdoor state champion on the track in 12 years, since Allison Tetreault used a late kick to win the Group 2 1,600 title at Egg Harbor in 2006. Prisca Blamon was the state champ in the discus last year.

That’s three South Jersey sophomores under 63 seconds in one day on one track!!! I’ll put together an all-time S.J. sophomore 400IH list tonight, but safe to say nothing like this has ever happened before!!!!!

Less than a month after she first broke 75 seconds in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, Paul VI sophomore Aliya Rae Garozzo is a state champion and one of New Jersey’s fastest hurdlers.

Garozzo won the 400 intermediates Friday at the state Parochial A meet with another remarkable PR of 1:01.46, fastest this year by a South Jersey girl and fastest by any New Jersey sophomore.

She ran her first serious big-meet race at the Rowan Invitational a month ago with a 1:05.74, then lowered her PR to 1:03.36 at the Camden County meet and 1:02.37 at sectionals before Friday’s state title and sub-62 breakthrough.

Her time is fastest by a South Jersey sophomore in at least 15 years. Zamira Isaac of Union Catholic took second in 1:01.93.

Garozzo is the first girl other than Olympian Sydney McLaughlin to win the Parochial A intermediates since 2013, and she’s the first Paul VI girl to win the event since Stephanie King in 2002.

Click below for all-time state champions, meet records, meet program, classifications, performance lists and more!

All-time boys state team champions

All-time girls state team champions

Boys states meet records

Girls states meet records

Official Meet program with meet records and order of events

Spring Classifications

Official Entry Lists [Groups 1, 4, Parochial A]

Official Entry Lists [Groups 2, 3, Parochial B]

 

Ta’riq Thomas, already the most decorated athlete in Delaware Valley College history, earned two more All-America honors at the NCAA Division 3 nationals at La Crosse, Wisc.

Thomas placed second in the long jump with a 24-11 1/4 jump and third in the triple jump with a personal-best 49-10.

He’s now a SEVEN-TIME NCAA Division 3 track All-America for the Doylestown-New Britain, Pa., school.

He’s also a three-time Middle Atlantic Conference Field Event Athlete of the Year, a nine-time MAC champion and a three-time Mideast Region Athlete of the Year.

Thomas averaged 24-6 on his six attempts in the long jumps, with a best of 24-11 1/4 on his first jump of the competition. He had to settle for second behind a Beamonesque jump by Montclair’s George Alexandris, a graduate of Fair Lawn – like Woodstown, a Group 1 school.

Alexandris broke the NCAA Division 3 record with a wind-aided 26-foot leap after beginning the day with a PR of 24-9.

The second-place finish is Thomas’s best ever in the long jump at nationals.

In the triple jump, Thomas’s PR 49-10 jump came on his third jump. Just like the long jump, he had a very consistent series, with a 49-0 opener, a 48-5 1/2, the PR 49-10, then a 48-7 and a 48-10 1/2 before he closed with a foul.

Thomas matched his best outdoor finish in the triple jump with his third place. He’s earned All-America honors in the triple jump alone five times.

Here’s a look at Thomas’s seven career All-America performances:

2018 outdoors
Long Jump – 24-11 1/4 [2nd]
Triple Jump – 49-10 [3rd]
2018 indoors
Long jump – 23-7 [3rd]
2017 outdoors
Triple jump – 47-10 3/4 [6th]
2017 indoors
Triple jump – 48-1 1/2 [2nd]
2016 outdoors
Triple jump – 48-8 1/4 [3rd]
2015 outdoors
Triple jump – 48-3 3/4 [6th]

One other note: In the triple jump, Stockton’s Jared Lewis, a Deptford graduate, placed sixth, earning his NINTH All-America honor. More on Jared soon!

Camden ran its fastest 4-by-1 in 11 years Saturday, winning the South Jersey Group 2 title in 42.42 and just missing the meet record.

Junior JaJuan Hudson, junior Ra’Mer Nock, senior Damon Rice and sophomore Hakeem Evans became the first Camden 400-meter relay team to win a sectional title (the 4-by-1 started in 2013), beating Barnegat by two meters on the Delsea track.

It was Camden’s fastest 4-by-1 since 2007, when the Panthers team of Ameer Waughs, Sherman Goree, Syteek Farrington and Chuckie Waughs placed third in the Large-School Championships at Penn with a 42.66 after a 42.58 in the heats. That group ran as fast as 42.05 at Woodbury.

Camden fell 1-100th of a second shy of the South Jersey Group 2 record of 42.41 set in 2016 by Mar-Quel Davis and Deptford and 2-100ths of a second shy of the overall South Jersey sectional mark of 42.40, set last year by Jonathan Taylor and Salem.

Camden and Barnegat are the top two seeds at states and the only two Group 2 schools that ran under 43 seconds at the various sectional meets.

Camden’s time is No. 6 in the state this year and No. 3 in South Jersey, behind only Bridgeton [42.20] and Deptford [42.28].

Nobody in state history has been as routinely fast over the years in the 4-by-1 as Camden, which owns five of the top 12 times in state history. Here’s a look at Camden’s fastest times … and don’t be surprised if this year’s team breaks into this list by the Meet of Champs!

41.09 … 2000
41.25 … 2004
41.25 … 2001
41.54 … 2002
41.62 … 2003
41.7h … 1996
41.83 … 1997
42.05 … 2007
42.07 … 2005

Rice was also second in the 400 [50.63], fifth in the 100 [10.98] and sixth in the 200 [22.65] for the Panthers. Hudson and Evans ran second and fourth in the 110 highs [14.96, 15.08], and Guest also ran on Camden’s fourth-place 4-by-4 team.