What a crazy breakthrough performance for Highland junior Nia Holden, who won the large-school 800 at the Camden County Championships Saturday at Haddon Township.

Holden came into the meet with an outdoor PR of 2:24.76 from last year’s Camden County meet, although she had a 2:22.79 to her credit from an indoor meet at the Bennett Center this past winter. And she did run 2:21-point a couple times during summer track.

But all that went out the window Saturday, when she ran 2:16.29 to win by 30 meters over Eastern’s Sydney Woolston, who finished second in 2:22.16.

Holden’s time is No. 1 in South Jersey this year and No. 5 in the state and No. 1 among juniors.

I’m not positive if it’s a Highland school record, but it’s the fastest by a Highland girl in at least 10 years.

I’ll have more on Holden’s race as I get more information!

Another huge PR for Baylor junior and Pennsville graduate Megan SaxvanderWeyden, who shattered her own school javelin record Friday.

SaxvanderWeyden registered an eight-foot PR PR with a 166-4 for third place at the Big 12 Championships at Clyde Hart Stadium in Waco, Texas.

She now ranks No. 26 in NCAA Division 3 and also No. 26 among all U.S. women.

SaxvanderWeyden becomes the third South Jersey woman this spring to surpass 160 feet in the javelin, which is remarkable.

Haddon Township graduate Brenna Smith, a senior at Liberty, threw 161-7 at the Duke Invitational two weeks ago, and Rancocas Valley graduate Danielle Steff, a freshman at Monmouth, threw 160-7 last weekend at the Metro Atlantic meet.

Incredibly, none of the three hit 140 feet in high school and none are even in the all-time South Jersey all-time top 10! Steff’s high school PR was 139-0, SaxvanderWeyden’s was 138-4 and Smith’s was 121-4.

Just shows what’s possible with determination, persistence and hard work!

SaxvanderWeyden had a very solid series, opening with a 158-3, 152-0 and 147-0 in the trials before hitting the 166-4 on her first throw of the finals. She finished with 154-6 and 156-7 for an average of 155-9 on six legal throws.

Before this weekend, SaxvanderWeyden’s PR was 158-7 from the Texas Christian Invitational in Fort Worth back in March.

 

Jasmine Staten, a freshman at Bloomfield College in North Jersey, won the 100-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash in meet-record times in her first college conference championship meet this past weekend. She picked up a third win in the 400-meter relay.

Staten ran 14.40 to easily win the 100 highs in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference meet at Georgian Court University in Lakewood. She finished 10 meters ahead of second-place Sarah Lallemand of Post, who ran 15.67. The CACC track championships are only in their third year of existence.

Staten has run as fast as 14.08 this spring, a time she reached in a meet in Newark late last month.

She ranks 31st nationally in NCAA Division 2 with that 14.08 and is the No. 2 freshman in NCAA Division 2 behind only Nicole Warwick of Asuza Pacific, who ran a 13.91 at the PacWest Championships last month in Fresno, Calif.

Staten won the 200 in 25.53 over freshman teammate Jayda Osborne, a Piscataway graduate, who was second in 25.91.

Staten graduated from Rancocas Valley but never competed for the Red Devils. As a sophomore at Lenape, she won the 200, 400, long jump and high hurdles at the Burlington County Open and she nearly repeated that quad win her junior year, winning three events and finished second to Aliyah Taylor of Pemberton in the 400.

Taylor and Staten were together for a year at R.V., although they were never teammates. Staten also won five sectional titles for Lenape.

At the CACC meet, Staten also led off Bloomfield’s winning 400-meter relay team, joining Osborne and sophomores Jazmine Wiggs and Felicia Haidara, who are both from Bowie, Md. That quartet set a meet-record of 48.09. Staten also placed fourth in the 400 in 1:00.18.

Bloomfield placed second team scoring with 196 points, just 15 points behind team champion Georgian Court, which won with 211.

Georgian Court head coach Mike Murawski is a Cinnaminson native who was a three-time state high jump champion for Holy Cross in 2002 and 2003.

Bridgeton senior Revell Williams put together a monster sprint double at the Cumberland County meet Thursday, winning the 100-meter dash in 10.82 and the 200 in 21.78.

Williams’ 100 time is No. 2 in New Jersey this year, behind only Cameron Shaw of Ridgefield Park, who ran 10.71 at the Big North Championships at River Dell High in Oradell earlier this year. His 200 performance is No. 3 in the state behind Mario Heslop of Franklin, who ran a U.S. #15 20.97 at the Skyland Conference Meet in Hillsborough this past weekend, and Paul VI senior Antonio Tarantino, who ran 21.59 at the South Jersey Invite.

The 100 time is a PR for Williams. His previous 100 PR was a 10.94 in the prelims of the state Group 2 meet at Northern Burlington last spring. He ran just off his 200 PR of 21.74, set at last year’s Cape-Atlantic meet on his home track at Bridgeton.

Williams’ 200 time is fastest by any Cumberland County sprinter in 19 years, since Nick Brown of Bridgeton ran 21.69 at the 1999 Meet of Champions at South Plainfield.

The only faster Cumberland County sprinter for 100 meters in the last 10 years was Ryquell Armstead of Millville, who ran 10.81 at the 2013 state Group 4 meet. Armstead is now a senior running back on the Temple football team.

 

 

Zyra Thomas has some company at the top of the Salem County shot put list. It’s junior teammate Ralazha Bell.

Thomas, the national indoor shot put champ at 47-5 3/4, was pushed by her less famous teammate Wednesday at the Salem County Championships, and by the time they were finished, Schalick had two of the top four shot putters in New Jersey Group 1.

Thomas wound up winning the Salem County title with a 40-2 3/4 on her final throw, but Bell was a surprise second-place finisher with a 4 1/2-foot PR of 38-9 1/4.

Schalick is now the only South Jersey school with two 38-foot shot putters this year and one of only three in the entire state. Jefferson has Stephanie Nwankwo at 42-0 and Alicia Boucher at 39-2 1/2, and Ridgewood has Jennifer Kozlowski at 38-2 1/2 and Lexi Uzoaru at 38-1 3/4.

Thomas ranks first in the state in Group 1 (and No, 2 overall) at 44-1, followed by Kassandra Ketcho of Hasbrouck Heights (41-11 1/2), Cydney Thomas of Collingswood (39-6 /4), and Bell.

Bell’s previous PR was a 34-2 at the West Deptford Relays last month, so the Schalick junior PR’d Wednesday by four feet, 7 1/4 inches.

Here’s where Bell’s story gets really interesting.

According to the MileSplit database, the only other major meet she’s ever thrown the shot was the Jim Camburn Relays the first weekend of the season, where she threw 33-11.

Thomas, a junior, competed in track the last two years but never competed in the shot until last month. She ran the 100, 200 and 400 and competed in the triple jump and high jump.

She’s versatile enough that she cleared 4-6 in the high jump Wednesday, placing second, and was also sixth in the 100, helping Schalick win the team title 151-61 over Woodstown. Schalick also won the boys title 116.50-100 over Woodstown.

Schalick is the first South Jersey Group 1 school with two shot putters over 38 feet in the same season in at least a decade.

Burlington City graduate Daveigh Brooks, Rancocas Valley grad Samuel Keleekai, Burlington Township’s Eddy Ongwenyi and Bridgeton’ Mikal Wright led a huge South Jersey contingent that led Bloomfield College to its first Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference track championship this past weekend.

Incredibly, Bloomfield won the conference title in what is only the program’s third year of existence, outscoring second-place Georgian Court, 196 1/2-192 1/2. The meet was held on Georgian Court’s track in Lakewood.

Bloomfield men’s and women’s coach Lisa Morgan-Richman is the architect of the legendary Columbia girls track program.

Brooks, a freshman, won the 400 in 48.94 and anchored Bloomfield’s winning 1,600-meter relay team, which was an all-freshman, all-Burlington County quartet that also included Ongwenyi, a sophomore, and Rancocas Valley graduates Samuel Keleekai and Isaiah Curbelo, a sophomore. That group ran 3:19.70.

Brooks also took fourth in the 400-meter hurdles in 55.22 and sixth in the 200 in 22.67.

Ongwenyi won the 400-meter hurdles in 54.61 and was third in the 400 in 49.83, and Keleekai was third in the 200 in 22.37 and sixth in the 100.

Bloomfield won the 400-meter relay in 42.28 with freshman DaJhon Graves of Irvington followed by three South Jersey sprinters — Keleekai, sophomore Wright of Bridgeton and freshman George Milton of Willingboro.

Wright also won the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.78, was third in the 100 in 11.06 , fifth in the 200 in 22.41 and fifth in the long jump at 20-4 1/2.

Sophomore Giovanna Aracena of Pleasantville and Curbelo took second and third in the 800 in 1:55.53 and 1:56.61 and fourth and seventh in the 1,500 (4:05.17, 4:11.29).

Freshman Ja’haud Lowber of Bridgeton placed second in the triple jump at 45-3 1/2, 5 1/2 inches behind Georgian Court sophomore Devin Martin, a Williamstown native who attended Holy Spirit. Martin was also second in the 110 hurdles in 15.34 and tied for third in the pole vault.

For more on the battle between Lowber and Martin, which helped decide the team title, click here.

Briana Roberts, a sophomore at University of Maryland Baltimore County via Pennsauken High School, ran a lifetime-best 2:13.11 for 800 meters this weekend at the America East Championships on her home track in Baltimore.

Roberts’ PR was 2:13.74 from states at Northern Burlington her senior year at Pennsauken, and her college PR was 2:16.90 at a meet last month at George Mason in Fairfax, Va. She also had an indoor PR of 2:16.99 from a meet in February of 2017 at Penn State.

But all that went by the wayside Saturday when she ran 2:13.11 in the trials of the 800 at the America East meet. She came back Sunday and ran 2:16.70 for seventh place in a very fast final that saw four women run sub-2:10.

Roberts also ran a leg on UMBC’s winning 3,200-meter relay team at the America East meet. She teamed with Bridgett Reading, Ariella Garcia and Kaya Knake to run 9:02.75.

Roberts was a conference and sectional champion at Pennsauken and a state medalist.

Cinnaminson senior Kamron Kobolak became the seventh member of an elite group of South Jersey throwers this weekend when he won the discus at the South Jersey Invitational with a mammoth heave of 177-6.

That made Kobolak the seventh thrower in South Jersey history to surpass both 60 feet in the shot and 175 feet in the discus.

Kobolak threw 62-7 3/4 indoors and PR’d at 61-0 outdoors at the SJI to complete his double.

He broke Burlington County outdoor records in both throws Thursday night at Delsea and moved into the No. 2 spot in the state this year in both throws.

It’s possible that somebody back in the 1960s or 1970s reached those milestones that I don’t have a record of. If you know of anybody missing, let me know!

THE S.J. ALL-TIME 60-175 CLUB
Ron Dayne [Overbrook, 1996], 64-6 1/4, 216-11
Braheme Days [Bridgeton, 2013], 70-8i, 199-6
Josh Awotunde [Delsea, 2013], 61-6, 192-5
Ray Wilks [Bridgeton, 1995], 64-6, 189-7
Matt Huckabee [Timber Creek, 2010], 61-2 1/2, 185-7
Nick Pulli [West Deptford, 2014], 63-1 1/2i, 179-11
Kamron Kobolak [Cinnaminson, 2018], 62-7 3/4i, 177-6

Aaniyah Robinson didn’t run faster than 12.56 in the 100 meters in high school, and she didn’t even run an open 100 at her college last year.

She never ran faster than 26.04 in high school in the 200 and her fastest 200 at American International in Springfield, Mass., last year was a 26.78 that earned her 18th place in her conference meet indoors.

Look at her now!

She’s a conference champion at both 100 meters and 200 meters, ranked 12th in NCAA Division 3 in the 100 and 29th in the 200 going into the NCAA Championships and anchor of one of the nation’s fastest 400-meter relay teams!!!

Robinson, a Rowan sophomore who grew up in Totowa and graduated in 2016 from Passaic County Tech in Wayne, had a tremendous NJAC meet this weekend, winning the 100 in a huge personal-best 12.06, also winning the 200 with a big PR of 25.12 and anchoring Rowan’s winning 400-meter relay team.

Whew.

Robinson’s 100 PR before Sunday was a 12.45 from a meet last month at Moravian, and her 200 PR was a 25.62 from a meet last month at Widener.

Let’s take a look at her performance this weekend:

100-METER DASH: Robinson PR’d in the trials with a 12.26 into a 0.4 meters-per-second wind and then led a 1-2-3 Rowan sweep in the finals with a huge PR of 12.06. Sidney McLeod-Whitener, a Philly native who ran at Friends Central, placed second in 12.39 and Danielle Cross of Matawan third in 12.40. Robinson ran within 1-10th of a second of the Rowan school record of 11.96, set two years ago by Pemberton graduate Shailah Williams.

200-METER DASH: Robinson again led all qualifiers with a 25.73 in the trials and again led three Lady Profs into the finals, with a PR of 25.12. Myiah Sturdivant, a freshman out of Timber Creek, ran second in 25.17 and Cross was fifth in 25.65 for Rowan.

400-METER RELAY: Cross, Aspen McMillan of South Brunswick (who had won the high hurdles) and McLeod-Whitener ran the first three legs to set up Robinson’s anchor. Rowan’s 47.58 is No. 11 in NCAA Division 3 this year.

The Rowan women outscored Stockton by 29 1/3 points, winning the team title 242.83-213.50, with The College of New Jersey third at 207.33.

Rowan has won five of the last seven team titles, losing only to TCNJ in 2014 and Stockton last year.

The Central Athletic Collegiate Conference men’s track championships came down to one event, and two Gloucester County natives led the way with huge performances.

With only the triple jump remaining in the CACC meet at Georgian Court in Lakewood Sunday, Bloomfield University led Georgian Court by three points, 184 ½-181 ½.

The team title was on the line, and both schools had their triple jumpers come up big.

Georgian Court sophomore Devin Martin, a Williamstown native and graduate of Holy Spirit, won the event with a personal-best and school-record 45-9 for 10 big points, and sophomore teammate DeShawn Lamar-Baldwin, a Bridgeton graduate, also scored, taking seventh at 42-11 on his only legal jump of the competition.

But Bloomfield got the points it needed to win the team title when freshman Ja’haud Lowber, a Deptford graduate, jumped an outdoor-PR 45-3 1/2 on his final attempt to move up from sixth to second.

Those six points delivered the team title to Bloomfield, 196 ½-192 ½.

Georgian Court sophomore Kennedy Omari from Cherry Hill East placed eighth, giving South Jersey four of the top spots in the event!

Martin’s previous PR was a 44-2 ¼ set indoors this past winter at a meet at Lehigh. Lowber’s PR is 45-10 ¾ from a meet at Ramapo in March.

Martin broke the school outdoor record of 44-4 ½, set last year by Lamar-Baldwin at a meet at The College of New Jersey. His previous outdoor PR was 44-1 ¾. Omari is the school record indoors at 44-3 ½ from a meet this past winter at the Ocean Breeze facility.

There were a bunch of remarkable performances by South Jersey athletes in this meet and we’ll write about a bunch of them in the next few days!