Bloomfield freshman Daveigh Brooks, a Burlington City graduate, had a tremendous day at the Coach Pollard Invitational at Moravian College in Bethlehem Saturday.

Brooks placed third in the 400 with a big personal-best time of 48.52. Brooks was the top freshman in the race and finished behind only Ithaca’s Dan Harden-Marshall (48.19) and Nazareth’s Nick LaBarbera (48.43).

Brooks’ previous PR was a 48.99 two weeks ago in a meet at Ramapo. His fastest 400 in high school was a 48.98 to win the 2016 state Group 1 title at Egg Harbor.

Brooks also placed sixth out of 38 runners in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, an event he had not run since the 2016 BCSL Divisional Meet at Northern Burlington. Despite not running the intermediates in two years, he ran 55.98. His previous PR was a 58.55 from the BCSL meet, when he ran second to Kelvin Harmon of Palmyra.

And Brooks ran leadoff on Bloomfield’s winning 1,600-meter relay team, which clocked 3:16.69 and nearly broke the meet record of 3:16.38, set by East Stroudsburg in 2014.

The second leg on that relay team was handled by Willingboro graduate Tyler Davidson, a Bloomfield sophomore and a state champion in the 400IH for the Chimeras in 2016. Davidson did not run the intermediates at Moravian Saturday.

Sincere Rhea, the Meet of Champions winner indoors in the 55 hurdles, is off and running this spring. Rhea ran his first open high hurdles race this weekend at the Eighth Annual Bensalem (Pa.) Invitational and PR’d twice in the 110 highs.

Rhea, a St. Augustine junior, ran a personal-best 14.47 to lead all qualifiers in the prelims and then won the final in 14.45. Coming into the race, Rhea’s PR was 14.99 from his freshman year state Parochial A meet at Egg Harbor, when he placed fifth.

Rhea’s time is No. 1 in New Jersey so far this spring. He ranked ran 7.35 indoors, which ranked 14th nationally, according to the Milesplit database.

Rhea won by a whopping six meters over Nasan Robbins of Pennsbury High of Fairless Hills, Pa., who was second in 15.33.

The Camden boys ran 1:30.47 to win the 800-meter relay Friday evening at the Temple Twilight Invitational at the Don & Shelly Boyce track at Temple University in North Philly.

Camden edged out Roman Catholic of Philadelphia by about half a second. The Panthers’ time is No. 1 in New Jersey this year and Camden’s fastest 4-by-200 in at least 10 years.

The official results from Temple don’t list relay members, so if anybody knows who ran for Camden, please post the names in the comments section. We’d love to report them along with the news of the N.J. #1 time for 2018.

Camden also ran 43.11 for the 400-meter relay, also No. 1 in New Jersey this year in the early going.

The Pennsauken girls won the 400-meter relay Friday night at the Temple Relays Twilight Meet at the Dan & Shelly Boyce Track at Temple University in North Philly.

Pennsauken ran 49.29, winning by more than a second over Success Academy High School of Liberal Arts of Manhattan, which was second in 50.30.

Pennsauken’s time is No. 1 in New Jersey this year by nearly a second over Piscataway’s 50.11.

Freshmen Jon’Nay Lloyd, Jade Pope and Jasmine Pope and senior Brianna Bryan ran for Pennsauken, whose time is fastest by a Pennsauken 4-by-100 since the 2015 team ran 48.87 at states.

Using the same lineup, Pennsauken also won the 800-meter relay with a 1:45.13, which is No. 1 in South Jersey this year and No. 3 in the state behind only Union Catholic and Union, neighboring schools that ran 1:44.60 and 1:44.70 at the Metuchen Relays last weekend. Success was also second in the 4-by-2, more than a second behind Pennsauken.

Jade Pope also won the high jump at 5-3.

 

The Cinnaminson boys posted the fastest 3,200-meter relay time this year by a South Jersey school Wednesday night and a possible Penn Relays qualifier.

The team of senior Justin Arnold, sophomore Austin Gabay, junior Tommy Ungvarsky and senior Max Adams ran 8:08.72, placing fifth sixth overall at the 11th annual Holmdel Twilight Series Penn Qualifier at Bob Roggy Stadium.

Arnold led off with a 2:02.7 and Gabay followed with a 2:01.0 split. Ungvarsky ran 2:04.4 and Adams anchored with a 2:00.5.

There is no set time to qualify for Penn. The top 35 small schools and top 35 large schools are accepted, and the top 12 overall times advance to the Championship of America race.

The four 4-by-800s are scheduled for Friday morning starting at 9:20 a.m. and the Championship of America race is 4:05 p.m. Saturday. The 123rd annual Penn Relays is scheduled for April 26-28 at Franklin Field in West Philadelphia.

Voorhees won with a 7:59.72, and seven other schools broke 8:10. The race produced the eight-fastest times by New Jersey schools this year.

The only other South Jersey school in the field was Egg Harbor Township, which ran 8:09.01.

The Penn Relays distance medley and 3,200-meter relay qualifiers will be announced Monday morning.

This is the fourth time in the last five years Cinnaminson has run at least one sub-8:10 3,200-meter relay:

2014: 8:07.05
2016: 8:08.51
2017: 8:08.74
2018: 8:08.72

Woodstown graduate Ta’riq Thomas, a five-time NCAA All-America at Delaware Valley College, recorded an impressive jumps double Wednesday night at the 8th annual Gwynedd-Mercy Mid-Week Twilight Invitational at Gwynedd-Mercy College’s track in Montgomery County.

On a cold, breezy night, Thomas won the long jump by more than a foot at 23-2 and won the triple jump by nearly four feet with a 45-10 1/2. Both are season bests.

According to the Direct Athletics database, he ranks eighth in NCAA Division 3 in the long jump and 18th in the triple jump.

Thomas has PRs of 24-0 in the long jump from a meet this past indoor season at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse and 48-9 3/4 in the triple jump from a meet last spring at Swarthmore.

Thomas also ran on Delaware Valley’s 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams Wednesday evening.

Rancocas Valley senior Nick Mirabelli and Schalick senior Zyra Thomas will lead a large South Jersey contingent to the 123rd annual Penn Relays later this month at Franklin Field on the University of Pennsylvania campus in West Philadelphia.

Mirabelli is the No. 2-ranked javelin thrower in the U.S at 220-10, and Thomas was the national shot put champion indoors with a 47-5 3/4.

High school acceptances in the 3,200-meter relay and distance medley won’t be announced until next week, but the Penn Relays announced the qualifiers for the individual high school events on Monday.

Athletes in the javelin, discus and 400-meter hurdles were able to use marks from last spring to qualify, since those events aren’t contested indoors. Athletes in all the other events could use marks from either the indoor season or the first few weeks of outdoors. The qualifying deadline was this past Sunday.

Here’s a look at the South Jersey athletes who will make the trip to Philadelphia for this year’s running of the oldest annual track meet in the world!

123rd Annual Penn Relays, Franklin Field
Thursday, April 26
Friday, April 27
Saturday, April 28

BOYS
400-meter hurdles, 9 a.m., Saturday
Kervens Mezilus, Cherry Hill East [53.28]
High Jump, 1:45 p.m., Friday
Kasso Peaks, Eastern [6-6]
Triple Jump, Noon, Saturday
Khaliel Burnett, Delsea [49-1]
Shot Put, 4:30 p.m., Friday
Kamron Kobolak, Cinnaminson [62-7 3/4]
Bill Goldsborough, Delsea [58-8 3/4]
Discus, 12:45 p.m., Friday
Tyler Anzisi, Egg Harbor Twp. [158-10]
Javelin, 2:45 p.m., Friday
Nick Mirabelli, Rancocas Valley [220-10]

GIRLS
400-meter hurdles, 10:20 a.m., Thursday
Jewel Ash, Eastern [1:02.11]
High jump, 2:30 p.m., Thursday
Tierra Hooker, Timber Creek [5-10]
Pole vault, 1:30 p.m., Thursday
Ashley Preston, Delsea [12-7]
Long jump, 1:45 p.m., Thursday
Tionna Tobias, Winslow Twp. [19-8 1/4]
Shot put, 3:30 p.m., Thursday
Zyra Thomas, Schalick [47-5 3/4]
Ciarra Johnson, Winslow Twp. [40-5]
Sydney Thomas, Haddon Heights [40-7 1/2]
Discus, 11:15 a.m., Thursday
Alexis Harrison, Millville [126-10]
Javelin, 4:45 p.m., Thursday
Brielle Smith, Oakcrest [145-0]
Alexa Gardner, Hammonton [142-1]

`

Olivier Paul’s first college intermediate hurdles race was a good one. Paul, an Oakcrest graduate, ran 54.97 to win the 400 hurdles on his home track at Stockton University in the Stockton Invitational. Paul won by about four meters.

Paul had a very good indoor season. He was second in the NJAC meet at 400 meters indoors and ran the 400 leg on Stockton’s 10:21.84 distance medley. He made his outdoor debut last weekend with the IH win.

Paul ranks 23rd in NCAA Division 3 and is the No. 3 freshman in the country, according to the Direct Athletics database.

At Oakcrest, Paul ran as fast as 53.65 to win the South Jersey Group 2 sectionals at Central Regional in Bayville.

Paul spent last year at Holy Family College in Northeast Philadelphia but according to archived results on the Holy Family web site he never competed for the Tigers.

Cade Antonucci continued his astounding freshman year at Auburn with a 13-foot javelin PR Saturday at the Jim Click Shootout at the Roy P. Drachman Stadium at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The Holy Spirit graduate bombed a 231-5 to win the meet and lead a 1-2-3 Auburn sweep. The only better throw in Auburn history is Justin Carter’s 239-7 at the 2014 SEC championships in Lexington, Ky.

Antonucci opened at 206-1 and followed with a 198-10 before hitting his 231-5 on his third throw. He fouled, then passed and then finished with a 199-7.

Antonucci, a Mays Landing native, moved up to No. 12 among collegiate throwers, according to the DirectAthletics data base, and he’s also No. 12 among U.S. men, according to the IAAF database.

Before Saturday, Antonucci’s PR was his 220-11 from last year’s Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington. He approached that with a 218-8 two weeks ago at the Florida State Relays in Tallahassee.

Before the Meet of Champs last spring, Antonucci’s PR was a 206-10 from the state Parochial B meet his junior year. He has since thrown 220-11, 217-9, 218-8 and 231-5 in his last four meets.

At Holy Spirit, Antonucci threw 169-1 in the discus, 59-5 1/4 in the shot and 220-11 in the javelin.

Antonucci’s 231-5 is the No. 2 mark in college track this spring by a freshman. Anderson Peters of Mississippi State via Grenada opened with a 268-10 at the Bulldog Relays last month in Starkville, Miss.

His teammate, former NCAA champ Curtis Thompson of Florence, has not thrown this year.

The New Jersey Milesplit database only shows a handful of career meets that Mainland Regional senior Kobe Roberts has thrown the javelin in.

There were three meets in 2016 and two last year, so the Jim Camburn Relays on Friday appears to be Roberts’ sixth career major meet in three years of high school track.

Talk about coming out of nowhere. The elusive Roberts, who is also Mainlands quarterback during football season, threw 197-1 in the large-school javelin competition at Buena, winning by more than 30 feet.

It’s the No. 2 throw in the state this year, behind only RV senior Nick Mirabelli’s 220-10 last weekend at the Rebel Relays in Howell, and it appears to be the No. 2 mark in Atlantic County history with the new implement, behind only Holy Spirit’s Cade Antonucci’s 220-11 at last year’s Meet of Champions.

Roberts’ previous career-best was a 184-4 at the same meet last year. His best throw ever outside Buena was a 172-5 at the 2016 South Jersey Group 3 sectionals at Northern Burlington.