If you’re a long-time From the Backstretch reader, you know we love writing about fast people.

You also know our favorite stories are fast people who weren’t always fast.

Track and field is a sport where people improve at different rates and at different times. So many high school studs for whatever reason never run faster in college, but at the same time we love sharing stories about runners who didn’t have a lot of success in high school who take off in college.

Which brings is to Gavin Schmeck.

What a story!

And we thank Dave Stewart for the heads up about Gavin’s remarkable freshman year at Vermont.

First, some background. Schmeck’s PRs at Haddonfield were a pedestrian 2:11, 4:51 and 10:40. He ran a decent 16:22 in cross country on the Delsea speedway and was Haddonfield’s third runner at states in 2015, placing 15th overall with a 16:55 at Holmdel when the Bulldogs placed second to Voorhees in the state Group 2 meet.

Good solid runner at a terrific program. But no sign of what was to come next.

Schmeck walked on at the University of Vermont in Burlington this past fall, and as a freshman, he earned a spot on the Catamounts’ varsity XC team. And at the America East Championships, Schmeck was Vermont’s fifth runner, placing 32nd in 25:49 over 8K at Jerusalem Mill Park in Kingsville, Md.

Tremendous improvement. But he was just getting started.

This winter, he lowered his PRs to 4:22.27 for a full mile at the America East championships in Boston, 8:37.24 for 3,000 meters at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational (where he finished ahead of former Haddonfield teammate Greg Pelose), also in Boston and 15:07.41 for 5,000 meters at the America East meet.

A 4:22 mile from someone whose high school PR was 4:51 for 1,600 meters? Schmeck’s 800 PR in high school was 2:11, so he basically carried that pace over a race twice as long this past indoor season.

And this past weekend, in the first track 10,000 of his life, Schmeck ran 31:25:52 to win a tri-meet meet in Worcester, Mass., and qualify for IC4A’s.

What made this performance remarkable is that there were only two other runners and Schmeck was basically in no-man’s-land the whole race, with nobody finishing within 45 seconds of him.

That’s 25 laps solo at 15:42.6 5K pace.

Now consider that Schmeck’s high school 5,000 PR was 16:22 and you see how radical his improvement has been.

Last year, he ran 5:17 pace for his best 5,000 meters.

This past weekend, he ran 5:04 pace for 10,000 meters!

Twice as far 13 seconds per-mile faster!

Schmeck’s 31:25.52 is the No. 1 time in the America East Conference this spring.

Already an incredible story. And Schmeck is just getting started! It’ll sure be fun following his progress over the next few years!

Rancocas Valley junior Aliyah Taylor picked up where she left off indoors, with PRs in both the 100- and 200-meter dash at the Lenape Girls Invite on Saturday.

Taylor won the 100 in 11.95 and the 200 in 24.83. The 11.95 is a big PR, breaking her previous lifetime best of 12.08, when she won the Central Jersey Group 3 meet at Northern Burlington last spring. The 24.83 is an outdoor PR, although she ran 24.61 at indoor nationals last month. Her previous best outdoors was 25.40 also from her win at sectionals last year.

Here’s a look at every South Jersey girl that’s run under 12.00 fully automatic. Taylor’s 100 time is No. 14 in South Jersey history:

• 11.61 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], 1999
• 11.68 … Bria Mack [Williamstown], 2016
• 11.70 … Assante Johnson [Camden], 2009
• 11.73 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], 2014
• 11.77 … Aisha Morgan [Schalick], 1999
• 11.78 … Shameka Speed [Bridgeton], 2003
• 11.81 … Denise Liles [Kingsway], 1984
• 11.81 … Audrey Wilson [Deptford], 2008
• 11.82 … Annie Johnson [Shawnee], 2012
• 11.84 … Robin Taylor [Deptford], 1980
• 11.85 … Dana Burnett [Williamstown], 1996
• 11.88 … Denise Mitchell [Edgewood], 1983
• 11.94 … Emily Carson [Haddonfield], 2013
• 11.95 … Aliyah Taylor [Rancocas Valley], 2017
• 11.96 … Jamillah Nock [Woodrow Wilson], 2004
• 11.98 … Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2016
• 11.98 … Ciera Ismail [Schalick], 2014

Taylor now ranks No. 1 in New Jersey in both sprints, with Iyanla Kollock of Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Newfield No. 2 in both races, thanks to her second-place finishes in both races behind Taylor at the Lenape meet.

Kollock ran 12.30 and 25.52. Pollock was Meet of Champions runner-up in the 55 indoors at 7.00, 1-100th of a second behind Gloucester County rival Bria Mack of Williamstown. The 12.30 is a PR for Kollock, who ran 12.41 to win Parochial B sectionals last year. Her 200 PR is a 25.32 from sixth in last spring’s Meet of Champions.

 

Rowan’s deep stable of sprinters took advantage of some decent conditions Saturday and dominated the 100-meter dash at the Oscar Moore Invitational on campus in Glassboro.

In the final, senior Dior Hightower ran 10.74, sophomore Steven Jones 10.76 and sophomore Shai Mumford 10.77 to sweep the top three spots. Another Prof, senior Justyce Pollitt, ran 10.89 for sixth.

Rowan is now the only NCAA Division 3 school with three sprinters under 10.80 fully automatic.

Hightower actually ran 10.62 in the trials. All the performances were wind-aided. Hightower’s 10.62 was assisted by a considerable 4.1 meters-per-second wind, but the final was only slightly aided at 2.3 meters per second. Anything over 2.0 meters per second is considered wind-aided. The Division 3 performance list does not differentiate between wind-aided and wind-legal performances.

For unknown reasons, the 2017 NCAA Division 3 performance list does not list Hightower’s 10.62, although it does list other wind-aided performances. In any case, Hightower, Jones and Mumford should be ranked fifth, 12th and 14th in NCAA Division 3 so far this year.

All four are South Jersey natives and of the four, only one broke 11.00 in high school. This is the beauty of the Rowan track team. You don’t need to be a high school star to flourish in this program.

Cameron Dobbins of Rutgers-Camden via Williamstown High School ran 10.77 in the final, splitting Jones and Mumford, and sharing the No. 14 spot with Mumford. So four of the top 15 times in Division 3 this year came from the same race at the Oscar Moore Invite.

Dobbins has a PR of 10.70 from a meet last year at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa.

Rowan’s school record in the 100 is 10.67 by Ed Fortune back in 2002, and presumably only wind-legal marks are considered for record purposes at Rowan, so Hightower will not get credit for that at the moment.

Hightower’s previous PR was a 10.96 from the trials of the Morgan State Legacy meet last April in Baltimore. At Paul VI, his best time was an 11.55 from the prelims of the 2013 Olympic Conference meet at Washington Township.

Jones’ previous PR was a 10.95 in the trials of a meet a couple weeks ago at Widener University in Chester, Pa. His PR was a modest 11.24 during his career at Kingsway, from third place at the 2013 Tri-County Conference meet at Delsea.

Mumford’s previous PR was 10.78 from when he won the South Jersey Group 3 sectionals as a senior at West Deptford.

Pollitt has a PR of 10.82 dating back to the 2015 New Jersey Athletic Conference meet. His best at St. Augustine High School was 11.10 for fifth at the 2013 Cape Atlantic meet.

Needless to say, Rowan seems primed to put together a killer 400-meter relay. Rowan hasn’t loaded up a 4-by-1 yet this year. The school record is a 40.82 from 2002 with Fortune, Matt Davis, Jorge Santiago and Tyree Jackson.

The Profs’ best so far this year is a 42.00 on Saturday with only two of its top four 100 guys – Jonathan Ramirez and Dave Benjamin joined Mumford and Hightower.

Nick Mirabelli, little brother of 2013 Meet of Champion javelin winner Chris Mirabelli, moved into the No. 1 spot in New Jersey Saturday with a personal-best 198-0 at the Moorestown Invitational.

Mirabelli shattered his personal-best by more than 20 feet. His previous PR was a 176-11, good for third at last year’s state Group 4 meet, where he finished behind teammate Robert Marks (183-10) and Michael Sangimino of South Brunswick (183-7).

Chris Mirabelli, now a sophomore at Rutgers, threw for Holy Cross.

R.V. has a rich history of javelin throwers, going back to Drew Forbes, who threw 221-7 with the old javelin in 1978, and Jason Cowden, who won the 1999 Meet of Champions.

Mirabelli now joins his older brother on the all-time South Jersey list, which includes only marks made with the new javelin that’s been in use since 2002. Chris is No. 2 behind long-time rival Curtis Thompson, and Nick is already up to No. 6. Here’s the current 190-foot club:

224-10 … Curtis Thompson (Florence), 2014
216- 6 … Chris Mirabelli (Holy Cross), 2014
203- 6 … Stephen Benigno (Cherry Hill East), 2014
201- 0 … Sean Biehn (Burlington City), 2006
200- 8 … Cade Antonucci (Holy Spirit), 2016
198-0 … Nick Mirabelli (Rancocas Valley), 2017
196-9 … Terrance Smith (Oakcrest), 2006
192- 6 … Matt Rafferty (Northern Burlington), 2012
192- 6 … Christopher Reider (Eastern), 2010
192- 3 … Shane McDevitt (Cinnaminson), 2014
191-6 … Robert Marks (Rancocas Valley), 2016
191- 5 … Andrew Pierce (Cumberland Reg.), 2009
190- 0 … Andrew Forbes (Williamstown), 2011

Interesting that seven of the top 11 are from Burlington County, with two from Camden County and two from Atlantic County.

State-wide, 24 throwers have surpassed 200 feet since the new implement went into effect 15 years ago. And Mirabelli is within two feet of becoming No. 25.

Team-wise, mighty Rancocas Valley easily won the team title, nearly doubling up second-place Toms River, 124-63.

 

 

Holy Spirit senior Cade Antonucci came within seven inches of the 60-foot barrier Saturday with a personal-best 59-5 1/2 heave at the Bridgeton Relays Saturday.

Antonucci’s previous outdoor PR was a 56-11 throw to win the South Jersey Invitational last year. It’s No. 3 in Atlantic County history, behind only Kofi Yamoah of Egg Harbor Township [61-4 in 2013] and Dontaye Rivera of Pleasantville [60-3 in 2012].

He had an overall PR of 57-9 from indoor Easterns in March at the Armory.

Antonucci, a rare three-way thrower, also has PRs of 206-10 in the javelin and 159-4 in the discus.

At Bridgeton, he threw 196-8 in the javelin but fouled out of the discus without a legal mark. His 196-8 is No. 2 in New Jersey this year behind a 198-0 thrown by Rancocas Valley junior Nick Mirabelli on Saturday.

Ace track correspondent Mike McGarry of the Atlantic City Press notes that Antonucci’s throw broke the Holy Spirit school record of 58-0 set in 1981 by Steve Hanson.

Antonucci’s mark is No. 1 this year in New Jersey. Not bad considering Antonucci is coming off a small tear in his rotator cuff that cost him most of the indoor season.

McGarry has more on that here.

 

Until last weekend, Hunter Daly’s high jump PR was 6-2. He’s now added four inches to it in eight days and shares the New Jersey lead at 6-6.

Daly, a Florence senior, cleared 6-6 at the Moorestown Invitational Saturday a week after setting a PR of 6-4 at the Don Danser Relays a few miles away in Maple Shade.

According to the NJ Milesplit database, Daly now shares the New Jersey lead with Stephen Saklinski of Freehold Township, who has cleared 6-6 twice this year, including Saturday at the Metuchen Relays.

But Staklinski has a PR of 6-8 1/4, is defending state Group 4 champ and was a Meet of Champions medalist a year ago.

Daly had a PR of 6-2 until a few days ago, has  never won a county, conference or sectional title and no-heighted at Meet of Champs a year ago.

This year is clearly different. Daly broke the Florence record of 6-4, set in 1996 by Shane Gainer and became the first South Jersey Group 1 jumper to clear 6-6 since Jared Roberts of Woodbury at states in 2010. The last Group 1 jumpers from South Jersey to do better than 6-6 came in 2007, when Anthony Butler of Salem and Ken Wise of Haddon Township both cleared 6-8.

Crazy but Daly’s PR might not be the most impressive one by a Florence jumper on Saturday.

Teammate LaDarius McNeil cleared 6-3 after having no known form in the event other than a 5-6 clearance at the Don Danser Relays last weekend.

McNeil many have attempted the high jump in a dual meet last year, but he only competed in the long jump, triple jump and 200-meter dash as a junior last year.

So that’s an apparent nine-inch PR and one Group 1 school with a 6-6 high jumper and a 6-3 high jumper.

 

Michael also PR’d Saturday in the long jump, going 20-2 1/2. His previous long jump PR was 19-8 1/2 when he was second at last year’s BCSL Freedom Division meet at Northern Burlington.

Widener sophomore Allison Reuter went into the Danny Curran Invitational at her home track in Chester with a lifetime hammer throw PR of 127-2.

By the time she was done, she had earned a national top-20 ranking and PR’d by more than 30 feet!

Reuter, a 2015 Clayton High School graduate, threw 158-6 to place second and increase her hammer PR by 31 feet, four inches.

Her mark is No. 18 in NCAA Division 3 and No. 3 among sophomores.

Reuter’s mark is less than 10 feet off the Widener school record of 168-4, set in 2015 by Rachel Heisler.

According to her Track and Field Reporting System results, Reuter competed in the hammer in four meets as a freshman last year, with her best throws ranging from 104-5 to the 127-2.

Reuter focused on the discus at Clayton, where she won a South Jersey Group 1 sectional title as a junior and placed second to Palmyra’s Tamara Carmichael at Group 1 states as a senior with a PR of 123-10.

 

Opening day of track season in New Jersey is typically cold, windy, raw and rainy, and so it was again this year. Some meets were cancelled, other meets were postponed, others ran on a limited schedule.

And at Buena, the Egg Harbor sprinters opened the season with an 800-meter relay performance that belied the conditions.

The quartet of Alex Dessoye, Shaquille Boyd, Hunter Barber and Amir Brock ran 1:31.21 in the large-school race at the Jim Camburn Relays at Buena.

EHT won the race by 30 meters over St. Augustine, which placed second in 1:34.59.

The Eagles’ time is No. 1 this year in New Jersey, which means it was faster than anybody else ran state-wide on opening weekend.

That 1:31.21 is actually faster than EHT ran all last year. Their best time last year was a 1:31.62 last May at the South Jersey Relays.

The Eagles ran 1:28.96 in 2015, fifth-fastest in the state, when they placed 13th at nationals. That stands as the school record.

So their time unchallenged in the cold and wind at Buena on the first weekend of the season was only 2.25 seconds slower than their time at nationals two years ago. That’s about half a second per leg. Which means in two months, watch out – EHT is going to be flying.

Egg Harbor also won the 400-meter relay in 44.69, with Dessoye, Boyd, Devon Covington and Brock. That time is No. 3 in the state early on. The Eagles also won the shuttle hurdles in 1:08.88 with Joseph Del Conte, Boyde, Vernon Swain and Covington.

Rutgers junior Chris Mirabelli got his 2017 season off to a terrific start with a javelin PR at the University of South Florida Invitational in Tampa.

Mirabelli, a Lumberton native and Holy Cross graduate, threw 241-7 on his final attempt of the day, breaking his PR of 240-3 1/2, set last May when he won the Big 10 Championships in Lincoln, Neb.

Mirabelli also had a throw of 238-2 1/2 at South Florida, giving him two of his four-longest career throws in his first meet of the spring. He also had a 238-10 at the Big East meet.

Last year, Mirabelli competed in the NCAA Championships and U.S. Olympic Trials. His 241-7 is third-best in NCAA Division 1 so far this spring, behind only Matti Mortimore of North Dakota State (253-1) and Michael Shuey of Penn State (247-2).

Mirabelli is also ranked No. 3 among all U.S. men, behind Shuey and Cyrus Hostetler (243-7). (Mortimore is British.)

Curtis Thompson of Mississippi State, Mirabelli’s rival since their days in the BCSL Patriot Division, is ranked No. 5 in Division 1 with a 238-0 in a meet in Jacksonville, Fla. Thompson has a PR of 271-11 from his second-place finish at the Olympic Trials.

Mirabelli was scheduled to throw this weekend in the Colonial Relays in Williamsburg, Va., but the javelin was cancelled due to bad weather.

Mirabelli is only about three feet off the Rutgers school record of 244-10 set 21 years ago by Chris Sagnella in a meet on Rutgers’ campus in Piscataway.

Mirabelli’s high school PR was 216-6 set at the 2014 South Jersey Invitational at Buena, where he beat Thompson by one inch. Thompson’s high school PR was 224-10 at the 2014 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield, where he and Mirabelli finished 1-2.

 

 

Glenn Kohles opened his senior year at Rowan in a big way, with a PR in the discus and the No. 1 throw this year in NCAA Division 3.

Kohl’s, a senior at Rowan, heaved the discus 165-3 to win the Emory Invitational in Atlanta and break his PR of 164-7 from last year’s ECAC meet in Westfield, Mass. The PR came on his fifth of six throws.

Kohles actually had the three best throws of the meet. His 162-8 was the second-best throw of the meet, and he also had a 159-7 3/4 that was good enough to beat second-place Brennan Cole of Indiana Wesleyan, who threw 158-4 3/4.

The Toms River East graduate is now just five feet short of the Rowan discus record of 173-3 set in 2007 by All-America Aaron Braxton, who is now a Rowan University throws coach.

Kohles is also ranked 12th in NCAA Division 3 in the shot put with a 50-11 1/2. His PR is 54-1 1/4, also from last year’s ECAC meet.

Kohles is the only thrower in NCAA Division who has already surpassed both 50 feet in the shot put and 165 feet in the discus.