UConn’s Ella Karp from Washington Township popped the best shot put by a Huskies freshman in nine years Saturday in her first college meet.

Karp threw a lifetime-best 45-9 ¾ and finished 1^st in the Harvard Classic at Gordon Track in Cambridge, Mass.

That’s the best throw by a Connecticut freshman since Divine Oladipo threw 53-10 ¼ in a meet in Birmingham, Ala., in February 2017.

Karp’s previous PR was a 45-1 ¼ to win the Tri-County Conference meet this past May at Delsea. Her indoor PR was 43-3 ¾ when she placed 2^nd at Easterns this past March at the Armory.

Karp opened with a 42-11 ½ and after a foul a 43-1 ¾. After a 42-11 ½ she closed with two 45-footers – a 45-2 ½ for her first PR of the day and then the 45-9 ¾ on her final attempt.

Another UConn freshman from South Jersey, Brook-lyn Roberts from Winslow, was 5^th with a throw of 41-1 ¾ on her 3^rd attempt. She won the state Group 3 title at the Bubble in February when she set her lifetime-best 43-5.

Villanova freshman Maeve Smith from Ocean City placed 7^th in the USATF Under-20 Championships Saturday and Penn State freshman Liliah Gordon from Northern Burlington was just behind her in 12^th.

Smith ran 22:52 over 6,000 meters at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Ore., and Gordon ran 23:27.

Smith was the 6^th freshman finisher and the Wildcats’ 7^th finisher at the Big East Championships in Ashland, Neb., where ‘Nova placed 2^nd.

Gordon was the 12^th freshman finisher in the Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Mich., where the Nittay Lions placed 2^nd.

Only athletes who don’t turn 21 before Jan. 1 are eligible for USATF Under-20 events.

In his first race competing for Tennessee, Premier Wynn ran the 4^th-fastest 300 in Vols history Saturday in Nashville.

Wynn, a  Pennsauken graduate and junior transfer from Norfolk State, ran 33.05 at the Vanderbilt Winter Challenge and placed 2^nd to sophomore teammate Saad Hinti, the Moroccan 400-meter hurdles record holder.

That’s 1 1/2 200s at 22.03 pace.

Terry McDaniel set the Tennessee 300 record of 32.68 when he placed 2nd to Lorenzo Daniel [29.60] of Mississippi State at the 1986 SEC Championships in Baton Rouge, La. [converted from 29.99 for 300 yards] and Emmanuel Bynum ran 32.83 at the 2024 Clemson Invitational. Hinti’s time Saturday is 3^rd-fastest in school history. (Daniel, a 1988 Olympian, was the world’s fastest 200 runner in 1988 with a 19.87.)

Wynn had run only one previous college 300, and that was one year ago today in Lynchburg, Va., where he ran 34.76.

Wynn’s time is 6^th-fastest ever by a New Jersey runner and 3^rd-fastest by a South Jersey sprinter, behind Olympic gold medalists and Willingboro track club teammates Carl Lewis [32.18 in 1984] and Dennis Mitchell [32.22 in 1988].

Wynn was the MEAC champion at 400 meters last spring in Norfolk at 46.53 after a lifetime-best 46.00 in the trials. He ran 50.70 in the 400-meter hurdles in Tampa last spring and has a 400IH PR of 50.58 from the 2024 USATF Under-20 Championships in Eugene. The 46.00 is 6^th-fastest ever by a South Jersey runner and the 50.70 is 7^th-fastest

I cobbled together an all-time New Jersey 300-meter dash list because why wouldn’t I? Some great names on here!

32.04 … Andrew Valmon [Manchester Twp.], Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 1990
32.18 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], London, 1984
32.22 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 1988
33.00 … Clayton Parros [Seton Hall Prep], Boston, 2015
33.01 … Jordaine Johnson [East Orange], New York, 2025
33.05 … Premier Wynn [Pennsauken], Nashville, 2025
33.48 … Charles Cox [Monmouth Regional], Blacksburg, Va., 2010
33.50 … Zyaire Clemes [Trenton], New York, 2014
33.62 … Clayton Gravesande [Franklin Twp.], Blacksburg, Va., 2013
33.62 … Taylor McLaughlin [Union Catholic], New York, Jan. 31, 2015

Austin Gabay ran the fastest 3,000 ever by a South Jersey runner Saturday at Boston University.

Gabay, a Cinnaminson graduate and now a senior at Butler, ran 7:56.98 in the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener. His previous PR was 7:58.94 on the same track in February 2024 while competing for Duke.

Gabay came through 1,600 meters in 4:15.00 and closed in 62.67 for his final 400 and 2:06.21 over his final 800.

The previous South Jersey 3,000 record was 7:57.65 by Absegami’s Ford Palmer in New York in 2017.

The only other South Jersey runner to go sub-8 was Ocean City’s John Richardson, who ran 7:59.26 in Seattle in 2008.

Butler does not have an all-time top-10 on its web site, so no way to know where that performance ranks in Butler history.

7:56.98i … Austin Gabay [Cinnaminson], Dec. 6, 2025, Boston
7:57.65i … Ford Palmer [Absegami], Jan. 28, 2017, New York
7:59.26i … John Richardson [Ocean City], Feb. 16, 2008, Seattle
8:01.24i … Samuel Gerstenbacher [Schalick], Feb. 26, 2023, Boston
8:01.79i … Austin Gabay [Cinnaminson], Jan. 26, 2024, Boston
8:0487i… Kevin Antczak [Mainland Regional], Feb. 10, 2024, Boston
8:07.88i … Noah Deckert [Delsea], Feb. 2, 2024, Boston
8:09.59i … Karl Savage [Eastern], Jan. 23, 2004, Johnson City, Tenn.
8:10.01i … Jon Vitez [Haddonfield], Feb. 9, 2013, Princeton
8:10.69i … Sebastien Reed [Pitman], March 6, 2022, Boston

What an astonishing performance by the Haddonfield boys Saturday with a 9^th-place at the Nike Cross Nationals!

Haddonfield, the first South Jersey school to qualify for the boys championship race, had four runners in the top 60 and scored 286 points.

Haddonfield beat the 3^rd-, 6^th and 9^th-ranked teams in the DyeStat national rankings. Haddonfield went into the race ranked 16^th.

They’re only the 2^nd New Jersey public school ever to place in the top 10 at Nike Cross Nationals. West Windsor-Plainsboro North with the legendary Rosa twins was 5^th in 2008.

As they have been all year, Haddonfield was led by their senior quartet of Luke Andresen, Peter Simpson, Ben Andrus and Ryan Gibson.

Andresen ran 15:59 over the 5,000-meter course at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Ore., Simpson ran 16:11, Andrus 16:21 and Gibson 16:26. Michael Sinnes came up big as Haddonfield’s 5^th man, running 17:07.

Senior Brandon Stoner and junior A.J. Blum also raced for Haddonfield.

Those five counted 22-38-48-59-119 in team scoring, and Haddonfield averaged 16:25 on a course that was muddy and waterlogged after it rained all day on Friday.

Christian Brothers Academy of Middletown Township, Ocean County, ranked 2^nd nationally placed 3^rd with 110 points, behind Niwot (Colo.) with 61 and Herriman (Utah) with 97.

Hannah Byrd-Leitner, a freshman at Virginia and a three-time Meet of Champions pole vault champ for Moorestown, started off her college career by placing 3^rd in the Liberty Kickoff in Lynchburg, Va.

Byrd-Leitner cleared 12-9 ½, which is only two inches outside the all-time Virginia top-10 and only 2 ½ inches off her indoor PR of 13-0, which she set when she won the state Group 3 title at the Bubble this past February.

Byrd-Leitner cleared 11-3 ¾ on her 1^st attempt, 11-9 ¾ on her 2^nd and 12-9 ½ on her 1^st. She went out at 13-3 ½, which would have been a lifetime best. She cleared 13-2 outdoors when she won the 2024 Meet of Champions at Pennsauken.

Her 12-9 ½ clearance is 5^th-best all-time by a Virginia freshman.

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/625181/results/f/4/pv?tab=field-series

12-9 ½

Vermont freshman Sydney Greenidge from Riverside opened her college career with an impressive 60-meter dash Saturday.

Greenidge ran 7.93 and placed 3^rd at Boston University’s Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.

That’s the fastest time by a Vermont freshman since at least 2010, which is as far back as TFRRS goes. Vermont doesn’t have any top-10 lists on its web site.

Greenidged’s high school PR was a 7.62 for 55 meters in a meet this past January at Ursinus. That converts to an 8.31 for 60 meters, so you can see what a big-time performance this was. A 7.93 converts to 7.39 for 55 meters.

Greenidge is not listed on Vermont’s roster, so but it’s not the most common name so I’m assuming it’s the same one.

In his first race for Syracuse, Riverside’s Jamir Brown ran the 5^th-fastest 60-meter hurdles time in school history.

Brown, who set the NCAA Division 3 record of 7.72 a year ago today at Ocean Breeze in his first race for Rowan, ran a lifetime-best 7.71 in the trials of the Greg Page Relays Saturday morning at historic Barton Hall on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

The final is scheduled for early Saturday afternoon.

Brown set the NCAA Division 3 record over the 110-meter highs with a 13.60 in the trials of the NJAC Championships last May in Ewing.

Brown’s time is fastest ever by a Burlington County hurdler, breaking a tie with Willingboro’s Isaac Williams, who ran 7.72 in Houston in 2015.

Syracuse does not have an all-time top-10 list on its web site, but I cobbled this together in anticipation of Brown’s arrival at Syracuse. It’s No. 4 all-time by a South Jersey hurdler and tied for 9th-fastest in New Jersey history.

All-Time Syracuse List
7.49 … Jarret Eaton, 2012
7.61 … Jaheem Hayes, 2023
7.65 … Freddie Crittenden, 2017
7.69 … Angelo Goss, 2018
7.71 … Jamir Brown, 2025
7.74 … Matt Moore, 2018
7.75 … Donald Pollitt II, 2014
7.81 … Amadou Gueye, 2013
7.82 … Emanuel Joseph, 2025
7.85 … Richard Floyd, 2018
7.86 … Tyler Garland, 2020
7.87 … David Gilstrap, 2017
7.91 … Anthony Vazquez, 2024
7.93 … Brevin Sims, 2021
7.94 … David Peters, 2025

All-Time New Jersey Alumni 60-Meter Hurdles List
7.46 … Jeff Porter [Franklin Twp.], Feb. 1, 2014, Mondeville, France
7.50 … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], March 10, 1989, Madrid, Spain
7.50 … Anwar Moore [Camden], Feb. 24, 2008, Boston
7.52 … Jack Pierce [Woodbury], Feb. 25, 1995, Fairfax, Va.
7.55 … Devon Hill [Trenton], March 10, 2012, Nampa, Idaho
7.64 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], Jan. 25, 2025, Lubbock, Texas
7.66 … Cory Poole [East Orange], Feb. 14, 2020, Clemson, S.C.
7.69 … Guy Rose [Wayne Hills], Feb. 24, 2001, State College, Pa.
7.71 … Chris Serrao [East Brunswick], Jan. 11, 2025, Philadelphia
7.71 … Jamir Brown [Riverside], Dec. 6, 2024, Staten Island
7.72 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], Jan. 9, 2015, Houston
7.73 … Todd Matthews [Notre Dame], Feb. 17, 2001, Blacksburg, Va.

Rowan sophomore Nyla Jones, in her first meet since earning All-America honors in May, ran a 60-meter hurdles PR and nearly broke the school record in the 300 Friday at Ocean Breeze.

Jones, from Timber Creek, ran 8.93 in the finals of the Fastrack Invitational, lowering her PR from 8.95, which she ran when she won the NJAC indoor title at the Ott Center in February.

Her time is fastest by a Rowan woman in seven years, since Aspen McMillan from South Brunswick set the school record of 8.68 in the trials of the 2019 NCAA Division 3 Championships in Roxbury, Mass. McMillan went on to place 4^th in the final.

Jones also won the 300 in 40.69, only 10-100tbs of a second off the Rowan school record of 40.59 set by Woodstown’s Molly Lodge at last year’s TCNJ Opener at the Armory. It was only Jones’ second lifetime 300. She ran 42.96 in the same race that Lodge ran 40.69 last December.

Rowan sophomore Paige Franklin from Williamstown placed 3rd in 41.53 in her first lifetime 300. The versatile Franklin was a javelin medalist at last year’s NJAC meet at Ewing.

Jones earned All-America honors last spring when she placed 5^th in the 400-meter hurdles at Division 3 Nationals in Geneva, Ohio.

Daizhae’ Brown from Cedar Creek began her college track career Friday by running the 3^rd-fastest 60-meter dash time in Georgian Court history.

Brown, a freshman at the Lakewood school, placed 5th at the Fastrack Season Opener at Ocean Breeze in 7.82.

That trails only a 7.74 by Aretha Edwards from Lincoln High in Jersey City in 2018 and a 7.75 by Charisma Bosley of Ewing in 2019 on the all-time Georgian Court list. Susan Lora from Stratford, Conn., in 2013 also ran 7.83.

Brown never ran a 60 in high school. Her 55 PR was 7.36 at the Bubble in 2024, which converts to 8.02 for 60 meters. So 7.83 is not only a PR but significantly faster than her converted 55 PR.

In the trials, Denirah Jones of Woodbury, a freshman at Rowan, ran 7.92 in her collegiate debut. That equals her lifetime best set at the Ott Center in January. She did not run in the final.