Timber Creek’s Naylah Jones blasted one of the fastest 100-meter dashes in South Jersey history Saturday at the state Group 3 meet at Delsea.

Jones won her 1st state title in 11.75, the 9th-fastest time in South Jersey. She had PR’d with an 11.79 to win the South Jersey Group 3 title last weekend, also at Delsea.

Her time is fastest in New Jersey this year and makes her top seed in the Meet of Champions Wednesday.

Jones’ time is fastest in the state Group 3 meet in 16 years – since Lakewood’s Shavon Greaves, later an All-America sprinter at Penn State, set the meet record of 11.61 in 2007 at South Plainfield.

Sophomore teammate Ryan Jennings placed 2nd in the race with a PR of her own at 11.92 for 18 huge team points in one race.

Timber Creek also won the 400-meter relay in 47.70 with Samiyah Puckett, Jennings, Nyla Jones and Naylah Jones.

All-Time South Jersey List
11.42 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], 1981
11.49 … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
11.57 … Patti Dunlap [Camden], 1979
11.58 … Bria Mack [Williamstown], 2017
11.61 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], 2000
11.63 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
11.71 … Shakira Dancy [Winslow Twp.], 2017
11.73 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], 2014
11.75 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2023
11.77 … Aisha Morgan [Schalick], 1998
11.78 … Shameka Speed [Bridgeton], 2003
11.79 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2023
11.81 … Denise Liles [Kingsway], 1984
11.81 … Lauren Princz [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2018
11.81 … Audrey Wilson [Deptford], 2008
11.82 … Annie Johnson [Shawnee], 2012
11.82 … Sianni Wynn [Pennsauken], 2023
11.84 … Robin Taylor [Deptford], 1980
11.85 … Dana Burnett [Willamstown], 1996
11.88 … Denis Mitchell [Edgewood], 1983
11.89 … Cecelia Gerstenbacher [Delsea], 2017
11.91 … Aliya Harrison [Sterling], 2017
11.94 … Emily Carson [Haddonfield], 2013
11.95 … Aliyah Taylor [Rancocas Valley], 2017
11.96 … Jamillah Nock [Woodrow Wilson], 2004
11.96 … Jailya Ash [Eastern], 2019
11.98 … Jennifer Jackson [Eastern], 2003
11.98 … Ciera Ismail [Schalick], 2013
11.98 … Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2014

All-Time New Jersey 100 List
11.42 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], 1981
11.44 … Myasia Jacobs [Paramus Catholic], 2010
11.49 … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
11.50 … Wendy Vereen [Trenton], 1984
11.57 … Patti Dunlap [Camden], 1979
11.57 … M’elisa Barber [Montclair], 1998
11.57 … Jada Ellis [Manchester Twp.], 2021
11.58 … Bria Mack [Williamstown], 2017
11.61 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], 2000
11.61 … Shavon Greaves [Lakewood], 2007
11.62 … Cathy Crawford [Perth Amboy], 1977
11.63 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
11.64 … Olivia Baker [Columbia], 2013
11.65 … Aleah Williams [Montclair], 1999
11.65 … Ogechi Nwaneri [Columbia], 2008
11.66 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
11.66 … Lauren Princz [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2021
11.68 … Regina Trotter [Weequahic], 1991
11.70 … Lori Dowers [Lawrence], 1979
11.70 … Christiana Nwachuku [Kent Place], 2022
11.71 … Georgina Nembhard [Ocean Twp.], 2007
11.71 … Shakira Dancy [Winslow Twp.], 2017
11.73 … Sydney Hawkins [Phillipsburg], 2018
11.73 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], 2014
11.74 … Jenna Harris [Franklin Twp.], 2003
11.75 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2023
11.75 … Bria Saunders [Parsippany], 2014
11.78 … Shameka Speed [Bridgeton], 2003

Eastern senior Kadence Dumas blasted a PR 2:13.02 and won a very fast 800 Saturday in the state Group 4 meet at Franklin Township.

Dumas was in 3rd at the bell lap, coming through in 68.87, but she closed in a crazy 64.16 to hold off Toms River North freshman Jessica Abbott, who closed in 64.55 and finished 2nd in 2:13.55.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood senior Jenai Berry [2:13.76], Cherokee senior Kelsey Niglio [2:14.11] and Toms River North junior Olivia Nickelsen [2:14.61] all ran well under 2:15. Last time five half-milers ran sub-2:15 at the state Group 4 meet was 2007.

Dumas’s previous PR was a 2:13.52 at sectionals. She hasn’t lost an 800 race all year, winning at South Jersey Elite, Camden County, Olympic Conference and Group 4 sectionals.

She’s the first girl from Eastern to win any race on the track of 400 meters or longer in over two decades. The last to do it was Jenelle Wilson, who won the 400 in 57.46 in 2002 at Buena.

It was the fastest state Group 4 race since 2007, when Danielle Tauro [2:09.21] and Jill Smith [2:10.35] of Southern Regional, Kim Standridge of Randolph [2:10.81], Lenape’s Miya Johnson [2:11.95] and Clifton’s Susan Martinez [2:14.76] all broke 2:15 at Egg Harbor.

Pennsauken freshman Sianni Wynn opened up a busy day at the state Group 4 track championships with a historic win in the 100-meter dash.

Wynn ran a personal-best 11.82 at Franklin Township, which is 15th-fastest in South Jersey history. Elizabeth senior Cynthia Boakye – who has an 11.78 PR – was 2nd in 11.91.

Although she’s 15th in South Jersey history, Wynn is only 4-100ths of a second outside the all-time top-10.

She’s the first Pennsauken freshman to win a state title in 24 years, since Alethia Jenkins was first in the 100-meter hurdles in 14.35 in 1999 at South Plainfield.

Wynn’s previous PR was 11.91 to win sectionals last weekend. Because the meet was changed from two days to one day, there were no 100 trials.

Indoors, Wynn won Meet of Champions titles in the 55 and 200 and a Group 3 title in the 400.

Washington Township junior Dylan Giloley placed 3rd in 12.20.

Wynn is also scheduled to race the 200 and 400 and 4-by-400 later Saturday.

All-Time South Jersey List
11.42 … Michele Glover [Willingboro], 1981
11.49 … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
11.57 … Patti Dunlap [Camden], 1979
11.58 … Bria Mack [Williamstown], 2017
11.61 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], 2000
11.63 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
11.71 … Shakira Dancy [Winslow Twp.], 2017
11.73 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], 2014
11.77 … Aisha Morgan [Schalick], 1998
11.78 … Shameka Speed [Bridgeton], 2003
11.79 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2023
11.81 … Denise Liles [Kingsway], 1984
11.81 … Lauren Princz [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2018
11.81 … Audrey Wilson [Deptford], 2008
11.82 … Annie Johnson [Shawnee], 2012
11.82 … Sianni Wynn [Pennsauken], 2023
11.84 … Robin Taylor [Deptford], 1980
11.85 … Dana Burnett [Willamstown], 1996
11.88 … Denis Mitchell [Edgewood], 1983
11.89 … Cecelia Gerstenbacher [Delsea], 2017
11.91 … Aliya Harrison [Sterling], 2017
11.94 … Emily Carson [Haddonfield], 2013
11.95 … Aliyah Taylor [Rancocas Valley], 2017
11.96 … Jamillah Nock [Woodrow Wilson], 2004
11.96 … Jailya Ash [Eastern], 2019
11.98 … Jennifer Jackson [Eastern], 2003
11.98 … Ciera Ismail [Schalick], 2013
11.98 … Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2014

Two months after first picking up a javelin, Kevin Burr Jr. is a state champion.

Burr Jr. threw 190-7 and won the state Group 4 title at Franklin Township High Saturday. Burr Jr. first threw the javelin at the Deptford Spartan Relays on April 8 and had a PR of 141-9 a month ago.

But he popped a 179-9 at the County Open, 187-7 at the Olympic Conference meet and a PR 193-4 at sectionals before joining Jason Cowden [190-11 in 1999], Robert Marks [183-10] and state record holder Nick Mirabelli [207-10 in 2017 and 218-11 in 2018] as Rancocas Valley’s 4th javelin state champion. Cowden and Mirabelli both went on to win the Meet of Champions.

Burr Jr. fouled on his first attempt, threw 180-ish on his 2nd and down to his final attempt with the curtailed field events, popped the 190-footer on his 3rd throw.

Full results and his seed for the Meet of Champions aren’t yet available.

Thanks to a blistering 61-second final lap, senior Nick Scarangelli became Ocean City’s first outdoor individual state champion in 15 years Saturday morning with a PR win in the 3,200 at the state Group 3 meet at Delsea.

Scarangelli ran 9:20.89, finishing 10 meters ahead of Wayne Valley senior Sean Matthews, who was 2nd in 9:22.85.

He negative split 4:44.78 and 4:36.11.

Scarangelli’s previous PR was a 9:24.12 from South Jersey Elite on the same track last month. Although Ocean City won the Group 3 4-by-800 with Tyler Greene, *Owen Ritti, Brendan Schlatter and Drew Tarr in 2021, Scarangelli is Ocean City’s first individual state champ since Brett Johnson won the 800 in 1:53.49 and the 1,600 in 4:14.55 in 2008 at South Plainfield.

With 800 meters to go, seven runners were separated by two seconds. Scarangelli and Matthews gapped the field on the 7th lap and at the bell, Matthews had a slight lead, thanks to a 68-second lap.

Matthews closed in a fast 63.68 but Scarangelli ran his final lap in 61.43 to lock up his first state title.

Scarangelli won the 3,200 at the indoor state meet at the Bubble in 9:34.61.

Northern Burlington sophomore Liliah Gordon won her first state outdoor track title and ran an outdoor 3,200 PR Saturday morning.

Gordon became the first Northern Burlington girl to win any running event at an outdoor state championship meet in 28 years.

Gordon, edged by Middletown South junior Rosemary Shay in the Central Jersey Group 3 sectionals last week, avenged that loss by beating Shay by 75 meters Saturday in the state Group 3 meet at Delsea.

Gordon won the race in 10:41.81 and Shay was 2nd in 10:56.38. Gordon became Northern Burlington’s first outdoor state champion since Ashley Edwards won the triple jump with a 38-8 in 2015 and the first on the track since Colleen Sunderland won the Group 3 3,200 in 10:58.23 in 1995 at South Plainfield.

Shay and Gordon ran together the first mile, but Gordon pulled away on the 5th lap with a 77.45 lap, building a 15-meter lead.

She had a wild negative split of 5:31.97 for her first 1,600 and 5:09.84 for her second, closing in 2:32.87 and 75.55.

Gordon a state Group 3 3,200 title indoors as a freshman with an 11:06.89 at the Bubble and she won the state Group 3 XC title with an 18:57 at Holmdel in November of 2022.

Her lifetime best over 3,200 meters is 10:38.20 for 5th at Ocean Breeze in March. Saturday’s 10:41.81 is No. 2 in Burlington County outdoor history behind Megan Lacy’s 10:22.03 at the 2012 Meet of Champions at Old Bridge.

Nobody wants a one-day state championship meet. It’s not fair to the athletes, it’s not fair to the coaches, it’s not fair to anybody. But this is the reality, so here we go.

For the first time since 1983 at Rutgers University in Piscataway, the New Jersey state championships will be a one-day affair on Saturday. The NJSIAA turned the two-day meet into a one-day meet – eliminating 100 and hurdles trials and eliminating field event finals – because of concerns about air quality Friday [which was fine mid-afternoon when the meet was scheduled to start]. For the record, NJSIAA baseball, softball and lacrosse state championship tournament games were all played Friday.

But the show must go in, and here’s our link dump with everything you need to follow along from Delsea or Franklin or remotely if you can’t get to either meet.

Any errors or bad links lemme know in the comment section! Good luck everybody!

Updated Time Schedule [still not posted on NJSIAA awful web site]: Click here.

Performance lists
[I edited the NJSIAA’s jumbled mess of performance lists and whittled them down to each group]
Group 1
Group 2 
Group 3
Group 4 
Parochial A
Parochial B 

Live Results
From Delsea [Groups 2, 3 and B]: Click here
From Franklin Township [Groups 1, 4 and A]: Click here

Meet Program
[with all 12,384 pages of ads deleted]: Click here

Meet Records
Click here: Meet records

All-Time Team Champions
Click here: All-time team champions

New Jersey Air Quality chart [it’s fine and the meet could have been run today]: Click here.

Late Thursday afternoon, after the NJSIAA decided to condense the two-day state championships into a one-day meet, the association announced the revised schedule.

The NJSIAA announced on Thursday morning that because of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires, the state championships would go from a two-day meet to a one-day meet.

The biggest change is the elimination of trials in the 100-meter dash and 110-meter hurdles. These will now be run as finals, with seed times determining who runs in the fastest sections.

Also, there will be no finals in field events.

The meets will still begin at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, with Groups 1 and 4 and Parochial A at Franklin High in Somerset and Groups 2 and 3 and Parochial B at Delsea in Franklinville.

Hopefully, “EliteFeats” timing company will be nowhere near either meet.

For complete details, click here.

Order of Events
Girls 3,200-meter run
Boys 3,200-meter run
Girls 100-meter dash
Boys 100-meter dash
Girls 800-meter run
Boys 800-meter run
Girls 400-meter hurdles
Boys 400-meter hurdles
Girls 400-meter relay
Boys 400-meter relay
Girls 100-Meter Hurdles
Boys 100-Meter Hurdles
Girls 3,200-meter relay
Boys 3,200-meter relay
Girls 200-meter dash
Boys 200-meter dash
Girls 1,600-meter run
Boys 1,600-meter run
Girls 1,600-meter relay
Boy 1,600-meter relay

Palmyra junior Abdulazeez Iyiola turned in one of the fastest 400 hurdles races in South Jersey Group 1 sectional history Friday.

Iyiola won the race in a big personal-best 54.57 and won by half a second over Glassboro junior Cartrell Moore, who ran 54.97. They’re the top-two seeds for the state Group 1 meet this weekend at Franklin.

Iyiola’s time is fastest in South Jersey Group 1 since Chris Mesiano of Schalick – who went on to become a multiple All-America at Rowan – ran 54.08 in 2015. Since the inception of fully automatic timing at sectionals in 2003, Mesiano and Iyiola have the two-fastest SJ-1 intermediate hurdles times.

There have been some fast hand times in Group 1: Martin Booker – now the Willingboro coach – ran 53.6 for Camden in 1981, Camden’s DiAndre Chandler ran 53.1 in 1986; Paulsboro legend Fred Sharpe 53.0 in 1997; and Burlington City’s Bryan Smith 54.3 in 2001

Iyiola is No. 4 in South Jersey behind the two Pennsauken boys – Bryce Tucker [51.40] and Premier Wynn [52.68] – as well as Deptford’s Lathan Brown [53.67].

He’s the top underclassman in New Jersey and No. 3 state-wide. He and Moore are the only Group 1 hurdlers in the state who’ve gone under 55. And he’s the fastest junior in South Jersey Group 1 since Schalick’s Matt Kates ran 54.15 at the 2007 South Jersey Invitational at Buena.

The last Palmyra intermediate hurdler to win a sectional title was All-America Will Brown, who ran 54.8 in 2005 and 55.65 in 2006. Before that Matt Moore, who ran 55.6 in 1988.

Brown set the Palmyra school record of 53.71 at the state Group 1 meet at Egg Harbor. He set the school record in the highs at 13.97 placing 3rd at Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C.

Iyiola didn’t break a minute last year as a sophomore in his first year in the intermediates. This past indoor season, he did run 51.82 and placed 3rd in the flat 400 at Group 1 states at the Bubble. He started out this spring with a PR 57.59 at the Moorestown Invitational and then dropped to 56.45 at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea before his breakthrough race this past weekend.

At sectionals, Iyiola also placed 5th in both the flat 400 and the 110 highs in 50.95 and 16.66. He’s run as fast as 49.85 and 16.04 so far this spring.

You think Willingboro and you think sprinters and hurdlers, and the Boro has had plenty of them. But Willingboro has a little bit of a tradition of pole vaulters as well, and Jackson Murry is the latest addition.

Murry won the South Jersey Group 2 meet with a personal-best 14-0 clearance, becoming the first Willingboro vaulter to clear 14 feet in 34 years.

The only vaulters to go higher in any group on sectional weekend are two Group 4 seniors – Damian Scouloukas of Hunterdon Central in North 2 and Ridgewood’s Liam O’Meara in North 1.

Murry shares the No. 1 seed in the Group 2 state meet at Delsea with Leonard Izzo of Rumson-Fair Haven, who cleared 14-0 to win Central Jersey Group 2 at Jackson Liberty.

Murry is Willingboro’s first 14-footer since Ricky Clemmons cleared 15-0 to win the 1989 state Group 3 title at South Plainfield over Hamilton East’s Darrin Miglione, who had cleared 14-6 on fewer misses.

Danny Lamp cleared 15-3 ½ at the 1977 East Coast Relays in Elizabeth and Marv Forchion 14-6 at the 1986 state Group 3 meet in Piscataway (he was also 3rd in the long jump at 21-8). Forchion went on to win the Meet of Champions, also at 14-6.

Murry, a junior, is Willlingboro’s 2nd sectional pole vault champ in the last three years. Glenn Ferguson won Central Jersey Group 1 two years ago at 12-0. Murray wasn’t pole vaulting yet, but he did place in the 200 in that meet.

Murry first picked up the pole vault last year as a sophomore and quickly cleared 11-0 by his 6th meet. He led a 1-2 Willingboro pole vault finish at sectionals with Byron Gary and got 2nd at indoor states at the Bubble with a 12-0 clearance.

He improved to 13-0 last spring and won the County Open and placed 5th at states and then got up to 13-6 at the Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze.

On Friday, he cleared 12-0 on his 2nd attempt, 12-6 and 13-0 on his 1st and 13-6 and 14-0 on his 3rd. He actually would have placed 4th on misses if he didn’t clear 14-0.

Haddonfield senior Alex Hurly [13-6], Cinnaminson soph Ed Frey [13-6], West Deptford junior [Ray Senatore] and Haddon Heights senior Adam Furlong [12-6] also advanced to states.

Murry is tied for No. 2 junior in New Jersey, behind Oakcrest’s Ryan Merlino, a 15-foot vaulter who unfortunately is injured and wasn’t able to compete at sectionals.

The versatile Murry also found time this weekend to place 6th in the 400 in 51.74. He also ran the 3rd leg on Willingboro’s 4th-place 400-meter relay team and anchored the Chimeras’ 4th-place 4-by-4 with a 50.23 split.