Nicole Clifford’s electrifying anchor leg led the Cherokee girls to a 3,200-meter relay win at the 126th annual Penn Relays Thursday morning and a berth in Friday’s Championship of America.

On a cold morning at Franklin Field, Clifford split 2:14.49, and Cherokee placed first in the first of two large-school races in 9:21.19, winning by 40 meters.

Cherokee’s time was 4th-fastest from among two small-school races and two large-school races. The 12-fastest schools from those four races advance to the Championship of America at 3:55 p.m. Friday.

This will be Cherokee’s first Championship of America relay in the program’s history. It’s been quite a year for Cherokee, which won the Meet of Champions and Nike Regionals in cross country and finished among the top four in three relays at Armory and Ocean Breeze nationals indoors.

Junior Kelsey Niglio led off with a 2:18.25 split that put Cherokee in the lead, and the Chiefs were never farther back than second the rest of the race. Sophomore Kerry O’Day ran 2:24.26 and freshman Megan Niglio 2:24.21 to set up Clifford, who got the stick even with the anchor from Shenendehowa of Clifton Park, N.Y.

Clifford moved into the lead on the first backstretch, and Cherokee wound up winning by 40 meters over Morgantown (W.V.), which passed Shenendehowa for second in 9:29.45.

Clifford’s split was fastest in the race by more than three seconds. The only faster split in any of the four races was recorded by Union Catholic anchor Peyton Hollis, who ran 2:12.53. Union Catholic won the first of the two small-school races in 9:13.08.

Cherokee ran 9:07.27 indoors at Ocean Breeze Nationals, No. 2 in South Jersey history.

Here are the 12 qualifiers for the Championship of America race:

9:13.08 … Union Catholic, Scotch Plains, N.J.
9:13.89 … Edwin Allen, Middlesex, Jamaica
9:19.75 … Cuthbertson, Waxhaw, N.C.
9:21.19 … Cherokee, Marlton, N.J.
9:23.48 … Holmwood Tech, Christiana, Jamaica
9:26.88 … Penn Charter, Philadelphia
9:29.45 … Morgantown, W.V.
9:30.43 … Shenendehowa, Clifton Park, N.Y.
9:30.76 … Penncrest, Media, Pa.
9:32.13 … Padua Academy, Wilmington, Del.
9:33.41 … St. John’s College, Washington, D.C.
9:37.28 … Middletown South, Middletown, N.J.

After two years with no Penn Relays, the 126th edition of the world’s oldest annual track meet runs Thursday through Saturday at Franklin Field in West Philly.

Action begins at 9 a.m. Thursday and Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday, and there are South Jersey athletes jamming the entry lists in the high school, college and open events.

The weather looks great for the next few days, although unusually cool. Enjoy the meet

Live results

Order of events

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Penn Relays Wall of Fame

New Deck Tavern

Detailed map of Penn campus 

Franklin Field

Penn Relays weather forecast

Cherokee’s 4-by-8 team that will race at Penn later thks week got in a fast final tuneup at the Blue Devil Relays Saturday, with all four Chiefs running between 1:59 and 2:01.

Junior Conor Jacob won the race in 1:59.43, sophomore Nick Kuenkel was 3rd with a personal-best 1:59.83, junior Thomas Bromley placed 4th with a PR 2:00.22 and senior Lucas Hatch ran a PR 2:01.26 for 5th.

Cherokee’s four half-milers were broken up only by Rahwah junior Damani Brown, who placed 2nd in 1:59.46.

Their times add up to 8:00.74. Cherokee’s fastest 4-by-8 this year is an 8:07.58 at Fast Times at Cherokee High earlier this month.

Another Cherokee runner, sophomore Robert Poplau, ran a lifetime-best 2:00.8 in a dual meet earlier this month, so Cherokee now has five of the top eight 800 runners in South Jersey this year. Pennsauken has the three others.

Cherokee junior Patrick Ditmars ran 1:59.88 indoors at the Bubble but hasn’t raced an 800 yet outdoors, so there’s plenty to choose from.

Cherokee and Pennsauken will both race the 3,200-meter relay at Penn. They’re both in the first of two large-school races scheduled for 9:25 a.m. Friday.

Cherokee last raced the 4-by-8 at Penn in 2012, when it placed 9th in the Championship of America race in 7:49.85.

The Clayton girls ran one of the fastest Group 1 1,600 relays in state history Saturday at Woodbury.

The Clippers ran 3:55.39 to win the Group 1 race, the 12th-fastest 4-by-4 in Woodbury Relays history.

Arianna Sharpe, Ariel Sharpe, Amirah Sharpe and Kelsey Thomas broke the Group 1 meet record of 3:56.02 set in 2013 by Faleesha Dowe and Penns Grove.

Their time would have been fast enough to win Group 4 in 41 of the 48 races in meet history or Group 3 in 45 of 48 years.

It’s fastest by any New Jersey Group 1 school overall since Highland Park ran 3:52.72 at the 2017 Meet of Champions and fastest by a South Jersey Group 1 since Penns Grove ran 3:48.91 at the 2013 M-of-C. Penns Grove in 2013 is the only Group 1 school to run faster than Clayton in at least 25 years.

The Sharpe sisters are attending Clayton as part of New Jersey’s pilot bridge year program. Thomas is a junior.

Clayton’s time is fastest in New Jersey this year.

The official results list Arianna Sharpe leading off with a 56.78 split, Ariel running 62.71, Amirah 59.11 and Thomas anchoring in 56.79.

Clayton will race at the Penn Relays at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the South Jersey Small-School 1,600-Meter Relay.

Washington Township grad Isabelle Deal is off to a great start in the javelin this spring for Ursinus.

Deal, a junior, threw a huge PR of 144-10 at the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton, the same meet Hammonton’s Alexa Gardner threw 155-6 for Rutgers.

That broke her own school record of 143-0 from a home meet earlier in April in Collegeville.

That mark broke the 39-year-old school record of 137-9 set by Sandy Wirth when she won the 1983 Mid-Atlantic Conference Championships at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) in Westminster, Md.

Deal has been incredibly consistent this spring, hitting 136-11, 143-0, 144-10 and 138-5 in her four meets so far.

That’s an average of 141-1, which is well beyond her PR of 136-6 coming into the season. That was from last year’s Centennial Conference Championships in Allentown.

Deal, an All-America last spring after placing 3rd at nationals, is now ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division 3, behind Ava Nelson of Pacific Lutheran of Parkland, Wash. [150-3] and Chrissy Strickland of George Fox of Newberg, Ore. [147-9].

Deal, a 2019 Washington Township graduate, had a high school PR of 126-9 from her win at South Jersey Group 4 sectionals her senior year at her home track.

She’s scheduled to throw at the 126th annual Penn Relays Friday afternoon at Franklin Field.

Highland graduate Nia Holden, a sophomore at American University, ran an outdoor 800 PR Saturday at the Bucknell Team Challenge in Lewisburg, Pa.

Holden ran 2:15.32 lowered her outdoor PR from 2:15.60, which she ran when she placed 5th at last year’s Patriot League Championships in West Point, N.Y.

Holden’s time is No. 8 in American history and just 1-100th of a second out of seventh place.

This year’s Patriot League Championships are scheduled for May 5-6 at Ingram Field at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Former Shawnee middle-distance runner Kara Bonner continued her terrific senior year at Lehigh Saturday with a massive 1,500 PR in Charlottesville, Va.

Bonner lowered her PR for the second time in the last month, running 4:31.12 at the Virginia Challenge. That’s the equivalent of a 4:52.81 mile for Bonner, who had a high school PR of 5:04.48, which is equivalent to a 5:06.25 mile.

Lehigh is one of the few Division 1 schools that doesn’t have an all-time top-10 on its web site, although a story on Lehigh’s web site does indicate that Bonner’s time is No. 5 in school history.

Bonner now ranks No. 9 in the Patriot League in the 800 and No. 5 in the 1,500.

Bonner’s previous PR was a 4:34.18 at the Raleigh Relays late last month, but before that her PR was 4:49.14 in the spring of 2019 in a meet at Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa.

Bonner PR’d in the mile indoors with a 4:55.27 to place 7th at the Patriot League Championships, also at Bucknell.

And earlier this month she destroyed her 800 PR with a 2:12.74 in a meet at Lafayette University in Easton. Her previous 800 PR was a 2:16.29 at an indoor meet at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse in January. That erased an 800 PR that dated back to the 2016 Burlington County Open at Rancocas Valley, where she ran 2:18.56 and placed second to Lenape’s Megan Quimby.

Bonner will run on Lehigh’s 3,200-meter relay team at the Penn Relays late Saturday afternoon.

Curtis Thompson unloaded the 3^rd-best throw of his life Saturday and improved on his U.S. No. 1 javelin ranking at the Oregon Relays.

Thompson threw a personal-best 268-1 on his first attempt of the meet, No. 10 in the world this year and a season best. Australian Cameron McEntyre threw 268-10 on his first attempt to win the event with the No. 6 throw in the world this year.

The only bigger throws of Thompson’s life also came at the last two U.S. Olympic Trials, also at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. He threw 271-11 at the 2016 Trials and 271-7 at the 2021 Trials and went on to compete at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

Thompson’s previous season best was a 263-10 in a meet in Austin, Texas, last month.

Thompson only got off two legal throws on Saturday. He fouled on four straight attempts after the 268-1 and then finished with a 236-1.

Thompson ranks No. 16 in U.S. history with his PR of 271-11

Here’s an updated look at Thompson’s lifetime 260-foot throws:
271-11… Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, July 4, 2016
271-7 … Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, June 21, 2021
268-1 … Oregon Relays, Hayward Field, Eugene, April 23, 2022
267-2 … USATF Throws Fest, Roy P. Drachman Stadium, Tucson, Ariz., May 22, 2021
265-10 … American JavFest, East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 17, 2021
265-10 … Florida State Relays, Mike Long Track, Tallahassee, Fla., March 25, 2016
263-10 … 94th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, Mike A. Myers Stadium, Austin, Texas, March 25, 2022
260-11 … American JavFest, East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 30, 2016
260-1 … NACAC Under-23, San Salvador, Estadio Jorge “Mágico” González, June 17, 2016

Haddonfield teammates Seth Clevenger and George Andrus ran a couple hot mile PRs at the Blue Devil Classic Saturday at Westfield.

Clevenger, a senior, won the race in 4:15.36 and Andrus, a junior, ran 4:15.93 for second. Rahway junior Micah Lawson made it three under 4:17, taking 3rd in 4:16.84, and Cherokee junior ran a season-best 4:21.36 in 4th.

This is the first time ever one South Jersey high school has had two milers run this fast in the same year. Mainland came close in 2004, when Jimmy Wyner ran a mile equivalent of 4:12.95 and Greg Hughes ran 4:16.32.

Clevenger and Andrus ran the No. 2 and No. 3 mile times in New Jersey this year behind Jackson Barna of Ridge, who ran 4:09.53 earlier this month at the Explorer Invitational at La Salle High School in Springfield, Pa., chasing Archbishop Wood’s Gary Martin, who ran a Pennsylvania state-record 4:00.95.

Clevenger’s previous PR was a 4:18:18 at New Balance indoors, and Andrus’s was 4:18.74 at Group 2 sectionals at the Bubble in February.

We shouldn’t convert mile times to 1,600 meters, but we’ll do it just for the purposes of comparing the fastest milers in Haddonfield’s rich running history. Clevenger’s time converts to 4:13.80, and Andrus’s time to 4:14.45. They now rank No. 3 and No. 6 in Haddonfield’s history, and I’m guessing there’s not very many high schools in the country that have had nine milers go 4:15.0 or faster for 1,600 meters or its equivalent.

4:09.30 … Colin Baker, 2009
4:13.26y … Greg Pelose, 2015
4:13.80y … Seth Clevenger, 2022
4:14.14 … Ben Potts, 2009
4:14.25 … Matt Nussbaum, 2010
4:14.45y … George Andrus, 2022
4:14.3y … Jim Smith, 1980
4:14.50 … Chris Platt, 2003
4:15.0h … Dan Gough, 1987

Clevenger and Andrus also ran legs on Haddonfield’s 3,200-meter relay team, which won easily in 8:16.87. Junior Robert DiMedio and sophomore Liam Dougherty also ran.

The Cherokee girls won the sprint medley and placed 7th in the distance medley with all-time South Jersey top-12 times in both events Saturday at the Oregon Relays at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Cherokee won the sprint medley in 4:04.69, No. 12 in South Jersey history, Saturday afternoon, then came back and took 6th in the DMR in 12:07.43, No. 11 in South Jersey history.

In the sprint med, Maddie Van Haren and Alison Cooke ran the 200 legs, Kelsey Niglio the 400 in 58.51 and Nicole Clifford anchored in 2:13.55. That’s the fastest time in the state in five years. Cherokee broke the school record of 4:08.81 set by the 2011 team at Nationals.

In the DMR, freshman Megan Niglio led off with a 3:46.08 for 1,200 meters, Cooke ran 58.80 for the 800 and Kelsey Niglio split 2:00.40 for the 800, handing off to Clifford at 7:05.28.

Clifford, in her third hard effort in two days, split 5:02.15 to bring Cherokee home. Clifford also placed 8th in the mile in 4:57.81.

Cherokee, which ran 11:57.91 indoors, broke the outdoor school record of 12:21.87, set by the 2012 team at the Rowan Invitational.

O’Day also ran personal bests of 2:23.99 in the 800 and 5:16.28 in the mile, Van Haren ran PRs of 12.84 in the 100 and 25.60 in the 200, Cooke ran 25.86 to PR in the 200, Niglio PR’d with 59.60 in the 400 and Megan Niglio ran 10:35.26 to place 6th in the freshman 3,000. Cherokee also ran 1:46.26 in the 800-meter relay.

All-Time South Jersey SMR list
3:59.6h … Willingboro, 2003
4:00.34 … Willingboro, 2006
4:00.71 … Willingboro, 2002
4:01.07 … Lenape, 2015
4:02.60 … Sterling, 2017
4:02.69 … Willingboro, 2004
4:02.89 … Woodrow Wilson, 2002
4:03.04 … Camden, 1995
4:03.42 … Millville, 2008
4:03.54 … Lenape, 2006
4:04.44 … Millville, 2013
4:04.69 … Cherokee, 2022
4:04.86 … Woodrow Wilson, 2009
4:05.2h … Winslow Twp., 2003
4:05.36 … Willingboro, 2010
4:05.38 … Millville, 2019
4:05.70 … Ocean City, 2004
4:06.06 … Ocean City, 2005
4:06.36 … Millville, 2011
4:06.56 … Rancocas Valley, 2007
4:07.16 … Egg Harbor Twp., 2015

All-Time South Jersey DMR list
11:53.15 … Lenape, 2012
12:00.47 … Haddonfield, 2021
12:00.64 … Ocean City, 2004
12:02.34 … Haddonfield 2000
12:02.37 … Haddonfield, 2014
12:04.39 … Lenape, 2010
12:05.39 … Ocean City 2005
12:05.98 … Sterling, 2017
12:06.73 … Ocean City 1994
12:07.21 … Lenape 2008
12:07.43 … Cherokee, 2022
12:08.61 … Ocean City, 2014
12:10.75 … Sterling, 2016
12:10.76 … Lenape, 2017
12:12.24 … Millville, 2009
12:13.16 … Bishop Eustace, 2011
12:14.05 … Cherry Hill East, 2007
12:14.24 … Highland, 2004
12:14.61 … Lenape, 2013
12:15.42 … Ocean City, 2015
12:16.79 … Lenape, 2015
12:18.27 … Bishop Eustace, 1995
12:18.29 … Shawnee, 2012
12:19.26 … Woodrow Wilson, 2001
12:19.41 … Rancocas Valley, 2011
12:19.46 … Ocean City, 2013
12:19.60 … Shawnee, 2015
12:19.79 … Haddonfield, 2015