Tobias still has the long jump final later Friday and then the 60-meter hurdles finals on Saturday, but the 3,764 points breaks her PR of 3,627 from a meet last month at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and the 8.40 breaks a PR of 8.44, which she ran in a home meet last month in Iowa City.
In addition to the hurdles, which gave her 1,039 points, Tobias high jumped 5-3 ¼ for 747 points, threw the shot put a personal-best 32-6 for 524 points, long jumped 18-8 ¼ for 759 points and ran the 800 in 2:29.81 for 695 points.
Rutgers freshman Shelby Whetstone dipped under 2:10 for the first time Thursday at the Big Ten Championships.
Whetstone, a Lenape graduate, ran 2:09.77 in the 800 trials at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, her fastest time this year by four seconds.
Whetstone’s previous collegiate PR was a 2:13.46 from the Big Ten Invitational in April outdoors in Bloomington, Ind. Her indoor collegiate best was a 2:13.99 from two weeks ago at the Rutgers Open at the Armory.
Her lifetime best is her 2:10.55 from her win at 2019 Group 4 states at Franklin High. Her indoor PR at Lenape was 2:16.88 from the 2019 Meet of Champions at the Bubble.
According to a record book on Rutgers’ web site, Whetstone’s time is No. 7 in school history indoors, 1-100th of a second behind Sarah Robbie, a Cherokee graduate. Robbie ran 2:09.76 at 2017 IC4As at Boston University.
Last spring, as a College of New Jersey freshman, she won the 400 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference outdoor championships at Ramapo in Mahwah in 57.91, leading a 1-2-3-4 TCNJ sweep.
On Tuesday, in her first NJAC indoor meet, Demko ran 57.68, finishing six meters ahead of junior teammate Maria Grill, who was 2nd in 58.55.
Demko, who has freshman eligibility indoors, broke her indoor PR of 57.98, which she just set a week and a half earlier in Boston. She set her outdoor PR of 57.46 in April at the Quaker Invitational at Franklin Field.
At the NJAC meet, Demko also ran on TCNJ’s winning 800-meter relay team along with Ashlyn MacLure, Valandra Riggins and Maria Grill. That group ran 1:43.09, No. 2 in school history behind the 2003 team, which ran 1:42.88. Demko was also 5th in the 200 in 25.98.
TCNJ won its 4th consecutive team title with 217.166 points, winning by 73.466 points over Rowan, which finished with 143.7.
Demko earned All-America honors last spring after running the 2nd leg on TCNJ’s 5th-place 1,600-meter relay team at NCAA Division 3 Nationals in Greensboro. TCNJ’s 4-by-4 has run 3:56.54 this winter with Demko in the lineup.
The top 20 competitors in each indivudual event qualify for NCAA Indoor Nationals, scheduled for March 11-12 in Winston-Salem, N.C. Demko is listed at No. 20 on the TFRRS [Track an Field Race Reporting System] but she’s listed at 58.45, which appears to be some sort of conversion from a banked track to a flat track but nobody really seems to know and it’s not explained anywhere.
In any case, Demko has two more chances to improve her time before nationals – the Fastrack Last Chance at Ocean Breeze Friday and the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships [AARTFC] in Rocheseter March 4-5.
At Shawnee, Demko had an indoor PR of 58.54 from the 2020 Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze and an outdoor PR of 58.66 from 2019 Group 4 sectionals at Washington Township.
Here’s a detailed look at the all-time TCNJ indoor 400 top-10: 55.63 … Samantha Gorman [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], Boston University Last Chance Qualifier, 2020
56.68 … Brittny Boyd [Hackettstown], NCAA Division 3 Championships, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., 2006
57.18 … Megan Gasnick [Park Ridge], David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Boston University, 2020
57.21 … Joy Spriggs [South Brunswick], David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Boston University, 2015
57.43 … Tiffany Clark [West Orange], New Jersey Athletic Conference, 168th Street Armory, New York, 2003
57.46 … Jianna Spadaccini [Butler], New Jersey Athletic Conference, 168th Street Armory, New York, 2010
57.66 … Jessica Bonelli [Gloucester Catholic], New Jersey Athletic Conference, 168th Street Armory, New York, 2006
57.68 … Amanda Demko [Shawnee], New Jersey Athletic Conference, Ocean Breeze, 2022
57.83 … Meryl Wimberley [Colts Neck], ECAC, 168th Street Armory, New York, 2011
57.99 … Shannon Lambert [Lenape], David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Boston University, 2019
The New Jersey state indoor track championships date back 100 years, to 1922, when Newark Central won the Public School division and neighboring St. Benedict’s of Newark won the Parochial School division.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary, most of the same officials will be working this weekend’s state meet who worked the first one!
OK, OK, bad joke, but, hey, it’s not too far off!
In any case, the state group championships are scheduled for this weekend, with non-publics starting at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Groups 2 and 3 at 9 a.m. Saturday and Groups 1 and 4 at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Winslow graduate John Purvis, a freshman at Morgan State, popped a personal-best 55-7 and placed 2nd in the shot put Wednesday at the MEAC Championships in Virginia Beach.
Purvis finished second to another Morgan state freshman, Zackery Dillon, who threw a PR of his own at 56-0 for the win.
Going into the final round, Dillon, a graduate of Calabar High School in Kingston, Jamaica, led with a best throw of 54-6 1/2, and Purvis was sitting in 2nd at 53-11. Purvis then took the lead with his 55-7, only to watch Dillon reclaim the lead on the final attempt of the competition with his 56-footer.
Before the conference meet, Purvis had an indoor PR of 53-6 1/2 with the 16-pound shot. He threw 54-2 3 3/4 to win the MEAC Outdoor Championship last spring at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro.
Purvis also placed 4th in the 35-pound wight throw with a PR of 49-10. His previous PR was 46-4 in Virginia Beach earlier this month.
Morgan State’s athletics web site lists no indoor school records or top-10 lists or any sort of historical information or pretty much anything at all, but going through year-by-year MEAC performances lists on TFRRS [Track and Field Results Reporting System] I did figure out that Dillon and Purvis registered the two-best throws by Morgan State shot putters in 12 years – since Tyron Benjamin of the Commonwealth of Dominica threw 60-5 as a Morgan State senior at a meet at the Armory in 2010.
So back-to-back Purvis and Dillon recorded the best shot put throws by Morgan State freshmen since at least 2009. The TFRRS database only goes back to 2010.
Purvis threw 143-7 in the discus last spring and 133-10 in the hammer. At Winslow, Purvis threw 60-0 indoors with the 12-pound shot, No. 9 in South Jersey indoor track history, and also threw 168-9 in the discus.
That 48.89 ranks No. 5 in NCAA Division 3 this year, although the TFRRS ranking system somehow has him at 49.68, which may be some sort of conversion for a banked track? I don’t know. It doesn’t explain it anywhere. In any case, the top 20 performers qualify for the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C., next month.
Lodge also ran a 49.54 leadoff leg on TCNJ’s 3rd-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:19.20. The Lions have run as fast as 3:20.19 this winter.
Lodge’s previous indoor PR was a 49.91 nine days earlier in Boston. Coming into the season, his indoor PR was 50.18 from a meet in Boston last winter. He has yet to run outdoors for TCNJ.
At Shawnee, Lodge only ran a couple indoor 400s with a best of 54.11 at the Bubble in January of 2018. His outdoor PR remains 50.88 from the 2019 Burlington County Open at Rancocas Valley, where he placed 2nd to Cinnaminson’s John Meekins.
So Lodge has now improved almost exactly two seconds since arriving in Ewing, and he hasn’t run a 400 outdoors yet.
Kalwinsky also holds the TCNJ outdoor 400 record with a 47.95 from 1995.
Washington Township senior Gabby Vetere, who had a pole vault PR of 9-0 coming into the indoor season, cleared a lifetime best 10-9 Tuesday at the Bubble, the No. 2 pole vault performance in Gloucester County history.
No. 1 on the all-time Gloucester County list is current Villanova junior Ashley Preston of Delsea, whose 12-7 at the Bubble in 2018 ranks No. 7 in state history. Preston is a three-time Big East champ and has jumped 13-3 ¾ at Villanova.
Vetere won the event at the final SJTCA meet at the Bubble. Her previous PR was 10-6, which she cleared twice previously – once at the Bubble and once at Ocean Breeze.
That placed her tied for No. 2 in Gloucester County history with Katie Selfridge of Delsea [2014], Elizabeth Douglas of West Deptford [2015], Madison Mamounis of Delsea [2018] and Allison Bobst of Kingsway [2020].
It’s also the No. 7 jump in the state this year.
Vetere won her first sectional title last weekend and shares the top seed in Saturday’s state Group 4 meet at the Bubble at 10-0. Talia Hutchinson of Ridgewood [11-0] and Vetere have the top two PRs in the Group 4 field.
So she beat her previous PR on three of her four legal throws, and those four legal throws averaged 59-8 ¾ – well beyond her PR of January.
Woodard competed in one other meet this year, the Puma Indoor Invitational at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix in January, where she threw 59-6. That broke her indoor PR of 59-0 ¼, which she set in the winter of 2020 in a meet in Norman, Okla.
Woodard threw an outdoor PR 62-3 ½ last spring in Tucson, No. 18 in U.S. historyand No. 14 in the world last year.
USATF Nationals are scheduled for this weekend at the Podium in Spokane, Wash. The women’s shot put is scheduled for 5:35 p.m. EST on Saturday. As long as they’ve met the qualifying standard, the top two placers in each event will represent the U.S. in the World Indoor Championships March 18-20 at Štark Arena in Belgrade, Serbia. The women’s shot put standard is 60- ¼, so Woodard has already met the standard.
Left to right: Kerry O’Day, Kelsey Niglio, Nicole Clifford, Megan Niglio [photo courtesy Mark Jarvis].Cherokee’s Kelsey Niglio, Kerry O’Day, Megan Niglio and Nicole Clifford ran the No. 10 3,200-meter relay in state history Tuesday night at the Bubble.
Racing at the final SJTCA meet of the winter, Cherokee ran 9:07.81, a minute faster than any of the three other schools in the field.
Their time is No. 2 in the U.S. this year, No. 2 in South Jersey history and fastest ever at the Bennett Center (or on any track in New Jersey).
It’s fastest ever by any South Jersey 4-by-8 on a flat track. The previous fastest time at the Bubble was a 9:14.47 by Ridge at the 2017 Meet of Champions.
Kelsey Niglio led off with a 2:15.3 split, O’Day split 2:21.0, Megan Niglio 2:20.0 and Clifford anchored with a monster 2:11.3. All are indoor PRs.
The only faster time in South Jersey history belongs to the 2013 Lenape team of Emily McGee, Carly Pettipaw, Camille Franklin and Natalia Ocasio, who ran 9:04.66 at Indoor Nationals at the Armory. That’s No. 5 in state history.
No. 1 nationally is Pioneer High of Ann Arbor, Mich., which ran 8:59.20 at a meet last weekend in Saginaw, Mich.
Cherokee set its previous school record of 9:23.85 last month at a meet in Lynchburg, Va.
Here’s a look at the all-time New Jersey sub-9:20 performance list, with the meet and location listed for the top 10:
8:54.11 … Southern Reg., 2009 [1st, Nike Indoor Nationals, Reggie Lewis Center, Boston]
8:56.94 … Red Bank Cath., 2011 [1st, Nike Indoor Nationals, 168th Street Armory, NYC]
9:00.62 … Freehold Twp., 2014 [1st, Nike Indoor Nationals, 168th Street Armory, NYC]
9:01.64 … Ridge, 2017 [1st, New Balance Indoor Nationals, 168th Street Armory, NYC]
9:04.66 … Lenape, 2013 [4th, New Balance Indoor Nationals, 168th Street Armory, NYC]
9:05.28 … Red Bank Cath., 2012 [3rd, New Balance Indoor Nationals, Armory, NYC]
9:05.40 … Columbia, 2014 [Easterns, 168th Street Armory]
9:05.97 … Pope John, 2007 [Easterns, 168th Street Armory]
9:07.44 … Union Catholic, 2019 [Millrose Games, 168th Street Armory] 9:07.81 … Cherokee, 2022 [SJTCA Winter Meet #16, Bennett Center, Toms River]
9:08.07 … Ridge, 2018
9:08.34 … Columbia, 1997
9:09.14 … Columbia, 1998
9:09.70 … Mount St. Dominic, 2012
9:09.71 … Lenape, 2012
9:10.22 … North Hunterdon, 2016
9:11.69 … Freehold Twp., 2013
9:11.94 … Lenape, 2008
9:12.82 … Roxbury, 2006 9:12.91 … Haddonfield, 2021
9:13.42 … Union Catholic, 2015
9:13.72 … Columbia, 1983
9:13.90 … Union Catholic, 2018
9:13.95 … Ridge, 2015
9:14.49 … Ridge, 2020
9:15.05 … Pingry, 2018
9:15.07 … Ridge, 2019
9:15.16 … Hunterdon Central, 2010
9:16.15 … Pope John, 2006 9:16.34 … Immaculate Heart Academy, 2008
9:16.8h … Kearny, 1980
9:17.00 … Union Catholic, 2016
9:18.17 … Middletown South, 2002
9:18.26 … Southern Regional, 2014
9:18.62 … River Dell, 2018
9:18.87 … Red Bank Catholic, 2015
9:19.01 … Lenape, 2011
9:19.06 … Union Catholic, 2022
9:19.20 … Ridge, 2016 9:19.35 … Wilson, 2002
9:19.47 … Voorhees, 2009
9:19.55 … Columbia, 2012
9:19.88 … Pope John, 2008
And here’s the all-time South Jersey sub-9:30 list:
Nice double Tuesday night for Burlington City junior Ny’era Hand-Brooks in the first two events of the final SJTCA meet of the year.
Hand-Brooks ran a personal-best 8.89 in the 55-meter hurdles Tuesday night at the Bubble in Toms River and followed that up just a few minutes later with a PR 7.57 in the 55-meter dash.
Brooks hurdles time is fastest this year in all of New Jersey Group 1, and her 55 time is 3rd-fastest, behind Kennedy Pitts of McNair Academic, who ran 7.45 last month at the Jersey City Armory, and Haddon Township junior Lilli Santomauro, who won the South Jersey Group 1 sectional ahead of Hand-Brooks last weekend.
Overall, she now ranks No. 6 in South Jersey in the hurdles and No. 12 in the 55.
Hand-Brooks’ previous 55 PR was a 7.74 in the sectional trials at the Bubble last weekend, and her hurdles PR was 9.03 at sectionals in the final.
Hand-Brooks also placed 2nd in the 200 in 26.85 – a personal best because it’s the first time she’s run it indoors.
Hand-Brooks was sectional 200 champ as a sophomore 1st-year competitor last spring and also placed 2nd at sectionals in the 100 and 100 hurdles.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 