The future looks incredible for the young Pennsauken track team. The present is pretty darn good as well.

With all but one of their points coming from freshmen and sophomores, Pennsauken won its second title in six years this weekend, piling up 61 points in the state Group 3 championships on its home track.

Pennsauken outscored Morris Hills 61-48, with Colts Neck (44) third. Pennsauken only previous state title came in Group 3 in 2016 at Northern Burlington.

It’s believed that Pennsauken is the first school ever to win a state title at its home facility. If it ever happened before, it was more than 50 years ago.

Sophomore Bryce Tucker picked up a 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd and anchored a winning relay, so he had a hand in 34 of Pennsauken’s 61 points.

But this was definitely a team effort.

Let’s take a look at how Pennsauken made it happen!

100-METER DASH [6 points]

Freshman Elijah Jennings ran 11.09 for third after an 11.24 in the trials.

200-METER DASH [4 points]

Sophomore Ejani Shakir ran 22.08 for fourth place into a 1.9 meters-per-second wind. 

400-METER DASH [9 points]

Tucker ran a personal-best 48.64 and placed second. His previous PR was 48.89. His time is fastest by a South Jersey sophomore since Moorestown’s Brandon Outlaw ran 48.52 at the 2015 Meet of Champions.

800-METER RUN [6 points]

Tucker, seeded 6th in the 800, ran 1:56.31 for third place.

400-METER HURDLES [16 points] 

Tucker ran a U.S. #5 52.68, shattering the South Jersey sophomore class record and winning by more than 2 1/2 seconds. Sophomore Premier Wynn was third in 56.51. For more on Tucker’s 400IH performance, click here.

400-METER RELAY [8 points]

Pennsauken ran a season-best 42.81 for second to Deptford’s 42.74. Jennings, Shakir, sophomore Kahlil Ali and Wynn ran for the Indians.

1,600-METER RELAY [10 points]

Shakir, Ali, Wynn and Tucker locked up the team title with a 3:18.36 win, turning the tables on Deptford, which took second in 3:18.50. Shakir (49.79), Wynn (48.96) and Tucker (47.14!!!) all split sub-50. It was Pennsauken’s fastest 4-by-4 since the 2016 team ran 3:17.74 at the Woodbury Relays.

TRIPLE JUMP [1 point]

Ali placed sixth with a 42-2, tying his personal best that he set last sectionals. 

JAVELIN [1 point]

The lone point from a Pennsauken athlete who isn’t a freshman or sophomore came from senior Chris Weaver in the javelin. Weaver, the No. 13 seed, placed sixth with a PR throw of 152-2. He had never thrown 140 until sectionals.

It was a historic weekend for Clayton High School’s track program, which swept the Group 1 state championships at Pennsauken.

The boys, led by senior TerMeir Hill, outscored Willingboro 59-44, leading a 1-2-3-4 South Jersey sweep, with Woodbury third with 42 points and Audubon fourth with 39.

And the girls, led by quad winner Amirah Sharpe and her twin sisters, piled up 89 points – all on the track – nearly doubling up second-place Shore Regional, which finished with 48 points.

This is the first time in New Jersey track history that a school’s boys and girls programs both won their first state titles on the same day.

Clayton is the 14th South Jersey school to record a boys and girls state championship sweep since the inception of the girls meet in 1973.

Here’s a look at those teams:

Group 1
1976 – Woodbury
1977 – Woodbury
1991 – Haddon Heights
2013 – Penns Grove
2014 – Penns Grove
Group 2
1997 – Bridgeton
2002 – Bridgeton
2015 – Haddonfield
Group 3
2002 – Willingboro
Group 4
1981 – Willingboro
Parochial A
None
Parochial B
1995 – Bishop Eustace
1996 – Bishop Eustace
2008 – Holy Cross

Clayson is the first Gloucester County school to sweep both state titles in 44 years, since Woodbury recorded a Group 1 sweep in 1977.

What an incredible performance by both teams!

Let’s take a look how they did it!

TERMEIR HILL, Senior: Hill scored 21 points in his four individual events. He hit 22-11 on his third long jump attempt to earn the state title and also placed second to Willingboro freshman Malachi James with an 11.16 in the 100, ran fifth in the 200 in 22.87 and leaped 42-9 1/4 for sixth in the triple jump.

JUSTIN GIBSON, Senior: Took third in the 200 in 22.62 and also contributed a leg on Clayton’s winning 400-meter relay team, which ran 43.54, and 3rd-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:28.38.

GIORGIO BRUNO, Senior: Bruno, who never broke 59 seconds until sectionals, ran a personal-best 57.17 for fifth place and also ran the second leg on Clayton’s winning 400-meter relay team, which ran 43.54, and the second leg on the 3rd-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:28.38.

MARQUES HALL, Junior: Hall threw a personal-best 49-8 1/4 on his first attempt and then watched that hold up for the 3rd-best discus throw of the competition.

SHANE THOMPSON, Junior: Continued his remarkable development with his second PR in a week. Thompson had a discus PR of 109-1 going into sectionals but threw 136-8 for the win and extended that to 143-0 – also on his first attempt – for second place on Friday.

DOMINCK BISHOP, Senior: Ran legs on the winning 4-by-100 and also on the 3rd-place 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:28.38.

JUSTIN GIBSON, Senior: Ran 22.62 for third in the 200 and also ran legs on both relay teams. Had the fastest 400 split at 51.1.

JUSTIN PESSOA, Junior: Anchored Clayton’s winning 400-meter relay team, which ran 43.54.

KAMERON MILLER, Sophomore: Anchored the Clippers’ 3rd-place 4-by-4, which ran 3:28.38.

What about the Clayton girls?

Just a dominating performance by the Sharpe sisters and their supporting cast! Two years after leading Paulsboro to the state Group 1 title, they did it again for a different Gloucester County school!

AMIRAH SHARPE, Senior: Won the 200 in 25.31, the 400 in 55.99 and the 400 intermediates in 1:02.22 and anchored the winning 4-by-4 to finish off her monster quad triumph.

ARIANNA SHARPE, Senior: Won the 100 in 12.51 and placed second in the 200 in 25.87 and the 400 in 56.58. Also ran the second leg on the 4-by-4, which won in 3:56.67.

ARIEL SHARPE, Senior: Placed fourth in the 400 with 58.88 and sixth in the 200 in 26.81 and led off the winning 1,600-meter relay, which ran 3:56.67.

RAYAEL MARSHALL, Sophomore: Ran 16.20 for second to Willingboro’s Balkis Iyiola in the 100-meter hurdles and also led off Clayton’s winning 400-meter relay team, which ran 51.34.

ERICA THOMAS, Sophomore: Ran the second leg on the winning 4-by-100 team.

KELSEY THOMAS, Sophomore: Ran the third leg on both winning relay teams.

CIERA SMITH, Sophomore: Anchored the winning 4-by-100.

(We apologize if any of the relay names are wrong. We’re going off the official results, but they aren’t always correct! Please let us know in the comments section and we’ll update immediately. Thanks!)

Haddonfield’s Allison Colflesh, Lindsay Colflesh, Ava Peifer and Olivia Stoner won the 1,600-meter relay to put an exclamation point on a tremendous weekend and clinch Haddonfield’s eighth state title and first since 2015.

Haddonfield’s 4-by-4 ran 4:00.38, edging Holmdel, which was second in 4:01.47. All are seniors except Peifer, who’s a freshman.

The win gave Haddonfield 70 points and a three-point margin of victory over Northern Valley of Demarest, which finished with 67 points in a two-team race. No other school finished with more than 43 points.

Haddonfield’s ace distance team had a monster weekend, scoring 62 of Haddonfield’s 70 points.

In the 800 Saturday afternoon, Allison Colflesh, Lindsay Colflesh and Stoner all ran 2:15-point, placing second, third and fourth behind Amanda Mircovich of River Dell, who ran 2:12.53.

In the 1,600, Sarah Naticchia and Allison Colflesh finished 1-2, both running sub-4:55, with Stoner PR’ing in seventh at 5:04.80.

And in the 3,200 Saturday morning, Naticchia placed second in 10:42.67 behind a meet-record 10:20.25 by Lakeland’s Angelina Perez.

Haddonfield’s 4-by-8 team of junior Jess Goode, sophomore Thea Spellmeyer, freshman Anne Earp and senior Payton Weiner placed second in 9:42.42 for eight more big points.

Including the 4-by-4 and two points from Lindsay Colflesh in the 400 (58.58) that’s 64 points in five events from Haddonfield’s distance team.  

Haddonfield got six huge points in the intermediate hurdles from sophomore Grace Malcarney, who ran a PR 1:05.92 and placed third. Malcarney’s previous PR was a 1:06.64 and she was the No. 9 seed coming into states after a 1:08.77 at sectionals.

The Haddonfield girls won Group 1 state titles in 1998 and 1999 and have won Group 2 in 2001, 2004, 2012, 2014 and 2015. They lost a possible state championship last year but they sure made up for it this year!

Lauren Princz won her second state title of the weekend – and ninth of her career – Saturday when she ran 24.23 in the 200 at the state Group 4 meet.

Princz led three sprinters under 25 seconds, with Julia Jackson of Scotch Plains-Fanwood second in 24.49 and Azariah Graham third in 24.74. On Friday, Princz ran 11.92 to win the 100-meter dash.

With three events to go at Franklin Township High School, Egg Harbor led West Orange and Scotch Plains Fanwood, 48-31, with Westfield and Union a point back with 30 points. Egg Harbor has never won a girls state title.

Here’s a look at all of Princz’s state titles since she was a freshman at EHT. And remember she had an entire season wiped out!

2018 Outdoors
24.00, 200-meter dash, Group 4
23.90, 200-meter dash, Meet of Champs
2019 Indoors
7.13, 55-meter dash, Group 4
2019 Outdoors
11.95, 100-meter dash, Group 4
24.53, 200-meter dash, Group 4
2020 Indoors
7.12, 55-meter dash, Group 4
7.07, 55-meter dash, Meet of Champions
2021 Outdoors
11.92, 100-meter dash, Group 4
24.23, 200-meter dash, Group 4

Brady Shute finished a historic triple Saturday, running a lifetime-best and winning the 800 after also winning the 1,600 and 3,200 at the state Group 1 meet.

He’s the first to triple the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 in Group 1 in 22 years and the first South Jersey distance runner ever to triple the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 at states in any group.

Shute ran a PR 1:54.58 to out-race top-seeded Nathan Armstrong of Pompton Lakes in at Pennsauken to finish off the triple. Armstrong was second in 1:55.95.

http://milesplit.live/meets/423136/events/32/F/M

Shute and Armstrong came through the 400 together, but Shute closed in 56.70 to Armstrong’s 58.00 to win by seven meters.

On Friday, Shute won the 1,600 in 4:22.24 and on Saturday morning he won the 3,200 in a personal-best 9:20.99.

The last to triple the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 in Group 1 was Brad Becker of Spotswood, who ran 1:58.10, 4:22.72 and 9:39.70 for the sweep in 1999 at South Plainfield.

Shute is also the first South Jersey boy to triple at states in any events since Maple Shade’s Kenneth Karcher won the 200, 400 and intermediate hurdles in Group 1 in 2017.

Shute’s previous 800 PR was 1:55.26 at Haddonfield Distance Night and his previous 3,200 PR was 9:21.93 at Cherokee Distance Night. His 1,600 PR is 4:18.07 from the Haddonfield Invitational.

Jaila Ash ran away from top-seeded Andree Celestin of West Orange and won the state Group 4 high hurdles title Saturday morning at Franklin Township High School.

Ash ran a lifetime-best 14.10 and Celestin, the state leader at 13.89, was second in 14.26. The field ran into a 1.0 meters-per-second wind.

Ash lowered her PR from 14.11, which she ran in the trials of the 2019 Olympic Conference Championships at Washington Township.

Her time is No. 15 in South Jersey history and No. 8 in Camden County history.

Ash won the 55-meter dash indoors in 2019 at the state Group 4 meet and at the Meet of Champions, but this is her first state title in the hurdles and also her first outdoor individual state championship.

Here’s a look at the all-time Camden County top-10. For the full all-time South Jersey top-50, click here.

13.79 … Ste’yce McNeil [Winslow], 2012
13.84 … Lenaami Morton [Camden], 2017
13.88 … Zonya Cross [Edgewood], 1983
13.98 … Cidae’a Woods [Winslow], 2014
13.99 … Imani Gilliam [Pennsauken], 2004
13.99 … Tionna Tobias [Winslow Twp.], 2018
14.09 … Nichole Belcher [Wilson], 1992
14.10 … Jailya Ash [Eastern], 2021
14.15 … Aliya Rae Garozzo [Paul VI], 2019
14.17 … Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp.], 2006
14.17 … Samantha Sharper [Wilson], 2008

Before she was an Olympic silver medalist, Nia Ali was a record-setter at Pleasantville! Here’s the all-time S.J. girls 100-meter hurdles top-50 list!!!

On Friday, Ash ran 12.08 for second in the 100-meter dash, finishing second to Egg Harbor’s Lauren Princz.

Alanna Woolfolk hasn’t lost a high jump competition in her brief high school career, and she didn’t let it happen at her first state meet.

Woolfolk, a Delsea freshman, was one of three girls in Group 2 to clear 5-6 at Franklin but she won a state title because she cleared 5-6 on her first attempt.

Senior Carly Tarentino of A.L. Johnson cleared 5-6 on her second attempt and sophomore Jenovia Logan of Sterling cleared on her third attempt. Tarentino is the state leader this spring with a 5-6 1/4 last month at the Union County Championships in Plainfield.

In fact,Woolfolk didn’t have a miss until she won the competition and had the bar raised to 5-8.

This is the fourth meet this spring Woolfolk has cleared 5-6.

Woolfolk is the first South Jersey girl to win the state Group 2 high jump since West Deptford’s Megan Kirschling in 2012 and the first Delsea girl to win a state high jump title since Brianna Hunt cleared 5-6 to win the state Group 3 title in 2011 at South Plainfield.

Woolfolk also anchored Delsea’s 400-meter relay team, which edged Rumson-Fair Haven by 3-100ths of a second, winning in 49.12.

Seniors Olivia Carter and Aalliya Fox and junior Emily Hill ran the first three legs. It’s the second time in five years (four meets) Delsea has won a state title in the 4-by-1. Kaire Brackett, Daneesha Brown, Cecelia Gerstenbacher and Toni Glatz ran 47.36 to win Group 3 in 2017.

Josh Forrest finished off a monster distance double Saturday morning when he won the 3,200 at Group 2 states.

Forrest, who won the 1,600 Friday with a personal-best 4:15.61 at Franklin Township High School, came back and won the 3,200 in 9:20.49, once again kicking pass Madison’s Adam Angelone late in the race.

Angelone came through 2,800 meters in 8:17.37, Forrest at 8:17.59 and Jack Tavaglione of Voorhees a step back at 8:17.90.

But Forrest closed in 62.90 to hold off Angelone, who finished strong as well with a 63.83 final lap, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Forrest.

Adam Hunt won the discus for Collingswood in 2017 and 2018, but Forrest is the first Collingswood runner to win a state title since before 1980 and the first Collingswood boy to double at states since before 1980 as well (and probably ever).

Forrest, who will run next year for Buffalo, is the first South Jersey runner to double the 1,600 and 3,200 in any public school division in six years, since Luke Petela of Haddon Township won the Group 1 1,600 and 3,200 in 2015  and the first in Group 2 since Ben Potts of Haddonfield in 2011.

Angelone was second in 9:21.20 and Tavaglione ran 9:23.88 for third.

Delsea junior Andrew Littlehales ran a PR 9:27.05 for fourth, West Deptford junior Jacob Cobb clocked 9:30.72 for fifth and Haddonfield junior Tobias Janssen 9:32.07 for sixth.

What a double by Holy Spirit junior Elijah Steward!

Steward won both the long jump and 400 at the state Parochial B meet in Neptune, setting lifetime bests in both events.

Steward won the 400 in 49.62, lowering his PR from 49.97, and he jumped 22-4 1/2 to win the long jump, going over 22 feet for the first time.

Steward became the school’s first double winner at states since Cade Antonucci won the discus and javelin in 2015. Antonucci placed third in the javelin at this weekend’s NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.

In the 400, Steward won by 12 meters over Hudson Catholic sophomore Jacob Rodriguez, who ran 51.05.

The long jump was much closer. Another Hudson Catholic athlete, Kai’leel Jefferson jumped 22-3 3/4, so Steward won that event by three-quarters of an inch!

Holy Spirit also got Day 1 points from senior Markus Lewis [4th in discus], senior Devin Lee [3rd in 400] and freshman Luke Halburner [6th in 400].

Going into Day 2, Holy Spirit’s 31 points were only one behind Hudson Catholic for the Parochial B lead.

Terrific start to the state Parochial A meet for Paul VI junior Michael Mazero, who won his first state title in one event and PR’d in another.

Mazero ran 48.95 to edge top-seeded Joe Morrone of St. Peter’s Prep and win the 400 at Neptune High and ran 10.82 on his way to third place in the 100. He ran 10.82 in the trials and placed third in the final in 10.93.

He’s run slightly faster for 400 meters – 48.93 to win the Camden County title last month – but his previous 100 PR was 11.17 when he won the Olympic Conference race. 

Mazero will run the 200 and 400-meter relay on Saturday.