Washington Township’s Ajani Dwyer, a freshman at Penn State, raced into the 100-meter dash finals at the Big Ten Championships Saturday with the fastest wind-legal time of his life.

Dwyer ran 10.16 with a legal 0.5 meters-per-second tailwind at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., to lead all qualifiers for the final on Sunday. His previous legal PR was 10.19 in Gainesville last month. He ran a windy 10.05 [+3.9] in Charlottesville last month. He had a PR of 10.21 in high school with a 10.32 legal PR.

His time is No. 25 on the 2025 U.S. list, No. 3 on the U.S. Under-20 list and No. 6 on the World Athletics world Under-20 list.

Dwyer fell 1-100^th of a second short of the Penn State record of 10.15 set last May by Olympian Cheickna Traore in Lexington, Ky. Traore graduated from Innovation High School in Jersey City.

On Sunday, Dwyer is scheduled to race in the 100 final at 4:45 p.m. and the 200 final at 5:26 p.m.

Dwyer’s time is 5^th-fastest all-time by a New Jersey high school graduate:

9.86 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], Aug. 25, 1991, Tokyo, Japan [+1.2]
9.91 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], Sept. 7, 1996, Milan, Italy  [+1.2]
10.12 … Mario Heslop [Franklin Twp.], April 9, 2022, Atlanta [-1.3]
10.15 … Cheickna Traore [Snyder], May 24, 2024, Lexington, Ky. [+0.7]
10.16 … Ajani Dwyer [Washington Twp.], May 17, 2025, Eugene, Ore. [+0.5]
10.19 … Michael Garvin [Don Bosco], April 4, 2009, Austin, Texas [+1.6]
10.21 … Nadále Buntin [J.P. Stevens], May 13, 2023, Bloomington, Ind. [+1.0]
10.23 … Ashhad Agyapong [Trenton], June 7, 2008, Holmdel, N.J. [+0.0]
10.24 … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], June 26, 1979, Västerås, Sweden [+1.0]
10.27 … Barry Douglas [Willingboro], May 4, 1996, Fairfax  [+1.3]

Delsea junior Hannah Nuhfer shattered the South Jersey shot put record Saturday at the South Jersey Group 3 meet at her home track.

Nuhfer, who PR’d with a 46-4 at the Deptford Spartan Relays last month, popped a 47-9 on her 6th and final attempt, breaking the mark of 47-1 ¼ set by Cherokee’s Jessica Woodard when she won the 2013 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield.

That’s No. 11 in state history and only two inches shy of the all-time top-10. It’s No. 5 among underclassmen. It’s No. 17 in the U.S. this year, according to the MileSplit database, and No. 3 among juniors.

She broke the Gloucester County (and school) record of 46-4 that she shared with Delsea’s Janiece Rose from 2011.

Nuhfer also had a 45-1 ½ on her first throw and a 43-10 ½ on her 5^th

Nuhfer broke the South Jersey Group 4 and overall South Jersey sectional meet record of 45-1 set in 2011 by Rose. The overall South Jersey sectional shot put record was Helene Connell’s 46-10 ¼ at the 1977 meet at Toms River South.

.(The NJSIAA’s list of meet records has Rose setting that record in 2017, which was six years after she graduated from high school. It also lists it as “45-27:86,” which tells you everything you need to know about the NJSIAA. They don’t care about track, They don’t care about accuracy.).

Here’s every New Jersey girl that’s thrown 47 feet or more:
58-1 … Alyssa Wilson [Donovan Catholic], 2017
55-11 … Jessica Oji [Livingston], 2025
52-7 ¾ … Nickolette Dunbar [Whippany Park], 2016
50-0 … Layla Giordano [Old Tappan], 2024
49-10 … Shelby Bigsby [Montclair], 2018
49-2 ¾ … Nicole Sims [Plainfield], 1991
48-10 ½ … Amarys Berry [Hackensack], 2016
48-4 ¾ … Jessica Molina [Westwood], 2016
48-0 ½ … Jackie Hudgins [Highstown], 2001
47-11 … Danielle Notarfrancesco [Jackson Liberty], 2016
47-9 … Hannah Nuhfer [Delsea], 2025
47-6 … DeAnne Hahn [Brick Twp.], 2007
47-5 ½ … Theresa Picciallo [Immaculate Heart], 2011
47-2 ¾ … Kim Hicks [Plainfield], 1992
47-1 ¼ … Jessica Woodard [Cherokee], 2013

Nester Wea became the second girl in South Jersey history to record two sectional quad wins with a historic performance that led the Willingboro girls to their 10th sectional championship.

Nea set meet records in winning the 100 in 11.76, the 200 in 24.16 and the 400 in 54.09. Her 14.51 win in the hurdles was just off the meet record of 14.45.

By winning both relays without Wea, Willingboro gave Wea the opportunity to compete in – and win – four individual events, and that went a long way toward the Chimeras topping defending state champion Rumson-Fair Haven by a 120-102 score in the Central Jersey Group 2 meet at Jackson Liberty.

Willingboro won South Jersey Group 4 in 1980, 1981 and 1992, South Jersey Group 3 in 1984, 1985 and 1999, South Jersey Group 2 last year and Central Jersey Group 3 in 2004. They’ve now won outdoor sectional titles in six different groups.

Wea now ranks 13th in South Jersey history in the 100, 6th in the 200 and 10th in the 400. In Burlington County history, she’s No. 2 in the 100 and 400, No. 3 in the 200 and 10th in the hurdles.

Only 11 girls in South Jersey history have ever won four individual events at an individual sectional meet. Wea won the same four events in South Jersey Group 2 as a sophomore in 2023, and the only other girl with multiple South Jersey sectional quad wins is Olympian Erin Donohue, who won the 800, 1,600, 3,200 and javelin in 1999 and 2000.

Of the 13 quad wins, Wea’s is by far the most impressive in terms of where her performances rank in South Jersey history.

Her 11.76 in the 100 broke the meet record of 11.98 set by Jay-Deen Batchelor of Hillside last year. Her 24.16 broke the meet record of 24.74 set in
2004 by Lashonda Carter of Rahway. Her 14.51 was 6-100ths of a second off the meet record of 14.45 set in 2012 by Abraham Clarke’s Kaprice James.

Willingboro picked up those two huge relay wins without Wea in the 4-by-1 and 4-by-4.

In the 400-meter relay, sophomore Maya Bolden, junior Kayla Speight, junior Aaliyah Robinson and sophomore Trinity Brapoh won with a meet-record 48.32, breaking the mark of 48.77 set by Point Pleasant Beach in 2023.

And in the 4-by-4, Bolden, Robinson, sophomore Jade Pinder and Speight ran 3:56.78, faling just 7-100ths of a second shy of the meet record of 3:56.70 set in 2019 by Rumson-Fair Haven.

Willingboro swept the hurdles with Wea, Brapoh [14.64] and Robinson [15.15] for 24 points, went 1-2-5 in the 100 with Wea, Bolden [12.25] and Speight [12.39] for 20 points and went 1-3-4 in the 200 with Wea, Speight [24.96] and Bolden [25.10] for 20 more points.

The Chimeras also scored nine points in the long jump, with Pinder taking 2nd at 17-4 ½ and Robinson 6th at 16-7.

Also, senior Sunny Oyibo [1:06.25 in the 400IH], Brapoh [33-7 ¼ in the triple jump] and Pinder [4-10 high jump] each picked up 4th places, Bolden was 5th in the 400 [57.93], senior Yaramari Torres placed 5th in the shot [29-11], and freshman Annalyse Brown, freshman Gabriella Sanabria, senior Janella Sanabria and Oyibo ran 10:22.99 for 6th in the 4-by-8.

South Jersey Individual Quad Winners
Tonya Lee [Rancocas Valley, S.J. Group 3, 1986]: 100HH [14.5], 400IH [1:02.2], LJ [17-7 ½], HJ [5-4]
Euride McCormick [Paulsboro, S.J. Group 1, 1987]: 100HH [15.3], 400IH [1:05.7], LJ [16-8], HJ [5-2]
Dana Burnett [Williamstown, S.J. Group 3, 1996]: 100 [11.6], 200 [24.2], 400 [54.4], LJ [17-10 ½]
Nichole Hill [Oakcrest, S.J. Group 3, 1997]: 100 [12.0], 200 [24.6], 100HH [13.9], LJ [17-6]
Kristina Matthews [Bordentown, S.J. Group 1, 1998]: 100HH [15.2], 400IH [1:06.2], HJ [5-4, LJ [18-6 ¼]
Erin Donahue [Haddonfield, S.J. Group 1, 1999]: 800 [2:16.7], 1,600 [5:00.0], 3,200 [10:43.2], Jav [133-1]
Erin Donahue [Haddonfield, S.J. Group 2, 2000]: 800 [2:12.8], 1,600 [4:49.8], 3,200 [10:28.6], Jav [141-7]
Shameka Speed [Bridgeton, S.J. Group 2, 2002]: 100 [12.1], 200 [24.7], 400 [57.5], LJ [18-6 ½]
Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp., S.J., Group 4, 2004] 200 [25.10], 400 [55.73], 100HH [14.33], 400IH [1:00.12]
Rajeanna Marigna [Palmyra, S.J. Group 1, 2008]:100 [12.34], 200 [25.44], 400 [58.06], 100HH [16.11]
Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp., S.J. Group 4, 2013]: 100 [12.18], 200 [25.08], 100HH [14.29], 400IH [1:04.39]
Amirah Sharpe [Clayton, S.J. Group 1, 2021]: 200 [25.37], 400 [56.24], 800 [2:20.54], 400IH [1:04.20]
Nester Wea [Willingboro, S.J. Group 2 2023]: 100 [12.09], 200 [25.52], 400 [58.05], 100HH [16.03]
Nester Wea [Willingboro, C.J. Group 2 2025]: 100 [11.76], 200 [24.16], 400 [54.09], 100HH [14.51]

Eastern junior Natalie Dumas won a sizzling showdown with Pennsauken junior Sianni Wynn Saturday morning and tied the state 400-meter dash record along the way.

Dumas won the South Jersey Group 4 title in 51.87, tying the state record set by four-time Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin at the 2016 Meet of Champions in Berkeley Township.

Her time is No. 2 in the U.S., according to the MileSplit national database. Tyra Cox of Miami Northwestern ran 51.44 last week in a meet in Jacksonville.

She broke the South Jersey record of 52.80 that Wynn set at the BCSL meet, also at Pennsauken, earlier this month. Wynn placed 2^nd Saturday in 53.20.

Dumas’s performance is the fastest ever in a New Jersey sectional meet. McLaughlin had the previous-fastest sectional performance when she ran 52.89 at the 2017 South Jersey Parochial A meet at Egg Harbor.

The previous-fastest public-school 400 performance at sectionals was a 53.49 by Arianna Sharpe to win the South Jersey Group 1 title in 2022.

The overall Group 4 sectional record was Julia Jackson’s 53.69 in 2022 at Ridge, and the South Jersey Group 4 record was Wynn’s 53.80 last year at on her home track at Pennsauken.

Dumas’s time is No. 33 among U.S. women this year. It’s fastest among U.S. women 20 and under, according to World Athletics, and 3^rd-fastest among world juniors, behind Chioma Nwachukwu of Nigeria [51.26 in Gainesville] and Bella Pasquali of Australia [51.84 in Perth].

The race was crazy fast overall, with 10 girls under 60 and six under 58. Behind Dumas and Wynn, Kingsway freshman Noemi Haller was 3^rd in 55.87, Eastern senior Samantha Osei-Kyei placed 4^th in 56.33, Pennsauken junior Sanaya Dupree ran 56.60 for 5^th and Rancocas Valley junior Rhyann Roseboro was 6^th in 57.55.

It’s going to be fairly high on the all-time U.S. scholastic list. Gotta look that up now!

Ajani Dwyer, in only his 2^nd collegiate outdoor 200, ran the 5^th-fastest time in Penn State history Friday in the prelims of the Big Ten Championships.

Dwyer, a freshman from Washington Township,  ran 20.51 with a legal 0.8 tailwind and placed 2^nd in the 2^nd of four heats to USC’s Max Thomas, who’s 7^th-fastest in NCAA Division 1 this year at 20.33.

The only South Jersey natives to ever run faster in a wind-legal 200 are Olympic gold medalists Carl Lewis and Dennis Mitchell.

Dwyer advanced to the final as a small-Q qualifier with the 2nd-fastest non-winning time. The four heat winners and the next five-fastest times advanced to Sunday’s final.

Dwyer trails only Olympian Chieckna Traore [19.93 last year], one-time Eagles receiver Michael Timpson [20.23 in 1986], Terrance Laird [20.41 in 2018] and Malik Moffett [20.49 in 2017] on the all-time Penn State performance list.

Dwyer ran 20.55 in his only previous collegiate 200 in Baton Rouge back in March. His 20.51 is 8^th-fastest ever with legal wind by a New Jersey sprinter.

The 200 final is scheduled for 5:26 p.m. Sunday.

Dwyer is the No. 4 seed in the 100 with his 10.05 last month, with trials scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Saturday and the final at 4:45 p.m. Sunday.

Dwyer’s 10.05 was wind-aided. His legal PR is 10.19 from a meet in Gainesville in April.  That’s No. 2 in Penn State history and 6^th-fastest ever by a New Jersey sprinter with legal wind.

Malachi James turned in the fastest 100 time by a Syracuse sprinter in at least 16 years on Friday.

James, a freshman from Burlington City, ran 10.32 into a 0.6 meters-per-second headwind at the ACC Championbships in Winston-Salem, N.C., and qualified for Saturday’s final.

James set the New Jersey state record at 10.28 last year at the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken but also had a 10.18 at South Jersey Group 1 sectionals that was negated because there was no wind gauge at Pennsauken.

After playing football for Syracuse as a true freshman, he sat out the indoor season and didn’t race outdoors until a meet in Tampa in late March. He ran a wind-aided 10.29 in Albany last month, but his race Friday was a collegiate PR and only 4-100ths of a second off his wind-legal PR of 10.28.

I’d love to tell you where James’ performance ranks in Syracuse history, but Syracuse’s track web site is one of a very few NCAA Division 1 programs that does not have an all-time top-10 performance list. So the best I can do is look back through the TFRRS year by year and that shows nobody running as fast as 10.28 as far back as it goes, which is 2010.

The final is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday back at Kentner Stadium on the Wake Forest campus.

Delsea’s Nico Morales became the first South Jersey pole vaulter ever to clear 18 feet Friday at the Big Ten Conference Championships in Eugene, Ore.

Morales, a senior at Rutgers, cleared 18 feet on his 3rd attempt. He’s only the 4th vaulter ever from New Jersey to clear 18 feet. Bradley Jelmert of Watchung Hills cleared 18-9 ¼ in Pittsburg, Kans., in December 2023, current Rutgers junior Kevin O’Sullivan cleared 18-2 indoors in January at the Armory and current Rutgers sophomore Brian O’Sullivan cleared 18-1 in a meet in Tampa last month. On Friday, Kevin O’Sullivan no-heighted and Brian O’Sullivan joined Morales clearing 18 feet.

Coming into this weekend, only 15 NCAA Division 1 vaulters had cleared 18 feet this year, including Jelmert, a senior at Arkansas State. The 18-foot clearance puts Morales in the No. 39 spot this year among U.S. men.

Morales had a PR of 16-9 ½ coming into this indoor season. He cleared 17 feet for the first time in January at the Ott Center with a 17-2 ¾ that made him the first South Jersey 17-footer. He improved to 17-6 ½ in February in Cambridge, Mass., and then 17-9 in his most recent meet, the Rutgers Relays in Piscataway a month ago.

On Friday, Morales opened at 17-0 ¼ and cleared on his 1st attempt before getting over the bar at 17-4 ¼ and 17-8 ¼ on his 2nd tries and 18 on his 3rd. He took three attempts at 18-2.

Illinois sophomore Cody Johnson won the competition with an 18-2 clearance on his second attempt. Morales was one of four others to clear 18-0, including Brian O’Sullivan. Morales placed 5th with more misses than the three others who cleared 18-0.

Northern Burlington senior Liliah Gordon smashed the Central Jersey Group 3,200-meter run meet record Friday at Jackson Liberty.

Gordon won the race in 10:28.74, edging nemesis Allison Lee of West Windsor-Plainsboro North, who was 2nd in 10:29.49, also under the previous record.

The previous meet record was 10:31.6 hand timed by Middletown South’s Cate Guiney at the 1999 Central Jersey Group 3 meet at Monmouth Regional in Tinton Falls.

Gordon, a two-time Foot Locker finalist and 5,000 All-America, won the indoor Meet of Champions in 10:13.41 at Ocean Breze. She was only 6 ½ seconds off her outdoor PR of 10:22.20 from the Glenn Loucks Games in White Plains, N.Y., last May.

Eastern junior Natalie Dumas ran the fastest intermediate hurdles race in South Jersey sectional history and state public school history Friday at the Group 4 meet at Pennsauken.

Dumas, the West Philly Nationals champ last spring at 58.32, nearly PR’d, winning the sectional race in 58.37 at Pennsauken.

That broke the South Jersey Group 4 sectional and overall South Jersey sectional record of 1:00.12 set by Winslow Township’s Krystal Cantey in 2005 at Egg Harbor. Willingboro’s Danielle Myricks ran a hand-timed 1:00.1 in 2001 in Group 3, also at Egg Harbor.

The fastest previous public school sectional performance was a 59.04 by Reanda Richards of West Essex at the 2018 North 1 Group 3 meet at River Dell.

The only faster time in the U.S. this year according to the MileSplit national database is a 57.75 by Sydney Sutton of the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., in a meet last month in Columbia, S.C. Sutton was the Boston Nationals 400 champ indoors in March.

The overall New Jersey 400IH sectional record is 55.52 by world record holder and four-time Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin at the 2017 Parochial A Sectionalsat at Egg Harbor.

Her time is No. 58 among U.S. women this year, No. 3 on the U.S. Under-20 list and No. 8 on the world Under-20 list.

Rancocas Valley senior Cecilia King placed second in 1:01.12 , 5th-fastest in Burlington County history, fastest by an Rancocas Valley girl since Meet of Champions winner Tonya ran 59.03 in 1988 and fastest by any Burlington County girl since Meredith Updike of Cinnaminson ran 1:00.67 at the  2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington. 

Earlier Friday, Dumas won the 800 in 2:14.30, leading five runners under 2:16. Cherokee juniors Alyssa Suriano [2:14.75] and Sofia Recinto [2:14.97] and Vineland seniors Ashlynn Newton [2:15.50] and Georgina Chalow [2:15.61] all broke 2:16.

Woodstown junior Joshua Crawford smashed the meet record, senior Cole Lucas wasn’t far behind and junior junior Karson Chew gave the Wolverinces three of the first five four finishers in the South Jersey Group 1 800 Friday at Pennsauken.

Crawford slashed his PR from 1:56.97 from Haddonfield Distance Night earlier this month to 1:53.59, breaking the meet record of 1:53.9 hand-timed set by legendary Fred Sharpe of Paulsboro in 1997.

That’s 2^nd-fastest in Salem County history, behind only a 1:52.97 by Penns Grove’s Jaymes Dennison at the 2013 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield.

Lucas ran a huge PR of his own in 2^nd with a 1:54.87, which is the 3^rd-fastest time in meet history, behind Crawford’s time Friday and Dennison’s 1:54.45 in 2013, and 3^rd-fastest in Salem County history. His previous PR was a 1:58.08, also at Haddonfield Distance Night.

And Chew also broke two minutes, taking 5^th in 1:59.92 and giving Woodstown 22 points in the first individual final on the track.

Gateway junior Nathanial Martinez was 3^rd in 1:59.14 and Woodbury junior Elijah Young was 4^th in 1:59.76.

Here’s a look at all the sub-1:57 times in South Jersey Group 1 meet history:
1:53.59 … Joshua Crawford [Woodstown], 2025 [1]
1:53.9h … Fred Sharpe [Paulsboro], 1997 [1]
1:54.87 … Cole Lucas [Woodstown], 2025 [2]
1:55.02 … Luke Petela [Haddonfield], 2015 [1]
1:55.45 … Jaymes Dennison [Penns Grove], 2013 [1]
1:56.15 … Scott Hubbard [Audubon], 2022 [1]
1:56.46 … Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 2024 [1]
1:56.47 … Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 2023 [1]