From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Rancocas Valley’s shuttle hurdles team of juniors Cecilia King, junior Kaylie Peacock and Aniya Wilkins and senior Nevaeh Lott broke a 30-year-old Burlington County record Wednesday and ran the 7th-fastest time in South Jersey history.

R.V. won the varsity shuttle hurdles within the Red Devil Frosh/Novice & Varsity Relay Showcase on their home track in Mount Holly with a time of 1:01.59.

They broke the Burlington County record of 1:02.0 hand-timed set by Moorestown’s Shavonna Ross, Meredith Elwell, Liza Comila and Shaatich Rivers at the 1994 Long Branch Relays. Their time is fastest by a South Jersey school since Eastern ran 59.52 in 2019 at the Don Danser Relays at Lenape. Jailya Ash, Jewel Ash, Abigail Brocco and Analiese Bulgin ran on that team.

Winslow senior Dominique Clement, junior Ma’Syiah Brawner, senior Sierra Handy and senior Djassi Dean placed 2nd in 1:02.99, which is No. 17 in South Jersey history and No. 12 on the all-time Camden County list. It’s Winslow’s fastest time since they ran 1:00.18 at the 2014 Carl Lewis Relays at Willingboro.

ALL-TIME S.J. GIRLS SHUTTLE HURDLES
59.00 … Edgewood, 1999
59.52 … Eastern, 2019
59.79 … Pennsauken, 1999
1:00.14 … Buena, 2012
1:00.18 … Winslow Twp., 2014
1:01.17 … Woodrow Wilson, 2012
1:01.59 … Rancocas Valley, 2024
1:01.68 … Winslow Twp., 2002
1:01.6h … Woodrow Wilson, 2005
1:01.94 … Edgewood, 1998
1:02.0h … Moorestown, 1994
1:02.16 … Wilson, 2003
1:02.51 … Mainland Regional, 2018
1:02.59 … Paul VI, 2018
1:02.68 … Mainland Reg., 2018
1:02.86 … Edgewood, 2001
1:02.99 … Winslow Twp., 2024
1:03.62 … Absegami, 2017
1:03.70 … Lenape, 2008
1:03.73 … Highland, 1998
1:03.79 … Camden, 2015

Down to their final chance to qualify for NCAA Division 3 Nationals, Rowan’s 1,600-meter relay team – with three South Jersey legs – came up huge Wednesday at the AARTFC Championships in Cortland, N.Y.

Junior Molly Lodge of Woodstown, junior Jasmine Pope of Pennsauken, senior Kat Pederson from Hillsborough and junior Nevaeh Lorjuste from Triton ran 3:48.08 and placed 2nd to Rochester at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Championships. Rochester ran 3:47.72.

The Rowan women were ranked 26th in D-3 going into the race and only the top-16 teams in each relay qualify for nationals. But the 3:48.08 moved the Profs all the way up to 10th and an almost certain lane at nationals.

Rowan’s previous-fastest time this year was a 3:51.30 with Lodge, Pope, Pederson and Lorjuste at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships in Galloway Township earlier this month.

Rochester had already run 3:47.30 this spring, so Rowan leapfrogged 16 schools to move into the No. 10 spot on the TFRRS Division 3 list, which is used to determine the qualifiers for nationals. The AARTFC is essentially a last-chance meet. The qualifying deadline is the end of the day Thursday. As of now the qualifying cutoff for the 4-by-4 is 3:49.70, so Rowan made it by over a second and a half.

Lodge and Pope handled the first two legs for Rowan – three-turn stagger so no splits for their legs because you’d need a timing system for every lane – and then Pederson split 56.30 and Lorjuste 56.22.

The time is Rowan’s fastest in 10 years, since Jessalynn Wright of Cherokee, Jamie Thompson from South Brunswick, Tashay Wilson from Hillside and Melirah Searcy of Edison set the school record of 3:44.60 at the 2014 NCAA Division 3 Championships at Selby Stadium at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio (your humble scribe’s alma mater).

The NCAA Division 3 Championships are scheduled for next Thursday through Saturday at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The top 22 in each individual event qualify for nationals, and with less than a day before the qualifying cutoff Lodge is 13th in the 400-meter hurdles [1:02.26], Anna Sasse of Williamstown is 20th in the steeplechase [10:48.66] and Isabelle Deal of Washington Township is 12th in the shot put [45-8] and 15th in the javelin [135-8].

Also in the 4-by-4, The College of New Jersey ran 3:56.10 and placed 6th with freshman Kelsey Thomas running the 3rd leg.

https://tf.tfrrs.org/lists/4517/2024_NCAA_Division_III_Outdoor_Qualifying_List?gender=f#event33

Sophomore Xavier Bancroft, sophomore Julian Coppage-Seepersaud, junior David Smith and sophomore Thomas Howard Jr. broke the Burlington County 800-meter relay record and ran the 7th-fastest time in South Jersey history Wednesday on their home track in Mount Holly.

Pushed by Winslow, R.V. ran 1:27.43, which broke the Burlington County record of 1:27.75 set by Willingboro’s Akeem Adiatu, Antonio Abney, Daquon Brow and Jusson Boyd at 2007 Greensboro Nationals at North Carolina A&T.

It’s also fastest in New Jersey this year.

Winslow, with senior Kenneth Everett Jr., junior Jayden Poteat, senior Darrell Jackson Jr. and junior Cameron Miller, placed 2nd in 1:28.38. That’s No. 3 in New Jersey this year.

The 4-by-2 was one of a handful of varsity races held during a mostly freshman and novice meet – the Red Devil Frosh/Novice Finale and Varsity Relays.

Rancocas Valley’s previous school record was 1:28.23 set at the 2015 Woodbury Relays by JeSean Foster, Dyson Scott, Shaun Ellis-Bradley and Sterling Pierce.

Here’s the all-time South Jersey sub-1:28 list
1:24.49 … Winslow Twp., 2003
1:24.90 … Camden, 2004
1:26.05 … Camden, 2000
1:26.68 … Camden, 1997
1:26.74 … Pennsauken, 2023
1:27.38 … Paul VI, 2016
1:27.43 … Rancocas Valley, 2024
1:27.52 … Woodrow Wilson, 1996
1:27.66 … Oakcrest, 2011
1:27.68 … Pennsauken, 2016
1:27.69 … Oakcrest, 2012
1:27.74 … Pleasantville, 1994
1:27.75 … Willingboro, 2007
1:27.80 … Pleasantville, 1999
1:27.84 … Winslow Twp., 2002
1:27.90 … Winslow Twp., 2008
1:27.96 … Williamstown, 2015
1:27.98 … Camden, 2002

And the all-time Burlington County Top 10
1:27.43 … Rancocas Valley, 2024
1:27.75 … Willingboro, 2007
1:28.23 … Rancocas Valley, 2015
1:28.0h … Willingboro, 1979
1:28.40 … Cherokee, 2008
1:28.44 … Lenape, 1996
1:28.64 … Rancocas Valley, 2014
1:28.79 … Willingboro, 1999
1:28.6h … Willingboro, 1982
1:28.73 … Rancocas Valley, 2022

West Deptford’s Jacob Cobb, a sophomore at MIT, ran one of the fastest steeplechase times in South Jersey history Saturday in a meet in Williamstown. Mass.

Cobb shaved more than 14 seconds off his PR and nearly broke 9 minutes at the Farley Inter Regional Extravaganza at Williams College. He won the race in 9:00.17, winning by 35 meters over Amherst’s Ian Dopp, who was 2nd in 9:06.73.

His time is 5th-fastest ever by a South Jersey high school alum and breaks the Gloucester County alum record of 9:08.3, set 72 years ago by Woodbury Olympian Browning Ross at the 1952 Olympic Trials at Los Angeles Coliseum.

Cobb’s previous PR was 9:12.63 last month in Providence, R.I.

Cob’s time is No. 19 in NCAA Division 3 through Tuesday. The top 22 in each individual event qualify for the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Myrtle Beach, S.C., May 22-25, so Cobb appears to have a very good chance to race at nationals. He placed 29th out of 229 runners in NCAA Division 3 East Regionals in Hopkinton, N.H., in November – which MIT won – but didn’t run at nationals.

Unbelievably, MIT’s track web site not only doesn’t have an all-time top-10 list it doesn’t even list school records. They might be the only NCAA Division 1 school that doesn’t have school records on its web site.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine I found an old set of meet records and it turns out Cobb’s 9:00.14 is indeed MIT’s fastest time ever.

The previous record was 9:00.98 by current MIT sophomore Arroyo Pablo in May 2023 at the MIT Final Qualifier in Cambridge, Mass.

All-Time South Jersey Alumni Steeplechase List
8:38.94 … Sam Gerstenbacher [Schalick], May 20, 2022, New York
8:46.16 … Mike Ungvarsky [Cinnaminson], May 2022, Durham, N.C.
8:53.66 … Connor Herr [Shawnee], May 10, 2015, Philadelphia
8:56.15 … Terrance Armstrong [Camden], 1994
9:00.17 … Jacob Cobb [West Deptford], 2024, Williamstown, Mass.
9:04.63 … Greg Pelose [Haddonfield], May 4, 2019, Worcester, Mass.
9:05.48 … Louis Corgliano [Hammonton], March 30, 2018, Gainesville, Fla.
9:06.1h … Karl Savage [Eastern], May 16, 2005, Philadelphia
9:07.70 … Dave DeJong [Shawnee], 2001
9:08.3h … Browning Ross [Woodbury], June 28, 1952, Los Angeles
9:12.99 … Pat McCurry [Hammonton], April 28, 2016, Philadelphia
9:13.90 … Martin Suarez [Holy Cross], May 26, 2007,
9:13.93 … Andy Arnold [Bishop Eustace], May 6, 2012, Princeton, N.J.

Eastern’s Kadence Dumas ran the 6th-fastest 800 in University of Delaware history Saturday at the CAA Championships and became the fastest freshman in Blue Hens history.

Dumas lowered her PR from 2:10.44 down to 2:08.90 and placed 3rd at the Coastal Athletic Association Championships in Elon, N.C. She finished behind North Carolina A&T junior Fajr Kelly [2:06.72] and Northeastern senior Ava Duggan [2:08.53].

According to figures listed on TFRRS [Track and Field Race Reporting Service], her time is fastest by a CAA freshman in 11 years, since 2013, when Jocelyn Hubbard of Northeastern won the conference title at Towson in 2:10.39.

At Eastern, Dumas ran an all-time South Jersey No. 7 time of 2:10.44 this past June to become the first South Jersey girl to win the Meet of Champions in 24 years.

She ran 2:12.24 indoors at the Armory and then 2:10.45 in a meet in Charlottesville, Va., last month, missing her lifetime-best by 1-100th of a second.

This past weekend, she cruised to the 800 final at the CAA meet in 2:13.02 before destroying her PR in the final.

She became the fastest South Jersey alum on the all-time Delaware list, bumping Lenape graduate Carly Pettipaw , who ran 2:09.75 at the 2018 Towson (Md.) Invitational.

Dumas is the third South Jersey collegian under 2:10 this spring. Rutgers senior Shelby Whetstone from Lenape ran 2:05.81 in Ann Arbor this past weekend in the Big Ten Championships, and Maryland senior Kami Joi Hickson from Washington Township ran 2:08.15 in Azusa, Calif., last month.

Rancocas Valley’s Ian Moore PR’d in the 800 with the 6th-fastest time in Monmouth University history at the CAA Championships.

Moore placed 5th in 1:50.52 at the Coastal Athletic Association Championships at Elon, N.C. His previous PR was 1:50.81 from a meet a few weeks earlier in Charlottesville, Va.

Moore is one of three South Jersey half-milers on the all-time Monmouth 800 top-10 list. Kingsway’s Stone Caraccio ran 1:50.83 at Princeton in 2022 and Absegami’s Ford Palmer ran 1:51.01 at IC4A’s – also at Princeton – in 2013. They rank 6th, 7th and 9th in school history.

Caraccio and Cherokee grad Nico Grilli placed 5th and 7th in the 1,500, Caraccio with a near-PR 3:49.31 and Grilli with a PR 3:52.97. Caraccio ran slightly faster – 3:49.25 – in a meet at Bucknell in April 2022. They rank 8th and 10th in school history.

Caraccio is No. 4 in Monmouth history at 800 meters indoors with his 1:50.37 at IC4As in Boston but didn’t run the 800 at the outdoor conference meet.

Washington Township’s Kanye Mills, a freshman at Point Park University, an NAIA school in Pittsburgh, won both hurdles races at the recent River States Conference championships at Robert Morris in Moon Township outside Pittsburgh.

Mills won the 110-meter highs in a slightly wind-aided 14.40 and won the 400-meter hurdles in 54.70. Both are PRs, although Mills’ wind-legal highs PR over the 42-inch barriers is 14.70 from a meet in March in Morgantown, W. Va.

The 14.70 broke the school record listed at 15.25 by Delsea graduate and current Point Park senior Damir Lomax last April in a meet at Slippery Rock, Pa. The 54.70 is No. 2 in school history behind a 53.74 by Malcolm Harris at the 2018 River States Conference meet in Pittsburgh. Mills also won the 60-meter hurdles at the conference indoor meet in February in Logan, Ohio.

Lomax placed 3rd in the hurdles finals in 15.28, 3rd in the 100 in 22.43 and ran the 2nd leg on the Pioneers’ winning 400-meter relay team, which ran 42.54. Mills and Lomax both ran on the 2nd-place 4-by-4, which ran 3:21.20, finishing 1-100th of a second behind Indiana University Kokomo.

Lomax was the 2021 River States indoor conference champ in the 60-meter highs and 400 and 2022 outdoor winner in the 100, 2023 indoor hurdles winner. He’s long jumped 22-5 for Point Park but did not long jump this spring.

Mills ran 14.54 over the 39-inch high school hurdles for Washington Township and 54.95 in the intermediates.

On the 2024 NAIA performance list, Mills ranks 17th in the 110 highs. There is literally nowhere on the NAIA track web site that says how many people qualify for the nationals, scheduled for May 22-24 at Indiana Wesleyan in Marion, Ind.

There are a couple other South Jersey athletes on Point Park’s track team. Senior Nasir Galloway of Woodbury placed 10th in the shot put at 42-10 ¼ and freshman Xavier Tolliver of Willingboro was 5th in the triple jump at 42-0 ½ and 11th in the long jump with a 20-1 ½.

Penns Grove graduate Eli Hendricks, whose high school PR was 22.53, ran a full second faster Monday at Widener.

Hendricks ran a wind-legal 21.45 at the Widener Final Qualifier in Chester, Pa., the 6th-fastest time in NCAA Division 3 this year. It’s also the fastest wind-legal time by any NJAC runner this year. His teammate, Rowan junior Amara Conte, ran 21.27 to win the conference title last week in Galloway Township with a 2.3 meters-per-second tailwind, but his wind-legal season-best is 21.81 in the NJAC trials.

That 21.45 ranks Hendricks 40th in NCAA Division 3 this year. The top 22 in each individual event qualify for the NCAA Division 3 National Championships. Right now, the cut-off is 21.18 (including wind-aided times). Rowan competes at the AARTFC Championships in Cortland, N.Y., on Wednesday and Thursday, the final qualifier for nationals.

Hendricks ran a wind-aided 21.38 to place 2nd in the conference meet, but his legal PR before today was a 22.03 at the College of New Jersey in Ewing in his only previous 200 this year with legal wind.

At Penns Grove, Hendricks had a windy 200 PR of 22.27, and he ran his legal PR of 22.53 this past June at the Meet of Champions in Somerset. He ran 11.07 in the 100 and was a state medalist indoors in the 60 and outdoors in both the 100 and 200.

Hendricks was 4th in the 200 at the indoor NJAC meet at Ocean Breeze with a 22.01 and ran a leg on Rowan’s winning 4-by-200. At the outdoor conference meet, he ran a 100 PR 10.87 for 5th and that windy 21.38 for 2nd in the 200 and also ran on the winning 4-by-1.

Highland graduate Robert McKinney, a Rowan junior, ran a PR 21.58 in the same race, and junior James Coleman of Audubon ran a PR 21.90.

Hendricks, Bridgeton’s Shamar Love, Agyemang and McKinney won the 400-meter relay in 40.98. Rowan ran slightly faster [40.86] last month with Rancocas Valley’s Masai Byrd, Love, Agyemang and Kingsway’s Evan Corcoran. Rowan ranks 18th in NCAA Division 3 and the top 16 teams go to the NCAA Championships. They’re currently 3-100ths of a second outside the top 16.

Camden Catholic gradaute Matt Coffey ran a big 5,000 PR Monday night in the Widener Final Qualifier in Chester, Pa.

Coffey, running unattached after finishing a grad year at St. Joe’s, ran 14:14.16 and placed 4th out of 88 runners. His previous PR was a 14:19.95 last month in Princeton.

Penn State’s Brian DiCola from Hatboro-Horsham High in Montgomery County won the race in 14:04.82.

Coffey, a Pennsauken native, is now up to 13th on my best attempt at an all-time South Jersey 5,000-meter run list, which has undergone major changes over the past few months. Who’s missing?

ALL-TIME SOUTH JERSEY 5,000-METER RUN LIST
13:44.57 … Jack Shea [Cherokee], April 29, 2022, Palo Alto, Calif.
13:48.61 …Karl Savage [Eastern], April 17, 2003, Walnut, Calif.
13:58.23 … Jon Anderson [Cinnaminson], April 23, 2009, Philadelphia
13:58.84 … Austin Gabay [Cinnaminson], March 28, 2024, Raleigh, N.C.
14:03.52 … Kevin McDonnell [Camden Catholic], April 5, 2013, Williamsburg
14:04.8h … Kevin Pumphrey [Highland], 1989, ???
14:06.23 … Sam Gerstenbacher [Schalick], April 29, 2022, Philadelphia
14:08.24 … Kevin Antczak [Mainland Regional], Feb. 22, 2024, Boston
14:09.10 … Andy Arnold [Bishop Eustace], April 4, 2014, San Francisco
14:09.37 … Jon Vitez [Haddonfield], March 30, 2012, Raleigh, N.C.
14:12.0h … Mike Elder [Haddon Twp.], 1977, ???
14:13.72 … Miles Schoedler [Ocean City], April 5, 2013, Williamsburg, Va.
14:14.02… Ethan Wechsler [Cherokee], April 19, 2024, Charlottesville, Va.
14:14.16 … Matt Coffey [Camden Catholic], May 13, 2024, Chester, Pa.
14:15.73 … Conor Melko [Bishop Eustace], May 15, 2021, Springfield, Mass.
14:15.94 … Sebastien Reed [Pitman], April 29, 2022, Philadelphia
14:16.10 … John Richardson [Ocean City], April, 2008, Palo Alto, Calif.
14:17.77 … Keith Krieger [Cherokee], April 6, 2007, Durham, N.C.
14:17.91 … Dennis Fortuna [Triton], April 25, 2024, Philadelphia
14:17.99 … Marc Pelerin [Cherokee], May 7, 2006, Storrs, Ct.
14:20.26 … Eric Lorenz [Holy Cross], 1992
14:20.39 … Thomas Cooke [Kingsway], 2021, Boston
14:21.54 … Kevin Antczak [Mainland Reg.], March 24, 2022, Raleigh, N.C.
14:23.12 … Mike Rankin [Paul VI], April 12, 2014, Fairfax, Va.
14:23.23 … Martin Riddell [Haddonfield], April 25, 2024, Philadelphia
14:24.46 … Seth Clevenger [Haddonfield], April 14, 2023, Asuza, Calif.
14:26.53 … Nick / Cole Pschunder [Eastern], March 2, 2019, Boston
14:26.90 … Aaron Groff [Cherry Hill East], Feb. 15, 2020, Boston
14:27.38 … Ben Woodward [Highland], March 5, 2022, Boston
14:28.30 … Colton Johnson [Paul VI], May 5, 2024, Fairfax, Va.
14:30.65 … Noah Deckert [Delsea], April 12, 2024, Princeton
14:31.31 … Paul Szulewski [Williamstown], April 13, 2013, Lewisburg, Pa.
14:32.01 … Joe Domanico [Haddon Township], Feb. 15, 2020, Boston

With Sterling’s Marquise Young and Pitman’s Nick Razze on the first two legs, Rowan ran one of the fastest 4-by-400 relays in NCAA Division 3 history Monday night.

Young and Razze ran the first two legs and Rowan won the 4-by-4 at the Widener Final Qualifier Meet in Chester, Pa., in 3:09.31.

That’s 16th-fastest in NCAA Division 3 history and No. 2 this year, only 4-100ths of a second behind Bethel of Arden Hills, Minn., which ran 3:09.27 at its own Bethel Invitational last month.

Rowan will race at the NCAA Division 3 Championships May 23-25 at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Unfortunately, no splits are available from Widener, which is ridiculous in this day and age, but Young led off, Razze – a transfer from McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., who hasn’t run an open 400 all spring – ran 2nd, Nana Agyemang of Parsippany ran the 3rd leg and Amara Conte of Ferris High in Jersey City anchored.

If anybody out there has splits, shoot ’em over my way!

Rowan’s time ranks 48th among all U.S. 4-by-4 teams this year.

The time is Rowan’s 2nd-fastest . The Profs ran a school-record 3:08.74 for 3rd place in the NCAA Division 3 Championships last May at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y. That was with Young, Agyemang, Jah’mere Beasley of Sterling and Conte.

All-Time NCAA Division 3 1,600-Meter List
3:07.24 … Mount Union, 2023, Rochester, N.Y. [Division 3]
3:07.42 … Lincoln [Pa.], 2005, Princeton, N.J. [IC4A]
3:07.78 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2004, Iowa City, Iowa [Musco Twilight]
3:07.82 … Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 2023, Rochester [Division 3]
3:08.10 … Mount Union, 2018, La Crosse, Wisc. [Division 3]
3:08.21 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2004, Decatur, Ill. [Division 3]
3:08.26 … Wesley, 2018, La Crosse, Wisc. [Division 3]
3:08.31 … Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2013, Des Moines, Iowa [Drake Relays]
3:08.34 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2023, Rock Island, Ill. [Augustana Twilight Qualifier]
3:08.55 … Lincoln [Pa.], 2006, Lisle, Ill. [Division 3]
3:08.67 … Lincoln [Pa.], 1996, ???
3:08.71 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2005, ???
3:08.74 … Rowan, 2023, Rochester [Division 3]
3:08.81 …..… Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2023 [Division 3]
3:09.18 … Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2007, ???
3:09.20 …….. Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2013, La Crosse, Wisc. [Division 3]
3:09.26 …..… Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 2023, Rochester, N.Y. [Division 3]
3:09.27 … Bethel, 2024, Arden Hills, Minn. [Bethel Invitational]
3:09.31 … Rowan, 2024, Chester, Pa. [Widener Final Qualifier]
3:09.38 …….. Mount Union, 2023, Rochester, N.Y. [Division 3]
3:09.38 …….. Wisconsin-La Crosse, 2023, Rochester, N.Y. [Division 3]
3:09.44 … John Carroll, 2023, Rochester [Division 3]
3:09.44 … Mount Union, 2022, Geneva, Ohio [Division. 3]
3:09.48 … Augustana, 2013, Des Moines, iowa [Drake Relays]