From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Curtis Thompson, a 2014 Florence High School graduate and five-time U.S. javelin hampion, bombed a 277-11 to automatically advance to the finals of the javelin at the World Championships in Tokyo Wednesday.

That’s the 5th-best throw of his life and his best ever in an international championship meet.

The top 12 throwers of 36 qualifiers competing in two groups advance to Thursday’s finals, but anybody hitting 84.50 meters – 272-2 – automatically advanced.

Thompson did that on his second attempt in the qualifying round, and that meant he didn’t need to take his 3rd attempt.

The final is scheduled for 6:23 a.m. EST Thursday back at Tokyo National Stadium.

Overall, Thompson had the 7th-best throw, although throws in the qualifying rounds don’t carry over to the final. He was one of seven auto qualifiers.

Only one American has ever thrown farther in the World Championships since the advent of the new javelin in 1986 (also back to the initial Worlds in 1983). That was Breaux Greer, who threw 285-5 when he placed 4th at the 2001 meet in Edmonton, Alberta, and 287-11 when he won in 2007 in Osaka, Japan.

Thompson is only the second American to reach two World Championships javelin finals. Greer was a finalist in 2001 and 2007.

Thompson has thrown at least 275 feet in each of his last three meets – 275-2 to win the U.S. Championships in Eugene on July 31, 286-2 and 282-8 to win the NACAC Championships in Freeport, the Bahamas, on Aug. 17 and 20 and 277-11 on Wednesday. He had only thrown 275 in two meets before this summer.

Thompson, a two-time Olympian and five-time U.S. champion, placed 11th in the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Ore., with a throw of 257-2..

Thompson opened with a 255-9 before popping his eighth lifetime throw of at least 275 feet. Six of his eight-best lifetime throws have come since March.

Thompson’s 287-11 from the Texas Relays in March is No. 3 in U.S. history behind Breaux Greer [299-6 in Indianapolis in 2007] and Tom Petranoff [292-6 in Potchefstroom, Russia, in 1991] and No. 4 in the world this year.

Three throwers in Group A and four in Group B hit the auto standard. Twelfth place – the cutoff to advance – was 271-7

The other American, former Penn athlete Marc Anthony Minichello placed 18th overall with a 264-0, missing the cutoff by about 7 ½ feet. Minichello attended Wyoming High School in Exeter, Pa., near Scranton.

Thompson ia ruw only American since Sean Furey in 2009 to reach a World Championships javelin final, and he’s reached two.

Thompson has nine of the 13-best throws by Americans this year. Minichello has three of the other four.

Anderson Peters of Grenada, a two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist – and Thompson’s teammate at Mississippi State – led all qualifiers into Thursday’s final with a throw of 293-8.

Since 1983, when all international championship meets went to a 12-athlete final, only five other throwers have reached the World Championships final and only two others have reached two finals.

Here’s a look at every U.S. man who has reached a World Championships javelin final in meet history:
1983 [Helsinki]
Tom Petranoff, 280-10 [2^nd] (threw 281-1 in qualifying)
1987 [Rome]
Tom Petranoff, 4^th [266-8]
Duncan Atwood, 12^th [237-11] (threw 258-11 in qualifying)
1991 [Tokyo]
None
1993 [Stuttgart]
Tom Pukstys, 9^th [255-7] (threw 261-11 in qualifying)
1995 [Gothebburg]
None
1997 [Athens]
None
1999 [Seville]
None
2001 [Edmonton]
Breaux Greer, 4^th [285-5]
2003 [[Paris]
None
2005 [Helsinki]
None
2007 [Osaka]
Breaux Greer, 3^rd [284-8] (threw 282-10 in qualifying)
2009 [Berlin]
Sean Furey, 12^th [244-5] (threw 260-1 in qualifying)
2011 [Daegu]
2013 [Moscow]
2015 [Beijing]
2017 [London]
2019 [Doha]
None
2022
Curtis Thompson, 11^th [257-2] (threw 268-1 in qualifying)
2023 [Bueapest]
None
2025 [okyo]
Curtis Thompson

Qualifiers to final
293-8 … Anderson Peters [Grenada]
286-1 … Julian Weber [Germany]
282-0 … Julius Yego [Kenya]
281-0 … Dawid Wegner [Poland]
279-9  … Arshad Nadeem [Pakistan]
279-4 … Neeraj Chopra [India]
277-11 … Curtis Thompson [Florence Flashes]
275-11 … Jakub Vadlejch [Czech Republic]
275-4 … Keshorn Walcott [Trinidad and Tobago]
274-6 … Sachin Yadav [Indonesia]
272-4 … Cameron McIntyre [Australia]
271-7 … Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage [Sri Lanka]

Curtis Thompson All-Time 270-Foot Throws
287-11 … Texas Relays, Austin, Texas, March 28, 2025 [2nd throw]
287-9 … American JavFest, East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 9, 2022 [2nd throw]
286-2 … NACAC, Freeport Stadium, Grand Bahamas, Freeport, Bahamas, Aug. 17, 2025 [2nd throw]
282-8 … NACAC, Freeport Stadium, Grand Bahamas, Bahamas, Aug. 20, 2025 [3rd throw]
277-11 … World Championships qualifying, Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 17, 2025 [2nd throw]
276-11 … Texas Relays, Austin, Texas, March 28, 2025 [3rd throw]
276-4 … NACAC, Freeport Stadium, Grand Bahamas, Bahamas, Aug. 20, 2022 [3rd throw]
275-2 … USATC Championships, Eugene, Ore., July 31, 2025 [4th throw]
274-11 … Athletissima, La Pontaise, Lausanne, Switzerland, Aug. 26, 2022 [1st throw]
273-4 … American JavFest, East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 9, 2022 [1st throw]
272-5 … Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, June 23, 2024 [1st throw]
271-11… Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, July 4, 2016 [1st throw]
271-10 … Spitzen Leichtathletik, Luzern, Switzerland, Aug. 30, 2022 [3rd throw]
271-9 … Texas Relays, Austin, Texas, March 28, 2025 [4th throw]
271-7 … Olympic Trials, Hayward Field, Eugene, June 21, 2021 [6th throw]
271-0 … American JavFest, East Stroudsburg [Pa.] South High School, July 13, 2024 [1st throw]
270-6 … USATF Championships, Eugene, Ore., July 31, 2025 [6th throw]
270-3 … Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Invitational, Silesian Stadium, Chorzów, Poland, Aug. 6, 2022 [2nd throw]

Eastern senior Natalie Dumas, who turned in maybe the greatest triple in high school history in June, raced Tuesday for the first time since U.S. Nationals and in an Olympic Conference batch meet at DREAM Park in Logan Township.

It wasn’t an all-out effort for Dumas, who is the only woman in the history of the world to run 51.14 for 400 meters, 2:00.11 for 800 meters and 55.99 in the intermediate hurdles. She won all three at West Philly Nationals and set state records in the 400 and 800 and also led Eastern to 2nd place in the sprint medley with the 12th-fastest time in U.S. history.

On Tuesday, Dumas ran with junior teammate Theresa Albertson well back in the pack, with both running 22:52 over the 5,000-meter course. Albertson has run 18:24 and 18:34 at DREAM Park and Dumas has a 5,000 PR of 18:49 set at DREAM Park.

They placed 3rd and 4th last fall at South Jersey Group 4 Sectionals. So they both ran close to 4 ½ minutes slower than they have on the same course. Dumas went on to run 20:26 last fall on the challenging Holmdel County Park course.

Although it wasn’t a full effort by Dumas, it’s just great to see her out racing again after a historic – and very long – spring season that culminated when she raced the 800 at the USA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., six weeks ago.

Cherokee swept the top three spots with seniors Madeline Meder, Alyssa Suriano and Sofia Recinto running 20:19, 20:22 and 20:23. On Saturday, they were part of the Cherokee team that won the RCA Relays in Virginia.

At West Philly Nationals, Dumas ran the 6th-fastest time in U.S. high school history in the intermediates, the 5th-fastest time in the 800 and the 6th-fastest time in the 400.

Next for the Eastern girls is the Osprey Invitational at Stockton University in Galloway Township on Friday.

Here’s the top in the batch race after Meder, Suriano and Recinto: Lenape junior Audrey McCorkle [4th, 20:25], Cherokee sophomore Erin Healy [5th, 20:33], Cherokee senior Maya Kumar [6th, 20:56], Seneca junior Jaden Elberman [7,th, 21:23], Seneca junior Abigail Connolly [8th, 21:47]], Rancocas Valley senior Mary Casano [9th, 22:21] and Lenape junior Elizabeth Sunlitis [10th, 22:26].

Team scoring wasn’t kept, but Cherokee would have won 17-65 over Lenape.

Haddonfield brought its B team up to the Regis Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park and placed a competitive 3rd behind two ranked programs.

Competing without seniors Ryan Gibson, Aaron Keith, Peter Simpson, Michael Sinnes, Luke Andresen and Brandon Stoner and junior Luke Patterson, the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs scored 65 points and finished behind only Don Bosco – ranked 15th in New Jersey – and Chaminade of Staten Island – ranked 2nd in New York State. Bosco scored 37 points and Chaminade 49.

Haddonfield had six finishers in the top 25, including one senior, two juniors, two sophomores and one freshman.

Sophomore Augustin Coley led Haddonfield in 8th place, covering the historic 2 ½-mile Van Cortlandt course in the Bronx in 13:40. Also in Haddonfield’s top five were junior Owen Snyder [11th in 13:55], senior John Leibrandt [15th in 14:09], junior Andrew Blum [18th in 14:19] and sophomore Connor Brand [22nd in 14:21], with 6th man freshman Logan Tripician [23rd in 14:23].

Also running sub-15 for the Bulldogs: junior Lucas Laganella [29th in 14:43], sophomore Jack T. Brand [30th in 14:45], sophomore Luke Lindner [31st in 14:49] and junior Nathan Gallo [35th in 14:53].

Haddonfield is expected to run its top group in a full effort over 5,000 meters for the first time on Sept. 27 at the Bowdoin Classic in Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., the course that will be used for Nike Cross Northeast (and New York) Regionals on Nov. 22.

Pennsauken’s Hope Edwards placed 2nd in the sophomore race at the Thompson Two-Miler at Thompson Park in Jamesburg Saturday.

Edwards, the state indoor 800 champ and No. 3 freshman intermediate hurdler in the U.S. last spring at 1:00.32 while at Moorestown, ran 12:51, finishing behind only Metuchen’s Taylor Zaneto.

Edwards had run 13:13 a week earlier over 3,200 meters at the Cherokee Challenge so factoring in the 3,200/two-mile conversion, that’s a 26-second drop.

Pennsauken’s Rai’ana Rucker was 12th in the sophomore race in 13:57.

For Cinnaminso, Luke Feeley took 8th in the Freshman Race in 11:30 and Keith Fried was 12th in the Junior Race in 11:17.

Junior Grace Gutowski and senior Giovanna Mantuano placed 6th and 7th to lead the Paul VI girls to the team title Saturday at the 35th annual Briarwood Invitational at the historic Belmont Plateau 5,000-meter course in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.

Gutowski ran 20:09 on the challenging Belmont Plateau course, and Mantuano ran 20:21.

It was PVI’s 2nd straight Briarwood team title. They won by 25 points this year, 60-85, over Wissahickon High in Lower Gwynedd Township, Montgomery County, of by six points last year over South Western High of Penn Township, York County, Pa.

Paul VI, ranked 6th in New Jersey, placed all five scorers in the top 25. Freshman Isabella Suarez ran 21:05 and placed 12th in her first high school race, sophomore Peyton Blake was 18th in 21:58 and senior Macy Huber ran 22:22 for 24th.

Audubon had three in the top 25, with senior Riley Fayer 11th in 20:59, junior Lydia Gravante 16th in 21:53 and junior Isabella Legatie 22nd in 22:15.

Freshman Berkeley Marcelis of Wissahickon was the overall winner in 18:03.50, which pretty much has to be a freshman course record but who knows, nobody keeps track of this stuff in Pennsylvania.

In the girls freshman race over 3,000 meters, Audubon’s Emma Camm was 2nd in 12:44, Paul VI’s Riley Sheppard was 3rd in 13:26 and Audubon’s Sabrina Passon 8th in 14:19.

The Cherokee girls each ran between 8:34 and 9:23 for 2,500 meters and finished 1st out of 62 schools Friday night at the RVA Relays at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Va.

Senior Alyssa Suriano led off with an 8:34 split, followed by senior Maya Kumar in 9:23, senior Sofia Recinto with an 8:48 and sophomore Erin Healy 9:07, setting up senior Madeline Meder anchored in 8:47.

Cherokee won by nine seconds over Grafton in Yorktown, Va. Cherokee had a total time of 44:40 and Grafton combvined for 44:49.

In the RVA Relays, five runners from each school run 2,500-meter relay legs on a loop – with a baton – and their five splits are added up to determine team placing.

There were no live results and apparently the full results do not show up in Chrome or Safari, so they don’t make it easy for you to find results.

Cherokee is ranked 8th in New Jersey.They were 4th in this meet last year.

The Cherokee girls also placed 6th in the B race with juniors Genisa John and Gabrielle Urban and freshmen Ava Guarini, Casey Leisse and Ella Holloway. No times listed in the results.

The Cherokee boys may have placed 2nd out of 63 schools at the RVA Relays Saturday night under the lights at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Va.

The results have been such a disaster that it’s hard to tell exactly what happened, but there are results of the A race that appeared more than an hour after the race ended. They don’t show any times for any runners but do show Cherokee listed just below St. John’s Boys, although I have no idea where that school is located. Doesn’t say. Doesn’t say much.

[This just in … there are still no times, but there is a “1.” before St. John’s Boys, and a “2,” before Cherokee. So it seems safe to conclude that was the order of the top two teams.]

No team scoring, of course. Why should results of a team relay show team scoring? We must be crazy to expect it!

The results show Cherokee using seniors Logan Bromley and Dominic Pileri, juniors Sean Sooy and Ben Realley and sophomore Jack Tindall.

The format of the VA Relays is that five runners per school run a 2,500-meter relay legs on a loop at Pole Green Park – with a baton – and their five splits are added up to determine the team winners.

This was the first serious race of the year for Cherokee’s top runners. Cherokee, ranked 3rd in New Jersey, won’t race a full-effort 5,000-meter course with its lead group until Shore Coaches at Holmdel County Park on Oxt. 4.

Apparently, Virginia has not yet discovered FaT timing because there were no live results, results took hours to post, times were missing for some races and it was just a complete timing disaster start to finish. We’ve had a few of those here.

Cherokee was 1st out of 65 teams in the B race, with freshman Hamza Salahuddin, sophomore Evan Amato and juniors Leo Vyvyan, Gavin Danielewicz and Maximo Harada. Incredibly, no times listed with the results. The results disappeared for a while and then reappeared, again with no times.

Welcome to cross country circa 1985. Everybody associated with this meet ought to be embarrassed. What a disaster.

The Cherokee  girls also raced in Virginia. Maybe we’ll have the results by Wednesday!

Burlington Township graduate Payton Falkenstein, a junior at East Stroudsburg, placed 3^rd in the Division II/ III Challenge Saturday at Kutztown.

Falkenstein ran 23:04 on the 6,000-meter Kutztown Farm Course, which appears to not actually be in Kutztown but a few hundred yards west in Maxatawny Township, Berks County.

Falkenstein finished only 30 seconds behind winner Maura Lenhart of Kutztown, who ran 22:34.

Stockton was led by Shawnee gaduate Madelyn Valasek, who placed 10^th in 23:43. Valasek, the NJAC outdoor runnerup at 5,000 and 10,000 meters last spring, was making her 2025 XC debut.

Jefferson freshman Kylee Black from Cumberland County Tech in Vineland placed 42^nd in 25:39 in her first lifetime 6,000-meter race and her first college race.

East Stroudsburg finished with 61 points, 2^nd to Kutztown’s 47. Bloomsburg was 3^rd with 67.

Senior Noelle Falzone from Cherokee, sophomore Taylor Rooney from Egg Harbor Township and freshman Lilla Porter of Clearview from The College of New Jersey all placed in the top eight Friday at the Herb Lorenz Invitational in Ewing Township.

Falzone, Rooney and Porter finished 6th, 7th and 8th, each running between 21:21 and 21:27 over the Mike Walker-designed 5,000-meter course at the Green Lane Fields.

Montclair State swept the top three spots and won the team title with 29 points, but TCNJ went 4-5-6-7-8-(11-12) and was 2nd with 30.

Also for TCNJ, sophomore Ella Feehan from Atlantic County Tech placed 12th in 22:07 and sophomore Anna Marino from Cinnaminson was 18th in 22:55.

Overall winner Abigail Churchill from Montclair, who ran 19:09, has South Jersey ties. She competed for Rowan before transferring to Montclair.

Also for Montclair, Mackenzie Cochrane, a senior from Washington Township and also a transfer from Rowan, placed 15th in 22:18, and Alyssa Taylor, a sophomore from Atlantic County Tech, was 23rd in 23:40.

For Holy Family, Olivia Moyer, a freshman from Cinnaminson, placed 16th in 22:23.

The meet, started by TCNJ assistant coach Mike Walker from Rancocas Valley, honors legendary Masters runner Herb Lorenz, a member of the Road Runners Club of America Hall of Fame, the South Jersey Track and Field Hall of Fame, the South Jersey Coaches Hall of Fame, the Burlington County Track Hall of Fame and The College of New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Lorenz grew up in Pemberton and graduated from TCNJ – when it was still called Trenton State – before embarking on a remarkable post-collegiate career. Among his many accomplishments, in 1975, he set an American age-36 record of 2:17:43 at the Boston Marathon. He coached at Burlington Township for 30 years and also coached at Lenape.