From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Cherokee’s trio of half-milers did something at the Burlington County Open that hadn’t been done in nearly two decades.

Seniors Patrick Ditmars and Conor Jacob and junior Nick Kuenkel, Cherokee’s top three runners on the Chiefs’ state Group 4-champion XC team, swept the top three spots in the 800 Saturday at Northern Burlington, Ditmars winning in 1:55.23, Jacob 2nd in 1:56.32 and Kuenkel 3rd in 1:56.76.

Cinnaminson senior Derek Coceano [1:57.60] and Lenape junior Will Whalen [PR 1:58.77] also dipped under two minutes, but Cherokee became the first school to sweep any event at a County Open in 18 years.

Last time it happened was at the 2005 meet at Maple Shade, when Willingboro took the top three spots in the triple jump, with Bryan Potter [43-11 ¾], Travis Davis [42-10 ¾] and Antoine Rivera [40-10 ¼].

The last County Open sweep on the track also came in the 800 and it was also Willingboro. Back in 2003, Rashaad Lee of Willingboro won in 1:55.76, Ahmad Rutherford was 2nd in 1:55.90 and Edmund Dixon 3rd in 1:57.65. Those three, joined by Shareef Muhammad, ran 7:44.25 a few weeks later for 3rd place in the 4-by-8 at the adidas Outdoor Championships in Raleigh. That’s No. 5 in South Jersey history.

Ditmars has now won four Burlington County titles. He was the county XC champ in 2021 and took 2nd yo Kuenkel this past year. He won the 3,200 at the 2021 County Open as a soph and the 800 last year in 1:55.93. Ditmars’ 800 PR is 1:55.01 from last year’s South Jersey Elite at Delsea.

Jacob on Saturday also ran very close to his PR of 1:55.93 from Haddonfield Distance Night last year, and Kuenkel ran well under his PR of 1:58.38 from the South Jersey Elite earlier this month at Delsea.

The last time three half-milers from the same South Jersey school ran sub-1:57 in the same race was 2017 Group 4 sectionals , when Egg Harbor’s Aidin Hendriks ran 1:54.79, Eric Barnes 1:55.70 and Robert Dessoye 1:55.98 to place 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th on their home track.

The winner of that race was Malual Mu of Trenton, whose younger sister Athing is the Olympic 800 champion.

Millville grad Kira Parsons, a junior at Towson, popped a javelin PR 138-1 for 4^th place at the ECAC Championships Saturday at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Parsons was sitting in 8^th place with a best throw of 127-0 going into her 6^th and final attempt when she bombed her 138-1 to move up four places.

Her previous PR was a 137-7 at the Towson (Md.) Invitational in April of 2021. At Millville, Parsons threw 134-0 at the 2019 state Group 4 meet at Franklin High School.

Her 138-1 ranks 5^th in Towson history.

Towson won its first ECAC team title ever with 89 ½ points.

Timber Creek junior Naylah Jones raced to a speedy 100-200 double Saturday at the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township.

Jones won the 100 in a PR 11.96 and the 200 in 24.64, also a PR. She moved into the top spot in New Jersey in the 100 and No. 2 in the 200 behind only Piscataway senior Brooke’lyn Drakeford, who ran 22.53 Saturday in Metuchen.

Jones is now No. 12 in Camden County history in the 100 and No. 11 in the 200.

In the 100, Jones had a PR of 12.08 coming into this year from last year’s South Jersey Group 3 meet at Delsea. She lowered that to 12.05 at Fast Times at Cherokee and then to 12.01 in the trials Saturday and then to 11.96 in the final, where she edged sophomore teammate Ryan Jennings, who ran 12.19 (after a PR 12.17 in the trials).

In the 200, Jones had a PR of 24.87 from Ocean Breeze back in February, and this was her first open 200 this spring. Jennings was also 2nd in the 200 with a PR 24.97, her first time under 25.59. Jennings is now the No. 1 soph in New Jersey in the 100 and No. 3 in the 200. Overall, Jones and Jennings are No. 1 and 4 in the state in the 100 and No. 2 and 9 in the state in the 200.

Junior Chloe Jones also had a big day for Timber Creek with a PR 57.17 to win the 400, No. 3 this year in South Jersey, and another PR 16-10 for 4th in the long jump.

All-Time Camden County 100-Meter Dash List
11.49 … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
11.57 … Patti Dunlap [Camden], 1979
11.63 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
11.71 … Shakira Dancy [Winslow Twp.], 2017
11.73 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], 2014
11.88 … Denise Mitchell [Edgewood], 1983
11.90 … Jaia James [Winslow Twp.], 2022
11.91 … Aliya Harrison [Sterling], 2017
11.94 … Emily Carson [Haddonfield], 2013
11.96 … Jamillah Nock [Woodrow Wilson], 2004
11.96 … Jailya Ash [Eastern], 2019
11.96 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2023
11.98 … Jennifer Jackson [Eastern], 2003

All-Time Camden County 200-Meter Dash List
23.66 … Dennisha Page [Woodrow Wilson], 2019
23.85 … Shakira Dancy [Winslow Twp.], 2017
24.04 … English Gardner [Eastern], 2008
24.11 … Denise Mitchell [Edgewood], 1983
24.19 … Patti Dunlap [Camden] 1978
24.19 … Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp.]
24.48 … Avionne Sloan [Camden], 2003
24.53 … Maya Drayton [Cherry Hill East], 2019
24.57 … Torie Robinson [Winslow Twp.], 2014
24.61 … Emily Carson [Haddonfield], 2013
24.64 … Naylah Jones [Timber Creek], 2023
24.70 … Jewel Ash [Eastern], 2019
24.72 … Ste’yce McNeil [Winslow Twp.], 2011
24.72 … Aliya Harrison [Sterling], 2016
24.73 … Nylah Perry [Winslow Twp.], 2019
24.77 … Halima Scott [Woodrow Wilson], 2018

Delran sophomore Emir Canli turned in a remarkable Burlington County Open Saturday, winning the hurdles and triple jump, taking 2nd in the long jump and setting PRs in all three events.

Canli single-handedly scored all of Delran’s 28 points and the Bears placed 7th in team scoring. He’s only the 8th Delran boy in meet history to record a double win and only the 4th to also place 2nd in a third event.

Incredibly, this is Canli’s first season of track, and he’s the No. 1 sophomore in South Jersey in the 110-meter hurdles, long jump and triple jump. State-wide among 10th-graders, he’s No. 2 in the triple jump, No. 4 in the hurdles among sophomores and No. 7 in the long jump.

On Saturday at Northern Burlington, Canli started out with a 15.28 in the hurdles trials, where he was the 2nd-fastest qualifier. In the final, he lowered his PR from 15.14 at Father Judge to 14.87, winning by five meters over the field. He became the first Delran runner ever to win the high hurdles at a County Open.

The triple jump was huge for Canli, who came in with a PR of 41-1 ¾ but improved to 41-9 ¼ on his 1st attempt, 41-10 ½ on this 3rd, 42-10 ¾ and then popped a huge 45-3 ½ on his final attempt to pass R.V. sophomore Adris Lewis [PR 43-9 ¼] for the win. That 45-3 ½ is the No. 2 jump in meet history (triple jump was added in 2003) behind R.V.’s Zakiyy Williams’ 45-4 ¾ in 2015. That’s a Burlington County sophomore class record, a quarter of an inch beyond the 45-3 ¼ by Rece Englehart of Moorestown from last year (Englehart is currently hurt but hoping to return for sectionals).

In the long jump, Canli finished just one inch behind Palmyra senior Kwinten Ives, who jumped 21-3 ¼ to become Palmyra’s first county long jump winner since Will Allison in 2004. But Canli’s 21-2 ¾ shattered his PR of 20-1 from the Don Danser Relays at Lenape last month.

The only Delran athlete to have a better County Open than Canli is Jamir Brown, who was a sophomore last year when he won the intermediates and long jump and placed 2nd in the high hurdles and triple jump. He’s no longer at Delran.

Two other Delran athletes recorded a double win and a 2nd place at a County Open. In 1991, Andre Fisher won the javelin and high jump and placed 2nd in the long jump to Maple Shade’s Karahn Davis, and in 2001 Todd Lowber won the high jump and 100 and was 2nd in the 200 to Willingboro’s Darrin Scott.

Best of all … there’s another Canli. Twin brother Deniz is currently hurt, but he’s long jumped 20-4 and triple jumped 42-8 and run 51.54. He’s the No. 5 sophomore in South Jersey in the long jump and No. 7 in the triple jump. He was the No. 1 freshman 400 runner in South Jersey last year.

Eastern graduate Jailya Ash, a sophomore at UConn, won her second straight Big East Conference Championship Saturday, and she did it by the narrowest of margins.

In a race that was decided by 3-1,000ths of a second, Ash edged her long-time rival, Villanova junior Jane Livingston, to win the 100-meter hurdles at the Big East meet at Villanova in Radnor Township.

Ash and Livingston were both credited with identical 13.58 times in the final, but the photo timer credited Ash with a 13.575 and Livingston a 13.578.

That’s about 1.2 inches separating the two athletes.

Ash edged Livingston by 5-100ths of a second to win the indoor Big East title in Chicago over the 60-meter hurdles. Last spring, Livingston edged Ash by 11-100ths of a second for the title.

In the trials on Friday, Ash ran a PR 13.57 with a legal wind (0.9). We went through this last year, but UConn’s web site is a disgrace – the most recent list of Huskies conference champions is from 2015 – but I went through the last eight years of Big East results it looks like Ash is the first UConn woman in program history to sweep the high hurdles at the indoor and outdoor Big East Championships.

Last spring I went through 20 years of TFRRS pages to determine that Ash’s 13.58 at last year’s conference meet was the fastest by a Connecticut hurdler since 13.39 by Phylicia George at the 2010 Big East meet in Cincinnati and the No. 2 time in Huskies history.

A’liyah Thomas, a current UConn sophomore, actually ran 13.45 this year in a meet in Storrs to presumably move into the No. 2 spot on the non-existent UConn all-time list, but she did not race in the hurdles in the conference meet.

And a plea to UConn’s sports information and athletic departments: Update the women’s track information on your web site, like every other Division 1 college. Put together all-time indoor and outdoor men’s and women’s performance lists, like every other Division 1 college. List all-tine conference champions somewhere on your web site, like every other Division 1 college. Thanks.

Tremendous meet Saturday for Eastern’s Rajahn Dixon, who swept the sprints and ran the fastest time in the state this year and one of the fastest in South Jersey history in the 200.

No wind guage at Haddon Township, but Dixon won the 200 in 21.40, which matches the No. 6 time in South Jersey history.

Dixon tied the meet record set by Timber Creek’s Jamaad Muse, who ran 21.40 at the  2014 meet, also at Haddon Township, and he broke a very fast Eastern school record of 21.46 set by Sabli Gonnet when he won the 2007 Meet of Champions at South Plainfield.

Dixon ran a hand-timed 21.5 in a dual meet last week, but his fat PR before this year was a 21.92 indoors at Ocean Breeze. He ran 21.96 at South Jersey Elite at Delsea earlier this month.

He out-raced indoor Meet of Champions winner Premier Wynn of Pennsauken, who was 2nd in 21.70 – which is actually a PR for Wynn. He ran 21.75 to win the MoC at Ocean Breeze.

It appears on his MileSplit page that this is Dixon’s first year of outdoor track, and this was only his 2nd lifetime outdoor 200.

Camden soph Azir Lee, in his first meet of the year, also dipped under 22 in 3rd place with a PR 21.96. Lee, who was at Sterling as a freshman, is the No. 3 sophomore in the state and the first Camden sprinter under 22 seconds since Tahshon Reese ran 21.76 at the 2012 Group 3 sectionals at Egg Harbor.

Dixon also won the 100 in 10.91. He ran a hand-timed 10.6 but his fat PR was 11.02 from Fast Times at Cherokee. He lowered that to 10.96 in the prelims Saturday before winning the final over Pennsauken junior Elijah Jennings, who ran 11.02.

South Jersey now claims three of the five-fastest 200 runners in the state. Dixon is No. 1 at 21.40, Washington Township junior Ajani Dwyer is No. 4 at 21.55 and Wynn is No. 5 with his 21.70.

All-Time South Jersey 200-Meter Dash List
21.06 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], 1983
21.07 … Antonio Tarantino [Paul VI], 2018
21.14 … Reuben McCoy [Winslow Twp.], 2004
21.30 … Jah’mir Beasley [Sterling], 2019
21.39 … Martin Booker Jr. [Pennsauken], 2017
21.40 … Lamont Smith [Willingboro], 1991
21.40 … Rob Gary [Lenape], 1998
21.40 … Todd Dutch [Washington Twp.], 2001
21.40 … Jamaad Muse [Timber Creek], 2012
21.40 … Rajahn Dixon [Eastern], 2023
21.41 … Dorian Bryant [Kingsway], 2002
21.41 … T.J. Johnson [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2010
21.43 … Barry Cephas [Winslow Twp.], 2008
21.46 … Brondon Jenkins [Delran], 1994
21.46 … Sabli Gonnet [Eastern], 2007
21.47 … Curtis McIntyre [Bridgeton], 1992

Rancocas Valley sophomore Cecilia King won the high hurdles at the South Jersey Open last weekend at Delsea and at the Burlington County Open on Saturday.

That’s impressive enough. What makes it even more impressive is that they were the first two hurdles races of King’s life.

King ran everything from the 100 to the 800 as a freshman last year – she medaled in the 800 at the BCSL Liberty Division meet – and then this past indoor season she focused on the 55 and was quick enough to run 7.49 at Easterns, which made her the 12th-fastest sophomore in the state.

But King didn’t find her calling until this spring, when the R.V. coaches tried her in the hurdles, and she responded in a big way.

King has won the 100 highs at each of her first two meets, running 15.35 at Delsea last weekend and 15.37 at the County Open Saturday.

She’s only the third R.V. girl to win the 100-meter hurdles at a County Open. Legendary Tonya Lee won in 1986 and 1987, and Anabella Chin won it in 2021 and 2022.

King is the fourth sophomore to win the highs at the Open – Olympian Carol Lewis won four straight years from 1978 through 1981 – the first four years the girls meet was held – and Burlington Township’s Meagan Robinson won as a sophomore in 2009 as did Cinnaminson’s Meredith Updike in 2017.

On Saturday, King out-raced Burlington City’s Ny’era Hand-Brooks, the indoor Group 1 hurdles (and 55) state champion in the final. Hand-Brooks placed 2nd in 15.85.

King also won the 400-meter intermediates Saturday at Northern Burlington with a 1:07.00 in her second lifetime 400IH race.

That made her the first sophomore to double the two hurdles races since Lee in 1986.

The only other girls in meet history to double the two hurdles races are Willingboro’s Bobbie Tabb in 1982, Lee in 1986 and 1987, Shawnee’s Mandie Dulin in 1996, Tiffany Alford of Pemberton in 2002, Updike in 2017 and Chin last year.

King’s 15.35 from last weekend is No. 2 in South Jersey this spring behind Janelle Marshall of Winslow, who won the Camden County meet in 14.78 Saturday at Haddon Township. King is No. 5 sophomore in the state and the top soph in Group 4.

Rancocas Valley scored 131 points to win its 5th straight county title, equalling the longest winning streak in meet history. Lenape won five straight from 2007 through 2011. The meet wasn’t held in 2018 or 2020, so the last time R.V. didn’t win was 2016, when Lenape won.

Premier Wynn and Bryce Tucker did something Saturday that’s never been done in New Jersey track history.

The two Pennsauken seniors became the first teammates ever to run the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 53.00 or faster in the same high school race. (This one took me about three hours to figure out so please keep reading!)

At the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township, Wynn – the Meet of Champions winner at 200 meters indoors – edged Tucker, the two-time Meet of Champions winner in the intermediates and the No. 1-ranked hurdler in the country with his 52.18 from Fast Times at Cherokee last month.

Wynn, who came in with a PR of 54.28 from last year’s state meet – when he was 2nd to Tucker – hadn’t run a 400IH race this year. In fact his last one was a win in the Rising Stars division of Franklin Field Nationals in June.

But it was Wynn who was first across the line with a 52.68, No. 18 in South Jersey history and according to the MileSplit database, No. 3 in the country this year – behind Tucker and Nicholas Gorsich of Linn-Marr High of Marion, Iowa, who ran 52.46 in a meet this weekend on his home track. Tucker was just behind in 52.80.

Only 12 schools in New Jersey track history have had more than one runner break 53.0 seconds in the intermediates at any point in the school’s history, including Camden, Lenape, Washington Township and Willingboro before this past weekend.

But at most of those schools, their fast 400 hurdlers didn’t overlap.

At three of them, they did overlap.

Cory Poole and Akeem Lindo were both at East Orange in 2017, which was Lindo’s junior year and Poole’s senior year; Obafemi Animashaun and Taylor McLaughlin were both at Union Catholic in 2015, McLaughlin’s sophomore year and Animashaun’s senior year; and Dwight Ruff and Maurice Young were both at Camden in 2001, Ruff’s senior year and Young’s junior year.

East Orange? Poole ran 50.14 as a senior in 2017, but Lindo didn’t run sub-53 until his senior year. His fastest time as a junior was 53.05. Close. But not quite.

Camden? Ruff is the South Jersey record holder at 50.37, and Young ran 52.94, but he didn’t run sub-53 until his senior year, so they also never ran sub-53 the same year, much less the same race.

What about the two Union Catholic guys? Here it gets interesting.

In the summer of 2013, Animashaun and McLaughlin (whose sister Sydney is the world record holder and Olympic gold medalist) both went to the World Youth Track and Field Trials at Southern Illinois in Edwardsville, Ill. In the 400-meter hurdles final, McLaughlin placed 3rd in 51.69 and Animashaun ran 52.82 for 5th.

Now, if the two Union Catholic teammates had raced at the U.S. Junior Championships in Des Moines, that would have counted as a high school meet, because it’s a continuation of the high school season. The World Youth Trials are essentially a summer track meet, and by rule performances from summer track competitions don’t qualify for performance lists.

The only other South Jersey schools that have had two intermediate hurdlers at 52.80 at any point in their existence are Camden and Lenape.

Pennsauken did it in one race.

Tucker hasn’t run an open 400 yet, but he ran 47.50 indoors. Wynn ran 47.86 last spring. Get them in the same flat 400 race?

Here’s a look at all the New Jersey schools with multiple sub-53 intermediate hurdlers:

Camden
51.5h … Martin Booker [Camden], 1981
52.4h … Diandre Chandler [Camden], 1986
52.66 … Justin Dupree [Camden], 1996
50.37 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], 2001
52.94 … Maurice Young [Camden], 2002

East Orange
50.14 … Cory Poole [East Orange], 2017
51.85 … Akeem Lindo [East Orange], 2018

Lenape
52.71 … Mike Brown [Lenape], 1996
52.62 … Ian Moore [Lenape], 2001

Linden
52.94 … Jeff Jasmin [Linden], 2000
52.42 … Jonathan Petit-Homme [Linden], 2012

Notre Dame
52.78 … Matt Miesionczyk [Notre Dame], 1997
52.27 … Tiquan Underwood [Notre Dame], 2005

Pennsauken
52.14 … Bryce Tucker [Pennsauken], 2021
52.68 … Premier Wynn [Pennsauken], 2023

Plainfield
51.0h … Chris Person [Plainfield], 1978
51.02 … Tony Valentine [Plainfield],. 1983
52.51 … Isaiah Gill [Plainfield], 2009

Rahway
51.78 … Randall Walker [Rahway], 1985
52.29 … Christen Whyte [Rahway], 2009

Union Catholic
52.82 … Obafemi Animashaun [Union Catholic], 2013
50.20 … Taylor McLaughlin [Union Catholic], 2015
52.48 … Nick Givan [Union Catholic], 2022

Washington Twp.
52.72 … Devon Carter [Washington Twp.], 2000
52.10 … Tim Carey [Washington Twp.], 2009

West Orange
52.2h … Bruce Berry [West Orange], 1984
52.74 … Laejon Brooks [West Orange], 2003

Willingboro
52.89 … Devon Patton [Willingboro], 1990
52.71 … Mike Morrison [Willingboro], 2003
52.96 … Tyler Davidson [Willingboro], 2016

l

Kingsway’s Kylie Anicic on Saturday finished off her 4th consecutive conference distance triple at the PSAC Championships in Slippery Rock.

Anicic, a junior at Edinboro, won the 10,000 on Thursday in 35:48.85 and won the 1,500 in 4:33.88 and 5,000 in 17:20.57 on Saturday.

Including the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference XC championships in November in Mansfield, Anicic is 13-for-13 in PSAC races since transferring from Towson.

Indoors last year, she won the mile [4:58.38], 3,000 [9:59.46] and 5,000 [17:12.88] and outdoors she won the 1,500 [4:37.92], 5,000 [17:21.02] and 10,000 [36:46.38]. This past indoor season, she won the mile [5:02.72], 3,000 [10:06.49] and 5,000 [17:34.83].

Anicic has PRs of 4:25.00 in the 1,500 from last month in Lewisburg, Pa., 9:27.55 for 3,000 meters from last year’s NCAA Division 2 indoor National Championships in Virginia Beach, 16:25.97 in the 5,000 also from indoor Nationals in Virginia Beach and 34:30.63 in the 10,000 from a meet in March in Raleigh, N.C.

How many times has Anicic been an All-America? Good question. Edinboro hasn’t updated its All-America list on its web site since 2019 because why provide up-to-date information?

But it looks like once in cross country and twice on the track.

This year’s NCAA Division 2 Championships are scheduled for May 25-27 at Neta and Eddie DeRose Thunderbowl Stadium on the Colorado State campus in Pueblo, Colo.

Anicic began her collegiate career playing soccer at Temple in the fall of 2018. She played in two games for the Owls – at Delaware State on Aug. 26, 2018, and at Wagner on Sept. 16, 2018 – before transferring to Towson, where she spent the 2019 indoor and outdoor track seasons, 2019 cross country season and 2020 outdoor season before heading to Edinboro.

She ran 2:16.98 for 800 meters and 4:36.42 for 1,500 meters at Towson.

Nobody ever pulls off this double because nobody ever tries this double.

Palmyra junior Abdulazeez Iyiola at Northern Burlington on Saturday became only the second boy in meet history to win both the 400-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles at the same Burlington County Open.

Iyioa won the 400 in a PR 49.85 out of an unseeded heat and then just 15 minutes later won the intermediate hurdles in 57.01.

The only other boy in meet history to win both one-lap races in the same meet was Mike Williams of Lenape, who won the 400 in 49.15 and the intermediates in 56.62 at the 2013 meet at Maple Shade.

Iyiola is Palmyra’s first double winner since Will Brown doubled the hurdles in both 2005 [14.28, 55.77] and 2006 [14.19, 54.61].

Palmyra’s only other double winners in the last 50 years are Dan Cooper in the 100 and 200 in 1968 and 1969, Glenn Cooper in the 100 and 200 in 1973, Butch Birkhead in the 100 and 200 in 1980, Bob Howard in the hurdles in 1981, Chris Eberly in the javelin and intermediates in 1994 and Will Allison in the long and triple jumps in 2004.

Thanks to Iyiola’s two wins, senior Kwinten Ives’ long jump win and senior Joe Russell’s 5th-place in the high jump, Palmyra scored 32 points and placed 7th, its best finish since the 2004 team took 6th.

Iyiola is the first Palmyra runner to win the 400 at a County Open since Rodney Coon in 1986 and the first to win the intermediates since Brown in 2006.

In the 400, Iyiola won the 4th of five sections in 49.85, then watched as Rancocas Valley freshman Julian Coppage-Seepersaud won the seeded section in 50.20, a Burlington County freshman record.

It was Iyiola’s first open 400 this spring, although he ran 51.82 indoors and took 3rd in the state Group 1 meet.

Iyiola had never broken a minute in the intermediates before the Moorestown Invitational last month, but he ran 57.59 at Moorestown and a PR 56.45 last weekend at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea before easily winning Saturday by 15 meters over Seneca junior Ethan Cutts, who was 2nd in 59.45.

State-wide, Iyiola is No. 4 in Group 1 in the 400 and No. 2 in the intermediates.