From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Senior Cartrell Moore tripled the long jump, triple jump and 400-meter hurdles and senior Elijah Whitaker doubled the 1,600 and 3,200, and Glassboro won its first Gloucester County championship ever Thursday at Deptford.

Glassboro outscored 2nd-place Washington Township 118-90 despite missing Damere Lassiter, the top shot-disc thrower in New Jersey Group 1.

In 2009, when Glassboro had the best Group 1 team in South Jersey history and won the state title with with a ridiculous 86 points, the county meet wasn’t held.

Moore ran 54.45 to win the intermediates, long jumped 21-7 and triple jumped 46-0 ½. Moore is ranked No. 1 in New Jersey Group 1 in the intermediates and triple jump and No. 2 in the long jump. Whitaker ran a PR 4:23.15 in the 1,600 and led a 1-2 Bulldog finish in the 3,200 in 9:53.85, with junior Ty Blackman 2nd in 9:56.03.

The Bulldogs got a big lift from newcomer Xavier Sabb competing in his third career meet. Sabb didn’t compete indoors and hadn’t done anything outdoors in a major meet other than long jump twice. But he ran 10.097 for 2nd to Ajani Dwyer in the 100 and 22.23 for 3rd in the 200 as well as taking 2nd in the high jump at 6-0. He’s long jumped 20-7 ½ this spring but didn’t long jump Thursday.

Sabb’s 100 and 200 times are fastest this year by a New Jersey freshman. He’s No. 4 in the high jump among freshmen and No. 9 in the long jump.

Sophomore Amari Sabb cleared 6-2 for the first time to win the high jump, and senior Caron Wright took 2nd in the long jump at 21-0 ¼ for a 1-2 Glassboro sweep.

Also Glassboro’s 1,600-meter relay team placed 3rd in 3:25.97. Names of Glassboro’s four runners aren’t listed in the results.

Dwyer, New Jersey No. 1 in the 100 at 10.38 and No. 3 in the 200 at 21.22, won the sprints with a 10.63 and 21.61.

Washington Township senior Daniel Torres had a nice double with a 1:56.81 PR to win the 800 and a PR 4:23.77 for 2nd to Whitaker in the 1,600.

Clayton junior Alexander Osayemi won a very fast 400, leading four runners under 50. Osayemi is New Jersey No. 2 at 48.08 from South Jersey Elite earlier this month at Delsea. Woodbury junior Marquis Taylor was 2nd with a lifetime-best 48.72, Delsea senior Dante McGrenehan ran a PR 49.29 for 3rd and Woodbury senior Jayden Johnson a PR 49.66 for 4th.

Washington Township senior Yashahya Brown, U.S. No. 5 in the 110-meter highs at 13.50, ran 13.79 Thursday for the win.

Clearview senior Daniel Couse won the pole vault on misses at 14-0 over Deptford junior Marcus Hood, Paulsboro senior Javion Payne won the discus with a 157-5 and Deptford senior Bryce Dunn threw 146-5 to win the javelin.

Deptford’s Neo Clark-Tabb, Darryl Wayman, Kareem Brown and Abu Jabbie won the 1,600-meter relay in 3:21.56, just ahead of Delsea’s 3:21.69. Those are season bests for both Deptford and Delsea and No. 2 and 3 in South Jersey this year.

Junior Anthony Parker had a strong triple, winning the 200 with a 22.80, the high hurdles at 14.75 and the intermediates in 56.09 and taking 2nd in the long jump at 20-8 ¼ Wednesday in the Salem County Championships at Salem.

All four are PRs. The 14.75 is No. 2 in the state in Group 1, and all four marks are among the top eight in New Jersey Group 1.

Schalick freshman David Stewart tripled the 100 in 11.28, the 400 in 52.25 and the long jump with a 21-4 ½ and also took 4th in the triple jump with a 42-11 ¼. All four are big PRs, and Stewart is now the No. 1 freshman in New Jersey in the 100, 400 and long jump [and No. 2 in the triple jump].

Woodstown junior Cole Lucas doubled the 800 in 2:00.65 and the 1,600 in 4:42.41.

Penns Grove’s senior Theus Barrios, sophomore Kylee Goodson, junior Knowledge Young and sophomore Bryan Garlic ran 3:33.00 to win the 1,600-meter relay.

Other winners: Schalick junior Reggie Allen Jr. in the high jump at 6-2 on misses over Woodstown freshman Tyler Dolby, Schalick sophomore Salvatore Longo in the pole vault [11-0], Salem senior Davonte Jackson in the triple jump [44-7 ¼], Pennsville senior Daniel Saulin [41-7 ¾ shot], Pennsville junior Jackson McFarland [123-5 discus] and Pennsville junior Connor Ayars [146-4 javelin]

Schalick topped Salem 94-74 for the team title.

It was quite a day for Schalick senior Grace O’Neill, who scored 24 points and contributed to a winning relay in Schalick’s Salem County Meet victory on Wednesday at Salem.

O’Neill won the discus by 33 feet with a 125-6 on her final throw. That makes her No. 4 in South Jersey this year, No. 8 in New Jersey and No. 2 in Group 1, behind only Glassboro junior Sunsarai Moore, who threw 136-11 earlier this month in the South Jersey Elite at Delsea.

O’Neill threw 125-11 at South Jersey Group 1 sectionals at Pennsauken last year, but the 125-6 is her best throw this year.

But what makes O’Neill’s performance Wednesday so unique is the nature of the events she competed in. She ran a 400-meter hurdles PR of 1:07.83 to place 2nd to Salem senior Anna Buzby [1:05.91] and then ran a PR 62.44 in the 400 to take 3rd behind Buzby [59.76] and Schalick junior Gia Martellacci [62.44].

O’Neill also ran 61.13 on the 2nd leg of Schalick’s winning 4-by-4 team, which ran 4:12.60. Martellacci, senior Alivia Klancic and junior Sophia Harris also ran.

The old discus / 400 / intermediates / relay quad!

O’Neill’s previous track PRs were 64.67 on Saturday at Rancocas Valley and 1:08.47 from last year’s state Group 1 meet in Somerset.

Schalick’s 4:12.60 is No. 4 in New Jersey among Group 1 schools, behind Audubon [4:08.62 at Woodbury], Salem [4:11.38 at Woodbury] and Hasbrouck Heights [4:12.52 at Penn]. So two of the fastest Group 4-by-4s are from tiny Salem County.

Salem senior Karima Davenport-White, in just her 2nd major meet this year, won the high hurdles in 15.70, the fastest Group 1 time in New Jersey this year. She had just PR’d in the trials of the South Jersey Elite with a 15.77. She also won the long jump with a PR 16-1 ¾ and placed in both sprints with two more PRs.

Schalick junior Jordan Hadfield won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 [PR 2:20.09, 5:30.64, 12:42.29], and Penns Grove senior Jameelyona Horace swept the 100 and 200 with PRs in both [12.67, 26.28].

Also Woodstown sophomore Kami Casiano won the high jump [4-10], Pennsville junior Megan Morris won the pole vault with a lifetime-best 9-0 on fewer misses over the versatile Buzby, Schalick senior Brooke Watt tripled jumped a winning 33-6 ¾, Salem sophomore Ava Rodgers threw a five-foot PR 35-2 ½ to win the shot put and Schalick junior Allyson Green won the javelin at 104-5.

Another race, another monster PR for Norfolk State freshman Premier Wynn from Pennsauken.

Wynn, who had a PR of 52.29 from early Apri before Monday, dropped it to 51.21 in the qualifying heats at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championships on Monday and then lowered his PR to 50.72 in the final on Wednesday on his home track in Norfolk, Va.

In all, in just about a month, Wynn has dropped nearly two seconds from his high school PR of 52.68 from the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township last May to 50.72 on Wednesday.

Howard senior Noah Langford won the race in 50.72, and Wynn was 2nd.

Wynn’s time makes him No. 27 overall in NCAA Division 1 and 3rd among freshman behind high school rival Ryan Matulonis of Penn, who ran for Seton Hall Prep [49.75 at the Ivy League Championships Sunday at Princeton] and Markel Jones of South Florida [50.40 at the South Florida Invitational earlier this month].

Wynn’s time moves him ahead of high school teammate Bryce Tucker, the three-time Meet of Champions winner, who ran 50.96 when he won last year’s Meet of Champions at South Plainfield. Tucker, now at Rutgers, is the No. 8 freshman in Division 1 with his 51.46 last month in Columbia, S.C.

Younger ran 50.65 in the qualifying heats at the NCAA East Prelims in Greensboro, N.C., on May 28, 2010.

Wynn is also No. 29 among U.S. men. World Athletics hasn’t updated its Under-20 list lately, but no junior listed has run as fast as Wynn. Tucker is No. 2 on that list with his 51.82. Wynn and Tucker are both 19 and won’t turn 20 until after midnight on Dec. 31, so both are eligible for U.S. Under-20s next month in Eugene and a berth on the U.S. team going to World Under-20s in Lima, Peru, in August.

With only the 1,600-meter relay remaining, Norfolk led Howard 194-131 in team scoring.

ALL-TIME SOUTH JERSEY ALUMNI 400-METER HURDLES LIST
48.37 … Reuben McCoy [Winslow Twp.], June 28, 2008, Eugene, Ore.
48.86 … Fred Sharpe [Paulsboro], May 18, 2003, Knoxville, Tenn.
49.50 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], June 12, 2003, Sacramento
50.04 … Mike Brown [Lenape], June 12, 2002, Holmdel, N.J.
50.52 … Martin Booker [Camden], May 12, 1984, Philadelphia
50.65 … Aaron Younger [Delsea], May 28, 2010, Greensboro, N.C.
50.69 … Danyne Brown [Camden], May 30, 2003, Fairfax, Va.
5o.72 … Premier Wynn [Pennsauken], May 8, Norfolk, Va.
50.84 … Nick Brown [Bridgeton], July 16, 2005, New York
50.96 … Bryce Tucker [Pennsauken], June 15, 2023, South Plainfield, N.J.
51.25 … Demetrius Rooks [Absegami], May 26, 2012, Claremont, Calif.

Millville’s Kira Parsons, a senior at Towson University, popped a javelin PR over the weekend at the Kehow Twilight Meet at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md.

Parsons threw 138-5 on her 3rd throw and placed 2nd to Chantae McMillan, a 2012 Olympic heptathlete and a former All-America at Nebraska.

Parsons’ throw is No. 5 in Towson history.

Going into the meet, Parsons had a PR of 138-1 from last year’s ECAC Championships in Fairfax, Va.

She had five throws at 132-5 or better at Maryland – 132-5, 134-11, 138-5, 137-6, foul, 133-0. Her average throw was a 135-3, which is less than three feet off her previous PR.

Parsons is ranked 5th in the Coastal Athletic Conference going into the conference meet Friday and Saturday in Elon, N.C. The women’s javelin is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Rider junior Mariah Stephens from Egg Harbor Township won her 10th, 11th and 12th individual conference titles over the weekend at the MAAC Championships on her home track in Lawrenceville.

Competing all weekend in cold, rainy conditions, Stephens won the 100 in 12.33, the long jump with a personal-best 19-4 [more on that performance here] and also won the triple jump with a 38-6 ¾. She was also 2nd in the 100-meter hurdles and ran a leg on the 2nd-place 4-by-100 relay team [47.68]. She also PR’d in the 100 meters in Saturday’s trials with a 12.13.

In addition to her 11 individual Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference titles, Stephens has another first place on a relay team plus 11 more top-three performances in individual events.

That’s a total of 23 top-three finishes in three years.

Thanks in great part to Stephens, Rider won its 2nd straight team title, 227-170 over Quinnipiac. Rider also won team titles in 2004, 2007 and 2013.

Here’s a look at Stephens’ conference titles:

2024 Outdoors
100-Meter Dash [12.33]
Long Jump [19-4]
Triple Jump [38-6 ¾]
2024 Indoors
60-Meter Hurdles [8.64]
Long Jump [19-1 ¼]
Triple Jump [39-8 ¾]
2023 Outdoors
Triple Jump [39-0 ½]
2023 Indoors
60-Meter Hurdles [8.59]
Triple Jump [38-4 ¼]
2022 Outdoors
Triple Jump [39-5 ¼]
400-Meter Relay [47.26]
2022 Indoors
Long Jump [18-5 ¾]
Triple Jump [38-5 ½]

Haddon Township’s Jake Aylmer, a junior at Stevens, won his first conference title and smashed the school record in the 1,500 at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships at Widener University in Chester on Sunday.

Aylmer ran 3:55.49 and edged John Condon of Messiah by three meters. Condon placed 2nd in 3:55.84.

Aylmer broke the Stevens school record of 3:56.62 set by Nick Zickgraf from David Brearley High in Kenilworth at a meet at Swarthmore in May 2017.

Going into the meet, Aylmer was only the No. 4 seed. But he used a 57.72 anchor to blow away the field after nine runners came through with a lap to go between 2:57.28 and 2:59.30.

His time is equivalent to a 4:12.85 for 1,600 meter or 4:14.33 for a full mile. At Haddon Township, Aylmer had a PR of 4:32.87 for 1,600 meters at the 2020 South Jersey Group 1 sectionals at the Bubble.

Click to access moutdoorRecord_Board_xlsx.pdf

Aylmer’s previous PR was a 3:58.30 when he placed 6th at last year’s MAC meet in York. Aylmer’s previous conference title came when he anchored the winning distance medley at the indoor conference meet in Reading in February.

Stevens is scheduled to compete on Monday in the Widener Final Qualifier anmd then next Wednesday and Thursday at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Championships in Cortland, N.Y., the final qualifier before NCAA Division 3 Nationals.

Big weekend for Woodstown graduate Molly Lodge, who shattered one Rowan school record, recorded her 2nd NJAC individual win and ran on her 4th winning relay team.

She was one of six South Jersey winners at the conference meet from Rowan or Stockton.

Lodge, a junior at Rowan, ran 11.94 to place 2nd in the 100-meter dash behind Zrreyah Moore of Rutgers-Newark, who ran 11.84, tying the meet record set in 2008 by Ebony Barnes of New Jersey City University.

Lodge broke the school record of 11.95 set by Aaniyah Robinson of Passaic County Tech in the prelims of the 2018 AARTFC Championships in Brockport, N.Y.

Lodge’s previous PR was 12.14 in the prelims at last year’s NJAC Championships.

Lodge has great range – she’s run the flat 400 in 56.88, she won an NJAC title in 2022 in the 200, she’s high jumped and triple jumped, she’s run the high hurdles – but her strongest event has been the 400-meter hurdles, and she won it on Sunday at Stockton in 1:02.26, just 25-100ths of a second off her lifetime-best 1:02.01 at least year’s NJAC meet in Mahwah.

She’s not far off the school record set by Melirah Searcy of Edison of of 1:01.49 from the 2015 NJAC meet, also in Mahwah.

Lodge is No. 8 in NCAA Division 3 in the intermediates with her 1:02.26 – which she’s actually run twice this year – and No. 20 in the 100.

On Sunday, Lodge also led off Rowan’s winning 1,600-meter relay team, which ran 3:51.30, No. 16 in NCAA Division 3 so far this spring. Jasmine Pope from Pennsauken, senior Kathleen Pederson of Hillsborough and Triton’s Nevaeh Lorjuste also ran, with Lorjuste anchoring in 55.48.

Lodge has now entered 23 events in her college career at the NJAC championships and medaled 22 times. The only exception was Rowan’s 400-meter relay team at the 2022 outdoor meet, which was DQ’ed.

In high school, Lodge had PRs of 12.68 and 25.83 and never ran anything over 200 meters, either flat or over hurdles. She ran her first-ever 400IH race in March 2023 at the Washington & Lee Carnival in Lexington, Va., and ran 1:04.61. By the end of the year, she was competing at NCAAs.

Also from Rowan:

♦  Lorjuste successfully defended her NJAC 400 title with a 57.05. She was also 4th in the 200 in 25.36 and ran on that 4-by-4. Pope was 2nd in the 400 in 58.43.

♦ Junior Anna Sasse of Williamstown won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11:01.71, an 18-second PR. She was also 3rd in the 1,500 in 4:42.13.

For Stockton:

♦ Freshman McKenna Pontari, a Mainland graduate, won the long jump with a collegiate personal-best 17-1 ½.

♦ Junior Michaela Pomatto from Egg Harbor Township won her 3rd consecutive conference title in the discus with a 148-1 throw. Pomatto won the 2022 Centennial Conference title at 123-10 in Collegeville as an Ursinus freshman and then won the NJAC last year at 129-10. She just PR’d three weeks ago at Widener with a 149-4.

♦ Lodge’s former high school teammate at Woodstown, Rutgers-Camden senior Alexis Marini, won the hammer throw with a near-PR 166-10. Her PR is 168-0, also from three weeks ago at Widener.

Premier Wynn, a freshman from Pennsauken, ran a huge intermediate hurdles PR Monday and is the fastest qualifier going into the finals at the MEAC Championships on his home track at Norfolk (Va.) State.

Wynn led all qualifiers in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference intermediate hurdles trials with a 51.21, lowering his PR from 52.29 from last month in a meet at the same facility. In high school, his fastest time was 52.68 when he won the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township last May.

Wynn’s 51.21 is 10th-fastest ever by a South Jersey native. His high school teammate Bryce Tucker ran 50.96 last spring, and those are the two-fastest 400-meter hurdles times by South Jersey natives since 2010. Full list below.

Wynn’s time makes him the No. 3 freshman in NCAA Division 1, behind only Ryan Matulonis of Penn, who ran 49.75 Sunday to win the Ivy League final at Princeton, and Markel Jones of South Florida, who ran 50.40 at the South Florida Invitational in Tampa in early April.

Matulonis ran for Seton Hall Prep, and at the indoor Meet of Champions last year, with Wynn and Matulonis both racing, Pennsauken edged Seton Hall Prep 3:15.83 to 3:16.12 at Ocean Breeze. Pennsauken’s time is No. 11 in U.S. history (Seton Hall Prep is No. 9 with a 3:15.78 earlier in the season).

Wynn is eligible for the U.S. Under-20 meet this summer in Eugene, and his 51.21 will put him among the top handful on that list if World Athletics ever decides to update it. Tucker is also high up on that list with his 51.82 at the Penn Relays two weeks ago.

The 400-meter hurdles final is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. Wednesday. Wynn is also on Norfolk’s 4-by-4 team, which ran 3:05.57 at Penn.

All-Time South Jersey Alumni Tpp-10 400IH Times
48.37 … Reuben McCoy [Winslow Twp.], June 28, 2008, Eugene, Ore.
48.86 … Fred Sharpe [Paulsboro], May 18, 2003, Knoxville, Tenn.
49.50 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], June 12, 2003, Sacramento
50.04 … Mike Brown [Lenape], June 12, 2002, Holmdel, N.J.
50.52 … Martin Booker [Camden], May 12, 1984, Philadelphia
50.65 … Aaron Younger [Delsea], May 28, 2010, Greensboro, N.C.
50.69 … Danyne Brown [Camden], May 30, 2003, Fairfax, Va.
50.84 … Nick Brown [Bridgeton], July 16, 2005, New York
50.96 … Bryce Tucker [Pennsauken], June 15, 2023, South Plainfield, N.J.
51.21 … Premier Wynn [Pennsauken], May 6, 2024, Norfolk, Va.
51.25 … Demetrius Rooks [Absegami], May 26, 2012, Claremont, Calif.

Rowan senior Marquis Young from Sterling blazed the 14th-fastest hurdles time in NCAA Division 3 history Sunday at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships in Galloway Township.

Young was one of six Rowan winners from South Jersey who helped the Profs win their 9th consecutive NJAC Championship and 22nd overall since the inception of the conference in 1984.

Young led a 1-2-3-4 Rowan sweep with a lifetime-best 14.01 with a legal 0.8 meters-per-second tailwind. His previous best was a 14.27 in a meet at Widener University in Chester, Pa., in March.

That 14.01 is the fastest wind-legal time this year in Division 3. Dontre Sinegal of McMurry University of Abilene, Texas, ran 13.87 at the David Noble Relays in San Angelo, Texas, last month, but his performance was aided by an unallowed 3.3 meters-per-second tailwind. Sinegal’s best legal time this year is 14.10 in March in a meet at Seguin, Texas.

Young’s time, achieved in cold and rainy conditions, ties the 2nd-fastest in Rowan history. Garry Moore ran a then-meet-record 13.90 in the qualifying rounds at 1982 NCAA Division 3 Nationals in Naperville, Ill. That stood as the meet record until Shannon Flowers of Lincoln (Pa.) ran 13.86 in 1993 in Berea, Ohio, and went on to win the final in 13.99 after winning the 1981 final in 13.96 in Cleveland.

Stanley Moore ran 14.01 to win the 1983 NCAA Division 3 title, also in Naperville. Both Garry and Stanley Moore ran for Overbrook.

For the Profs, Jason Agyemang [14.17], Kwaku Nkrymah of Teaneck [14.18] and Willingboro’s Anaias Hughes [14.50] ran 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and Michael Lawrence was 6th [14.97]. All five Rowan hurdlers PR’d in the race.

On the 2024 NCAA Division 3 list – which for some reason includes wind-aided marks – Young is 2nd, Agyemang is 5th and Nkrumah 6th.

Young also placed 2nd in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles at the NJAC Championships in 53.58.

Rowan scored 368 points and beat 2nd-place The College of New Jersey by 222 points. The Profs were ranked 8th in the most recent USTFCCCA rankings, which were compiled before the conference meet.

Other Rowan winners from South Jersey: Sophomore Scott Hubbard from Audubon won the 1,500 [3:55.68], junior Joshua Cason from Camden County Technical Schools Gloucester Township campus won the 5,000 [14:58.38], junior Matthew Conway from Haddon Township won the 10,000 [31:07.51], Nicholas Razze from Pitman won the 400-meter hurdles [53.51] and junior Caleb Clevenger from Haddonfield was 1st in the 3,000 steeplechase [9:43.91].

The Profs won the 400-meter relay in 41.17 with freshman Eli Hendricks of Penns Grove, Bridgeton’s Shamar Love and Highland’s Robert McKinney in the lineup and the 1,600-meter relay in 3:19.07 with Razze and Sterling’s Jarquil Young in the lineup.