From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Stockton senior Eva Morrison from Mainland Regional PR’d and won the pole vault Saturday at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center.

Morrison extended her PR from 11-5 ¾, which she had cleared three times, to 11-9 ¾ and led a 1-2-3 Stockton sweep.

She won last year at 11-1 ¾ and is the first to repeat since Millville’s Kaitlyn Dermen of Stockton in 2018 and 2019.

Morrison entered at 10-6 and needed three attempts to get over the bar and just get a legal mark in the competition. But she settled down after that, clearning 10-10 on her 1st attempt, then passing 11-1 ¾ and getting over the bar at 11-5 ¾ and 11-9 ¾ on her 2nd attempt. She finished by taking three tries at 12-1 ½.

Her 11-9 ¾ is the best winning vault at the NJAC meet since Kristina Langan of Ramapo from Wayne Hills cleared 12-4 ½ at Ocean Breeze in 2019.

Stockton freshman Megan Morris from Pennsville and Sydney Rick from Hopewell Valley both matched their PR of 10-6, Morris on her 1st attempt and Rick on her 2nd attempt for 2nd and 3rd place an an Osprey sweep.

Stockton has now won the NJAC women’s vault eight of the last 10 times it was contested, with Chelsea Vaughan of Southern Regional in 2016 and 2017, Dermen in 2018 and 2019, Jeanmarie Harvey from River Dell in 2020, Madison Fey of Freedom High in Easton in 2023 and Morrison in 2025 and 2026. There was no meet in 2021.

Rowan freshman Denirah Jones from Woodbury soared to a long jump win in her first college conference meet.

Jones jumped 17-10 ¾ on her 2nd attempt at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center, and that stood up as the winner, 3 ¼ inches ahead of Tonna Ogina of New Jersey City, who was 2nd with a 17-7 ½ on her 5th jump.

Jones is Rowan’s first conference long jump champ in seven years, since Michelle McCauley from Franklin Township set the meet record of 18-10 at the 2019 meet at Ocean Breeze.

She’s the first freshman to win the NJAC long jump in 15 yers, since Rowan’s Jamie Thompson from South Brunswick jumped 17-0 ½ at the 2011 meet at the Armory.

Jones is the No. 12 freshman in NCAA Division 3 with her PR 17-11 at the Armory last month. She jumped within a quarter of an inch of that on Saturday. She surpassed 17 feet on all six jumps – 17-2 ¾, 17-10 ¾, 17-6 ¾, 17-4 ¼, 17-9 ¾ and 17-0 ½. She averaged 17-5 ¾ on her six jumps.

Jones had an indoor best of 16-8 at Woodbury from a meet last February at Ocean Breeze. She jumped a wind-legal 18-0 outdoors this past June at the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken.

Jones also ran 7.86 in the 60, advancing to the final, which will be held Friday back at the Ott Center. Jones’ PR is a 7.80 two weeks ago at the Armory, 5th-fastest in Rowan history.

Spectacular first conference meet for Hampton freshman Jayden Poteat of Winslow, who ran PRs of 21.07 and 47.21 as well as a sizzling anchor leg on a record-setting 4-by-4 team at the Coastal Athletic Conference Championships Sunday at the TRACK in Boston.

Poteat came into the meet with PRs of 21.25 from earlier this month at the Ott Center and 47.88 from last month in Louisville.

He placed 3rd in the 400 with his 47.21 and 5th in the 200 at 21.07, and he was the top freshman in both races.

Poteat anchored Hampton’s record-setting relay team with a sizzling 45.83 split, bringing the Pirates home with a meet-record 3:08.75. The previous record was 3:09.82 by North Carolina A&T in 2023 in Virginia Beach. Akeem Lindo of East Orange ran the 3rd leg on that team for NCA&T. Hampton also broke the school record of 3:09.06 set in 2014 in South Bend, Ind.

Poteat is now the No. 8 freshman in NCAA Division 1 in the 200 and No. 13 in the 400, just behind Alabama’s Alexander Osayemi from Clayton, who ran 46.91 in Albuquerque earlier this month. His 200 time is No. 12 on the all-time South Jersey alumni performance list.

Poteat had PRs of 21.48 and 48.23 at Winslow with indoor PRs of 21.72 and 48.43.

Poteat’s high school and college teammate, Dominic Bassey, ran a 1:55.04 third leg on Hampton’s 4-by-8 team in his first race in six weeks and his first 800 since last year’s state Group 3 meet. Hampton was 4th in 7:38.54.

Rider’s Kendra Green from Rancocas Valley is a conference champion in her very first conference meet.

Green bombed a 45-foot throw on her 6th and final attempt at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships Sunday at the Armory.

Green, who came in with a PR of 44-3 ¼ from her last meet, last month at the Armory only had two legal throws Sunday but both were PRs. She threw 44-9 on her 1st attempt, then fouled four times, then hit 45-0 on her final attempt. She won by nearly four feet over Sacred Heart sophomore Susan Adekunie, who threw 41-3 for 2nd place.

Green’s throw is No. 7 in Rider history. And it’s 5th-best by a Burlington County alum, behind Jessica Woodard [62-3 ½], Teyana Ames [52-9 ½], Ronetta Hunter [46-5] and Prisca Blamon [45-8 ¼].

At R.V., Green had a PR of 42-8 ¼, which she threw outdoors at Delsea this past May. She surpassed that with a 43-6 ½ in her 2nd college meet, last month at Ocean Breeze, then improved to 44-3 ¼ earlier this month at the Armory. So she’s now PR’d in three of her six college meets.

Nice race for Hampton sophomore Yashahya Brown from Washington Township, who PR’d at 7.84 Sunday and placed 3rd in the 60-meter hurdles at the Coastal Athletic Conference Championships at The TRACK in Boston.

Brown was 5th-fastest in the trials at 8.08 before his sizzling final two hours later. His previous PR was a 7.86 back in December 2024 at the Armory as a Rutgers freshman. His previous best time racing for Hampton was a 7.95 at the Ott Center earlier this month.

Brown’s 7.84 is 9th-fastest on the all-time South Jersey 60-meter hurdles alumni list. The only faster hurdler from Gloucester County is Olympic bronze medalist Jack Pierce of Woodbury.

It’s also a provisional qualifier for next weekend’s USATF Championships at Ocean Breeze. The B standard is 7.90. Today is the final day of the qualifying window.

All-Time South Jersey 60-Meter Hurdles Alumni List
7.50 … Anwar Moore [Camden], Feb. 24, 2008, Boston
7.52 … Jack Pierce [Woodbury], Feb. 25, 1995, Fairfax, Va.
7.60 … Jamir Brown [Riverside], Jan. 23, 2026, Clemson, S.C.
7.64 … Sincere Rhea [St. Augustine], Jan. 25, 2025, Lubbock, Texas
7.72 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], Jan. 9, 2015, Houston
7.77 … Greg Foster [Lumberton / Lawrenceville Prep], Jan. 24, 2026, Philadelphia
7.80 … Anthony Acklin [Triton], Jan. 21, 2006, Carbondale, Ill.
7.80 … Marquise Young [Sterling], Dec. 2, 2022, Staten Island, N.Y.
7.84 … Yashahya Brown [Washington Twp.], Feb. 21, 2026, Boston
7.86 … Tyler Garland [Deptford], Feb. 29, 2020, South Bend, Ind.
7.87 … Devon Carter [Washington Twp.], Feb. 28, 2014, Clemson, S.C.
7.89 … Paul Klemic [Mainland Reg.], Feb. 23, 2003, Boston
7.90 … Jalen Walker [Burlington Twp.], March 8, 2015, Boston
7.91 … Dwight Ruff [Camden], Feb. 12, 2005, Ames, Iowa
7.91 … Anthony Vazquez [Egg Harbor Twp.], Jan. 19, 2024, New York
7.91 … Javon Sanders [Deptford], March 2, 2024, Brookings, S.D.
7.92 … Greg Foster [Lawrenceville Prep / Lumberton], Feb. 10, 2023, New York
7.94 … Jusson Boyd [Willingboro], Feb. 26, 2012, Winston-Salem, N.C.
7.94 … Edwin Alston [Winslow Twp.], Feb. 18, 2017, New York
7.95 … Isaiah Lewis [Winslow Twp.], Feb. 7, 2025, Cambridge, Mass.
7.96 … Naseem Smith [Deptford], Feb. 2, 2024, Cambridge, Mass.
7.97 … Chais Hill [Highland], Feb. 26, 2016, Geneva, Ohio

Stockton junior Ahmad Fogg from Egg Harbor and Rowen freshmen Anthony Parker of Salem and Bright John of Sterling locked up in a historic long jump battle Saturday at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships.

By the time the event was over, all three were ranked among the top 10 in NCAA Division 3.

Fogg wound up winning with a PR and school-record 24-9, John PR’d three times, including a 23-11 ½ on his final jump, and Parker, despite four jumps over 23 feet, finished 3^rd with a best jump of 23-10 ¾.

Fogg broke the meet record of 24-4 ¼ set at Ocean Breeze in 2019 by Montclair State’s George Alexandris from Fair Lawn High in Bergen County.

It was a wild back-and-forth competition, with Fogg, Parker and John all taking turns with the lead.

Parker, John and Montclair freshman Jalen Balbuena from Fort Lee High in Bergen County all surpassed 23 feet on their first jump, with John taking the early lead with a 23-8 ¾, his first PR of the day, Balbuena 2^nd at 23-5 ¼ and Parker at 23-3 ¼. John extended his PR to 23-9 on his 2^nd jump, Parker hit 23-6 ¾ on his 2^nd jump and Fogg jumped 23-1 ¼ on his third jump.

So going into the final, John led at 23-9, Parker was 2^nd at 23-6 ¾, with Balbuena 3^rd at 23-5 ¼ and Fogg 4^thwith a 23-1 ¼.

Fogg then jumped into the lead with a 23-10 ¼ to open the finals before Parker moved into the lead with a 23-10 ¾. Meanwhile, John passed his teammate with another PR of 23-11 ½ on his final attempt before Fogg jumped the field with his 24-9.

So Fogg won at 24-9, John was 2^nd at 23-11 ½, Parker 3^rd at 23-10 ¾ and Balbuena 4^th with a 23-6 on his final jump.

In all there were 16 jumps of at least 23 feet by four different jumpers, three of them freshmen.

On the updated Division 3 list, Parker remains No. 2 with his 25-0 at Ocean Breeze two weeks ago, Fogg is now No. 3, John is tied for No. 8 and Balbuena is No. 20.
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Parker, John and Balbuena are the top three freshmen in Division 3. Parker and John are No. 1 and 4 in Rowan history.

Parker is No. 16 in Division 3 history and Fogg is now No. 30.

As for Fogg, he broke a school record that was set 38 years ago by Shawnee graduate Greg Foster, who jumped a then-meet-record 24-8 ½ on March 12, 1988, at the 1988 NCAA Division 3 Championships at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. A day earlier, Foster set a meet-record 51-0 ¾ to win the triple jump, and that remains Stockton’s school record.

Foster’s son Greg is now a senior at Princeton and ranked 8^th in the world with a 26-10 ½ last weekend in Fayetteville.

Fogg, John and Parker now rank 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th on the all-time meet performance list.  Fogg, John, Parker and Balbuena all had the best marks for place in meet history.

Sophomores Nyla Jones of Timber Creek, Paige Franklin of Williamstown and Amari Pinkett of Egg Harbor helped the Rowan women record the 5^th-fastest 800-meter relay in NCAA Division 3 history Saturday at the Ott Center.

Rowan ran 1:40.65, breaking the school record of 1:40.75 set last year by a completely different lineup – Molly Lodge of Woodstown, Jasmine Pope of Pennsauken, Jasmine Broadway of Burlington Township and Nevaeh Lorjuste of Triton, also at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships in West Philly.

Rowan placed 2^nd to The College of New Jersey, who set a Division 3 record with a 1:39.69. TCNJ’s second leg was junior Kelsey Thomas from Clayton. TCNJ broke the D-3 record of 1:40.07 set by Colby College of Waterville, Maine, in Boston this past March.

Jones and Franklin ran the first two legs and Ava Reilly of Toms River East and Pickett finished, splitting 25.1 and 25.2.

On the 2026 indoor U.S. list, TCNJ is now 7^th-fastest and Rowan is 9^th-fastest.

TCNJ and Rowan now take up four of the top six spots on the all-time NCAA Division 3 list. TCNJ is 1^st with its 1:39.69 Saturday and 4^th with a 1:40.49 from the 2023 NJAC meet at Ocean Breeze, and Rowan is No. 5 with its performance Saturday and No. 6 with its 1:40.75 last year.

Stockton junior Elaina Styer from Ocean City put together one of the top pentathlon performances in NCAA Division 3 history Saturday at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center.

Styer ran 8.92 in the hurdles, matched her PR by clearing 5-5 ¼ in the high jump, threw the shot put 32-6 ½, long jumped 17-11 ¼ and finished by running a PR 2:21.80 for 3,747 points.

That’s No. 14 in NCAA Division 3 history and the top mark in NCAA Division 3 this year. It puts her at No. 42 among all American women.

Styer scored 927 in the opening 60-meter hurdles, 806 in the high jump, 524 in the shot put, 691 in the long jump and 799 in the 800. She had the best mark in all five events.

She came out ahead after a great competition with The College of New Jesey’s Sarah Scepkowski of Arthur Johnson High in Clark, whose 3,358 is No. 14 in Division 3 this year.

Styer wasn’t far off her PRs in the hurdles [8.83], long jump [18-0 ½] and shot [34-9].

Styer broke her own meet record of 3,628 set last year, the 1^st year the event was included in the NJAC Championships. She scored 3,570 two weeks ago in Utica, N.Y., in her previous multi this year.

Styer will compete in the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Birmingham next month.

Coniglario 21.56
Corcoran 21.62
Hendricks 22.27
Dixon 21.40

Haddonfield scored 39 points in the three distance races and won its 13^th state indoor championship Saturday at the Bubble.

Haddonfield netted 50 total points and more than doubled 2^nd-place Voorhees, winning 50-22. Haddonfield actually outscored 2^nd and 3^rd place combined by 50-40. Manasquan was 3^rd with 18 points.

If Haddonfield just brought its XC team, they would have won the meet by double digits.

Haddonfield previously won Group 1 in 1987, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016 and Group 2 in 2017, 2019 and 2025.

The 13 state titles are tied for 4^th-most in state history and 2^nd-most ever by a South Jersey school, behind Willingboro’s 16.

In the 800, senior Brandon Stoner and Aaron Keith finished 2^nd and 4^th in 2:00.06 and 2:00.63 for 12 points, in the 1,600, senior Benjamin Andrus ran 4:17.89 for 2^nd and senior Peter Simpson was 4^th in 4:23.82 for 12 more, and in the 3,200 senior Ryan Gibson was 2^nd in 9:29.47, Andrus 3^rd in 9:38.37 and Simpson 6^th in 9:45.62 for 15 points.

The Bulldogs also won the 4-by-4 in 3:30.63 with junior Jack P. Brand, junior Ryder Bozine, senior Andrew Brand and Stoner. Bozine ran 7.84 for 6^th in the hurdles.

Pemberton senior Jaden Goins ran 6.47 in the 55 to become the first Pemberton boy to win an indoor state title in 64 years. In 1962, Les Holly won the 60-yard dash at the state Group 3 meet at the Jersey City Armory in 6.7.

Willingboro senior Christopher Jones ran 50.22 for 2^nd in the 400.

For Pleasantville, junior Todd Watson was 6^th in the 400 in 52.23, and the 4-by-4 of junior Marseo Goah, Watson, senior Brandon Williams and senior Qwasim Jackson took 2^nd in the 4-by-4 in 3:31.02.

Oakcrest senior Devon Hannah ran 6.57 for 4^th in the 55.

Cinnaminson senior Shafiq Herrington cleared 6-0 for 6^th in the high jump.

The Rowan men, with four South Jersey sprinters, ran the fastest 800-meter relay in college track history and the 6th-fastest in world history.

It’s the fastest time ever run on U.S. soil in an indoor meet. It’s 2nd-fastest in U.S. history and fastest in 35 years.

Eli Hendricks from Penns Grove, Julian Conigliaro from Delsea, Evan Corcoran from Kingsway and Rajhan Dixon from Eastern ran 1:23.59 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center. Corcoran split 20.76 and Dixon 20.74.

Rowan broke the all-time college record of 1:24.70 set by Penn State in State College in 2013. They smashed their own Division 3 record of 1:25.45 that they set at this meet on the same track last year with Dixon, Hendricks, Masai Byrd of Rancocas Valley and Robert McKinney of Highland.

Their time is 2nd-fastest in U.S. history behind a national team that ran a then world-record 1:22.71 in Glasgow in a U.S.-Britain dual meet on March 3, 1991, with Thomas Jefferson, Raymond Pierre, Antonio McKay and Kevin Little in the lineup.

The fastest previous time run indoors on U.S. soil was a 1:24.37 by Archbishop Carroll High of Washington, D.C., at The Track at New Balance in Boston this past March.

Rowan also ran below the NCAA Division 3 outdoor record of 1:25.04 set by the Profs last year at the Penn Relays with Hendricks, Conigliaro, McKinney and Dixon.

Dixon and Corcoran were not even sheduled to be on the 4-by-2 on Day 1 of the NJAC meet. But when Sunday’s day 2 was postponed until Friday it allowed them join the team without worrying about too many races over two days.

From the World Athletics database, here are the top-10 times ever run. Remember, for a team to be eligible for these lists all four runners must be citizens of the same country.

1:22.11 … Great Britain, March 3, 1991, Glasgow
1:22.32 … Italy, Feb. 11, 1984, Torino, Italy
1:22.71 … United States, March 3, 1991, Glasgow
1:23.04 … Russia, Jan. 30, 1993, Glasgow
1:23.51 … TV Wattenscheid 01 [Germany], Feb. 23, 2014, Leipzig
1:23.59 … Rowan [U.S.], Feb. 21, Philadelphia
1:23.71 … TJ Dukla Praha [Czech Republic], Feb. 23, 2025, Ostrava
1:23.97 … Scarborough Optimist [Canada], Feb. 26, 1983, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
1:24.00 … France, Feb. 6, 1988, Glasgow
1:24.02 … Birchfield [Great Britain], Jan. 27, 2004, Birmingham, Great Britain