From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Rancocas Valley grad Sydne Nance ran a 400 PR and broke the school record Sunday at the IC4A/ECAC Championships in Williamsburg, Va.

Nance, a senior at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, placed 5th in 55.08 after a 55.24 in the trials on Saturday. That tied her PR set just last week in trials at the America East Championships in Burlington, Vt. She ran slightly slower – 55.36 – placing 3rd in the final.

The 55.08 lowered her own school record.

Nance came into the spring season with a PR of 56.92 from May of 2019, when she ran 56.92 at the ASUN Championships in Jacksonville.

The meet was held at Walter J. Zable Stadium on the William and Mary campus. IC4A stands for Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America, and ECAC stands for Eastern College Athletic Conference.

It was quite a three days for Kingsway graduate Kylie Anicic, who recorded a grueling triple distance win at the PSAC meet.

Anicic, a sophomore at NCAA Division 2 Edinboro in Northwestern Pennsylvania, won the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships at Biemsderfer Stadium at Millersville University from Thursday through Saturday.

Anicic got started Thursday with the 10,000, and she ran 36:48.38 and won by 120 meters over Marianne Abdalah of Slippery Rock, who was 2nd in 37:11.63.

Abdalah led through 7,600 meters with Anicic content to sit in second and wait. She inched into the lead on the 20th lap and then took off with 2,000 meters to go. After 18 consecutive laps between 1:27.77 and 1:31.35 she ran her 22nd lap in 1:22.11, losing Abdalah, building a and taking command of the race.

She built a 40-meter lead within the span of 600 meters and continued to press the pace, closing in 5:40.58 for her final mile.

The way the schedule fell, she didn’t race on Friday but had the 1,500 and 5,000 on Saturday less than 2 ½ hours apart.

The 1,500 was first, early in the afternoon, and she won comfortably in 4:37.92 over Sydney Wolf of Seton Hill, who was second in 4:39.42.

A modest early pace fell into Anicic’s hands, since the last thing you want to do when you’re tripling if you have the ability to sit and kick is run fast.

With two laps to go, 12 women were between 2:15 and 2:16.9, but Anicic stayed near the front and after a 75.92 she closed in 66.97 and won by eight meters. She ran her final 800 in 2:22.89.

After a quick rest and recovery, it was time for the 5,000, which started at about 3:05 p.m. – a little over two hours after the 1,500 ended.

With no additional races to rest for, Anicic took the lead earlier in the 5,000, moving past Hannah Smrcka on the fourth lap and staying in front the rest of the way, winning by 50 meters in 17:21.02. Smrcka was second in 17:30.98.

Anicic and Smrcka stayed together until four laps to go, when Anicic used a 83.91 to build a 15-meter lead. She gradually built on it, closing in 5:31.84, 2:44.16 and 80.49.

Anicic raced a total of 16,500 meters over the course of the meet, which is 10 ¼ miles. Factor in warm-ups, cool-downs and probably an easy shakeout run on Friday and that’s a lot of running and racing over a three-day period.

She scored 30 of Edinboro’s 63 points in the meet.

This was Anicic’s first season of outdoor track since 2019, when she was a freshman at Towson. She ran 5:07.11 and 11:09.09 at Kingsway, then briefly played soccer at Temple before transferring to Towson for track. She finally found a home at Edinboro last spring but was ineligible to compete until this past indoor season.

She won three events – the mile, 3,000 and 5,000 – at the PSAC indoor championships and also anchored the winning distance medley, so she’s now 7-for-7 in conference meets since arriving at Edinboro.

Anicic has PRs of 4:30.52 from a meet in Charlotte, N.C., in March; 16:39.84 from a meet in Morgantown, W. Va., in late April; and 34:37.31 from a meet in Lewisburg, Pa., in mid-April.

She’s ranked No. 11 in NCAA Division 2 in the 10,000 and will race in the NCAA Championships May 26-28 at Grand Valley State in Allendale, Mich.

I spent about 20 minutes trying to find an order of events to tell you what day the 10,000 is but it’s listed anywhere not on the horrible NCAA web site and the Grand Valley web site directs you to the horrible NCAA site, and a meet schedule apparently doesn’t exist, but if they use the same schedule as last year the 10,000 will be on May 26 around 8 p.m.

Big 800 PR for Kingsway graduate Stone Caraccio Saturday.

Caraccio, a freshman at Monmouth, ran 1:50.83 at the Princeton Elite Invitational at Weaver Stadium.

His previous PR was 1:51.84 last month at the Lehigh Track and Field Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa.

His time is No. 6 in school history. Teammate Louis DiLaurenzio ran a PR 1:49.52 in the same race, No. 2 in school history behind Dylan Capwell’s 1:47.20 in 2019.

Caraccio has also moved up to No. 8 in Monmouth history in the mile this spring with a 4:11.49 indoors.

At Kingsway, Caraccio had PRs of 1:54.53 for 800 meters and 4:13.46 for 1,600 meters, which is equivalent to a 4:14.93 full mile.

Junior Lilli Santomaura led a 1-2 finish in the long jump, placed 2nd in the 100 and 200 and ran a leg on the 3rd-place 1,600-meter relay team to lead Haddon Township to the team title in the small-school Division 1 competition at the Camden County Championships Saturday.

Haddon Township piled up 102 points at its home facility, and Audubon edged Paul VI 68-65 for second place.

Santomaura won the long jump at 16-8 ½, and junior teammate Hailey Bresch was second with a 16-0 ¼ jump. Santomaura ran 12.70 in the 100 and 26.11 in the 200, finishing behind Camden Catholic junior Olivia Bent-Cole in both. Bent-Cole ran 12.56 and 25.49.

Township juinior Meghan Lex won the 3,200 in 11:54.30 and placed 3rd in the 1,600 in 5:37.03. Paul VI sophomore Shaelan McNally ran 5:09.70 to win the 1,600.

Freshman Jessica McGary jumped 32-7 ¾ to win the triple jump and cleared 4-8 for 2nd place in the high jump.

Senior Kaelin Marshall placed 2nd in the 400 hurdles in 1:09.38 and was 5th in the 100 hurdles in 18.61, freshman Maddie Kamulda and senior Grace Gentlesk took 4th and 5th in the javelin with throws of 81-5 and 78-6.

Junior Sara Weideman ran 2:33.09 for 2nd in the 800, sophomore Genevieve Gentlesk was 4th in the 3,200 in 12:37.85, and Santomaura, Marshall, junior Elise Curran and Weideman ran 4:34.82 for 3rd in the 1,600-meter relay.

Audubon Aysiah Maldonado tripled the throws, winning the shot put with a 30-11 shot put, the discus at 102-6 and the javelin at 107-10.

Collingswood Mia McConnell doubled the hurdles races, winning the highs in 17.45 and the intermediates in 1:07.29.

Other winners were Paul VI freshman Anna Marie Brown [PR 59.35 in 400], Camden Catholic junior Leah Clear [2:31.18 in 800] and Paul VI junior Kamryn Cieslik [PR 5-2 ¼ high jump].

Also, Camden won the 1,600-meter relay in 4:20.62 with junior Deonna Fooks-Benbow, freshman Denirah Jones and seniors Jakara Nock and Ciani Pruitt.

Tionna Tobias set a lifetime best in the heptathlon with a 6th-place finish over the last two days at the Big Ten Championships.

Tobias scored 5,124 points in the seven-event two-day challenge at the Big Ten Championships at the University of Minnesota Track Complex in Minneapolis.

Tobias set PRs in two events and beat her PR of 5,083 points from last year’s Big Ten meet, where she placed ninth.

Her final point total of 5,124 points is No. 5 on the all-time Iowa performance list.

Tobias opened with a fast hurdles race, running 13.68 for 1,024 points. That’s only 10-100ths of a second off her lifetime best of 13.58 from last year’s Big Ten Invite in Bloomington, Ind.

She cleared 5-5 in the high jump on her third attempt for 795 points to give her 1,819 after two events.

Next up was the shot put, and Tobias got off a big PR of 35-7 ¾ on her final attempt for 586 points. Her previous PR was 32-6 ¼ at indoor Big Ten’s at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, in February. Her previous outdoor best was a 30-0 ¾ at last year’s outdor Big Ten meet in Champaign, Ill. That put her at 2,405 points through three events.

In the 200, Tobias ran 25.37 to score 853 points and give her 3,258 through seven events at the end of Day 1 with the long jump, javelin and 800 remaining.

Tobias opened up Day 2 in scary fashion, fouling on her first two attempts in the long jump. One more foul would have been disaster. That means no points and there’s no reason to continue in the event. But on her third and final jump, she sailed 18-2 ½ for 715 points.

From there it was off to the javelin, where she recorded her second throws PR of the weekend with a 92-1 for 440 points. Her previous javelin PR was a 79-9 last year at Big Tens.

That left the 800, and Tobias earned 711 more points after a 2:28.58, giving her a total of 5,124 points.

Haddonfield senior Seth Clevenger ran the 10th-fastest 3,200 in South Jersey history Saturday morning.

Clevenger, racing unpressed, solo’d a 9:03.65 at the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township..

That’s fastest by a South Jersey runner since Haddon Township’s Luke Petela ran 8:58.32 to win the 2015 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield. It’s 2nd-fastest by a South Jersey two-miler in the last 20 years and only 3 ½ seconds off the school record of 9:00.3 – converted from two miles – by legendary Jim Smith 42 years ago.

Clevenger’s previous PR was 9:08.89 at the indoor Meet of Champions in March at the Bubble, and his outdoor PR was a 9:12.99 at Cherokee Night of 3200s in April.

Clevenger was out in 64.33, 2:12.28, 3:20.85 and 4:28.54 and came back in 67.56, 2:16.33, 3:29.07 and 2:35.11.

He won by 150 meters over Triton senior Dennis Fortuna, who ran an outdoor PR of 9:20.93 for second.

All-Time South Jersey Sub-9:10 list
8:55.43 … Murad Campbell [Overbrook], 1999
8:58.32 … Luke Petela [Haddon Twp.], 2015
8:59.6y … Mike Butynes [Sterling], 1972
8:59.8y … Jason DeJoseph [Paul VI], 1987
9:00.3y … Jim Smith [Haddonfield], 1980
9:00.30 … Jimmy Daniels [Sterling], 2013
9:01.89 … Marc Pelerin [Cherokee], 2002
9:01.9y … Mike Mantini [Gateway], 1979
9:03.1y … Jerry Andrews [Highland], 1979
9:03.65 … Seth Clevenger [Haddonfield], 2022
9:03.7y … Ed Blakeley [Haddon Twp.], 1975
9:03.9h … Mike Elder [Haddon Twp.], 1973
9:04.05 … Shawn Wilson [Cherokee], 2013
9:04.94 … Louis Corgiano [Hammonton], 2014
9:05.12 … Sean MacPherson [Sterling], 2015
9:05.98 … Steve Maine [Highland], 2014
9:06.2y … Greg Stremmel [Gateway], 1974
9:06.47 … Jonathan Vitez [Haddonfield], 2010
9:06.52 … Connor Melko [Bishop Eustace], 2019
9:06.70 … Joshua Clark [Highland], 2016
9:07.03 … Greg Hughes [Mainland], 2004
9:07.2h … Ron Faith [Paul VI], 1985
9:07.2h … Kevin Pumphrey [Highland], 1986
9:07.42 … Aaron Groff [Cherry Hill East], 2016
9:07.7h … Marty Ludwikowski [Cherry Hill West], 1975
9:08.22 … Jon Anderson [Cinnaminson], 2004
9:09.27 … David Forward [Shawnee], 2009
9:09.38 … Kevin Antczak [Mainland Reg.], 2019
9:09.80 … Todd Campbell [Cinnaminson], 2009

Great start to the Big East meet for Cherry Hill East graduate Maya Drayton, now a junior at Georgetown.

Drayton ran a big PR of 24.16 to qualify for the 200 final, and she ran a near-PR 54.94 to qualify for the 400 final on Day of the Big East Championships at the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex in Storrs, Conn.

In the 200, Drayton recorded an auto qualifier by placing second in the third of three semifinal races. The top two in each race plus the next two-fastest qualified for the final. Although the two other semis were wind-aided, giving those runners an advantage, the third semi was wind-legal at 1.7.

Drayton’s previous PR was a 24.39 in the prelims at the 2020 indoor Big East Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Her outdoor college best was 21.58 from last year’s Raleigh Relays, and her overall PR at 400 meters a 24.53 from the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.

Drayton was also in the third of three semis in the 400, and with the same qualifying format she placed second in that race as well.

She ran a season-best, set an outdoor PR and ran within 16-100ths of her lifetime best of 54.78, also from 2020 indoor Big Easts in Geneva but in the finals. Her outdoor best was a 55.83 from the Virginia Challenge in Charlottesville last month.

Drayton’s 200 time of 24.16 ranks No. 8 in Georgetown history, and is fastest since Amanda Kimbers set the school record of 23.28 at the 2012 Big East Championships. Her 400 time is No. 19 on the all-time Georgetown list but only 70-100ths of a second outside the top 10.

And kudos to Georgetown sports information for listing all-time top-25s in every event plus all-time bests in relay legs. By far the most comprehensive all-time lists I’ve seen on any college web site.

The 400 final is scheduled for 12:48 p.m. Saturday and the 200 final is at 1:50 p.m.

What an 800 by Sterling graduate Sydney Coppolino Friday in the 800 trials at the ACC Championships.

Coppolino, a junior at Virginia, lowered her PR more than a second to 2:06.15 and advanced to the finals with the 4th-fastest time in the trials at Morris Williams Track & Field Stadium on the Duke campus in Durham, N.C.

Her previous PR was 2:07.26 on the same track last month at Duke Invitational.

Coppolino’s time is No. 8 in Virginia history and appears to be fastest by a South Jersey alum in nine years, since Haddonfield graduate Greta Feldman ran 2:03.34 at the American Milers Club event in Indianapolis in 2013.

.The 800 final is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. Saturday.

Hammonton grad Alexa Gardner PR’d in the javelin Friday in the Big Ten Conference meet in Minneapolis.

Gardner, a junior at Rutgers, placed 4th with a throw of 157-9. That eclipsed her PR of 155-6, which she threw at the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton last month as well as at the Penn Relays.

Gardner actually had two throws beyond her previous PR. She followed the 157-9 with a 156-1 and also had a throw of 152-4.

At Hammonton, Gardner had a PR of 142-1 when she won the state Group 3 meet at Northern Burlington in June of 2017.

Delsea graduate Elisia Lancaster bombed a hammer PR Friday and won at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.

Lancaster threw 220-4 on her fourth attempt at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa, to pass teammate and defending champion Shauniece O’Neal, who was in the lead with a 219-4 on her first attempt.

That’s No. 17 among all U.S. women this year and moves her up to No. 58 in U.S. history, one spot behind another Delsea graduate, Jamine Moton, who threw 220-6 in Baton Rouge in 2002.

It’s also No. 14 in NCAA Division 1 this year.

Next up for Lancaster is the NCAA East Region Preliminary at Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, Ind., May 25-28. The top performers there advance to the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., June 8-11.

Lancaster’s previous PR was a throw of 219-9 last month at the Joey Haines Invitational at Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Last year, Lancaster placed fifth in the conference meet with a throw of 194-2. She had a PR of 207-11 coming into this season but increased it to 208-5 at a meet in Murray, Ky., in March and then 218-9 at the Joey Haynes meet. Since then she has thrown 210-7, 214-6 and 215-11 in her last three meets.

Lancaster opened Friday with a 200-10 followed by a 212-3. After fouling on her third attempt, she hit the winner on her first attempt of the finals. She fouled on No. 5 and 6, but O’Neal fouled on her last four throws and settled for second place, exactly a foot behind her teammate.