From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Check out this hot sprint double by Rowan freshman Jah’mere Beasley:

10.74 in the 100 and 21.30 in the 200.

WOW!!!

Beasley, a Sterling graduate, won both dashes at the Bill Fritz Invitational on Rowan’s home track in Glassboro. Fritz is the legendary former Glassboro State and Rowan coach who led the Profs to five straight NCAA Division 3 track championships from 1980 through 1984.

Beasley ran a barely wind-aided (2.1) 10.74 in the trial sand then a wind-legal 10.80 in the final, outracing teammate Nana Agyemang, who was second in 10.97. Beasley’s previous collegiate 100 PR was a 10.88 earlier this month on the same track and his previous lifetime best was a 10,.81 at the 2019 New Balance nationals in Greensboro.

In the 200, Beasley outraced Nick DiMaria of Stevens, who was second in 21.55 in a fast race that saw four sprinters under 22 seconds. Agyemang, a freshman from Parsippany, was fourth in 21.96. Both of Ageymang’s times were PRs as well.

Beasley’s previous college best 200 was a 21.72 last weekend at West Chester (Pa.) University. He tied his lifetime best of 21.30 which he ran at the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.

The official results do not show any wind information.

Beasley’s 100 time is currently No. 11 in NCAA Division 3 and his 200 time is No. 2, behind only J.P. Vaught of Centre College of Danville, Ky., who ran 21.25 back on March 6 in a meet at Berry College in Mount Berry, Ga.

Beasley is closing in on school records in both sprints. Dior Hightower set the 100 record of 10.64 in the prelims of the Oscar Moore Invitational at Rowan in April of 2017 and Ali Ejaz set the 200 mark of 21.18 in 2012 in the prelims of the NCAA Championships in Claremont, Calif. (He ran 21.31 for fourth in the final).

 

Sterling graduate Sydney Coppolino found herself in a hot 800 Saturday afternoon and wound up with another personal best.

Coppellino, racing in the Virginia Challenge at Lannigan Field on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, ran 2:08.61 in the fourth of six sections of a race that saw 25 women break 2:10,.

Coppolino, a Virginia sophomore, smashed her personal best of 2:09.21, which she just set earlier this month on the same track. Her time is No. 9 in the ACC so far this year.

Before this season, Coppolino had a collegiate PR of 2:10.67 from the 2020 indoor ACC Championships at Notre Dame.

Coppolino ran 2:11.45 at the 2017 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington, and that remained her lifetime best outdoors until this month.

Coppolino’s 2:08.61 doesn’t quite make Virginia’s all-time top-10 outdoor times, but it’s only 1.02 seconds off the No. 10 time so she’s in very good company. 

Williamstown graduate Edwyn Pierre of Rutgers ran his second-fastest 400-meter intermediate hurdles time ever Friday with a season-best 53.30 at the Husker B1G Invite in Prairie View, Texas.

It was his fastest time since a 52.71 at the 2018 Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind.

It was only Pierre’s third 400IH race in the last three years. He didn’t compete outdoors in 2019 and the 2020 outdoor season was wiped out but he’s run 53.X in all three of his intermediate hurdles starts so far this spring.

Four of the nine-fastest intermediate hurdlers in Rutgers history are South Jersey high school graduates: Delsea’s Aaron Younger set the school record of 50.65 in 2010, Lenape’s Steve Swern is No. 4 at 51.68, Delran’s Harran Williams is No. 7 at 52.19 and Pierre is No. 9 with his 52.71.

Pierre on Friday also ran 14.51 in the 110-meter high hurdles into a 2.5-meters per second wind. It was his first outdoor high hurdles race since the 2018 Big Ten Championships, when he ran his PR of 14.42.

This past indoor season, Pierre ran 8.04 for the 60-meter high hurdles, the No. 4 time in school history.

 

Northern Arizona senior Jack Shea of Cherokee closed in 58.23 for his final 400 and 2:02.90 for his final 800 and ran a near-PR 14:09.58 for 5,000 meters Friday evening at the Virginia Challenge in Charlottesville.

Shea, in his first track 5,000 since the spring of 2019, moved up from 17th to 5th in his section of the 5,000 over the final two laps.

Shea’s PR is 14:08.74, which he ran in a meet at Azusa (Calif.) Pacific University in April of 2018.

Shea posted a huge 1,500 PR earlier this month, running 3:51.95 in a meet in Phoenix. That’s the equivalent of a 4:10.51 full mile. Shea had a 1,600 PR of 4:19.36 in high school.

 

Austin Gabay began his college track career with a hot 800-1,500 double and a couple PRs.

Gabay, a Duke freshman from Cinnaminson, raced this past weekend at the Tobacco Road Challenge at Duke’s Morris Williams Stadium in Durham, N.C.

First up was the 1,500, and Gabay ran 3:50.13, which converts to about 4:07.1 for the 1,600-meter run and 4:08.54 for a full mile.

Gabay was out in 45.83 for the first 300, then closed with 400s of 61.43, 62.94 and 59.95.

However you break it down, the 3:50.13 is a huge PR for Gabay. His fastest high school 1,500 was a 4:06.93 at New Balance Nationals at the Armory in March of 2019, his fastest 1,600 or mile was a 4:16.02 for 1,600 meters, when he edged Haddonfield’s Derek Gess at the 2019 state Group 2 meet at Central Regional in Bayville.

Less than two hours later, Gabay was back on the track for the 800 and had enough left to run 1:54.64. He was out a little fast (54.58), which isn’t ideal in a quick double, but he held it together enough to break 1:55.

Gabay’s previous 800 PR was a 1:54.73, which he ran fresh at 2019 Haddonfield Distance Night in May of 2019.

These were Gabay’s first track races since the 2020 indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze, when he ran 9:00.27 for 3,200 meters in a titanic battle with Liam Murphy of Allentown [8:58.16] and Jack Jennings of Mendham [8:58.19].

They were his first outdoor races since he ran a two-mile at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., in June of 2019.

Shelton Sainvil is our favorite kind of athlete.

According to his MileSplit bio, Sainvil had a javelin best of 103-0 as a freshman at Florence, hit 119-11 as a sophomore and then threw 130-11 as a junior.

He PR’d with a 145-2 as a senior in 2017, when he reached the state Group 1 meet at Egg Harbor. That ranked him No. 186 in the state and No. 40 in South Jersey.

Sainvil stuck with it.

He went to Delaware Valley College in Doylestown and extended his PR to 156-11 as a freshman at a meet at Widener and then to 159-4 as a sophomore, again at Widener. 

That was the last we saw of Sainvil into a couple weeks ago, when he resurfaced as a junior at Stockton University.

He PR’d in his first meet competing for the Ospreys, a meet at his home facility in Galloway Township, and then had a breakthrough in another home meet, throwing 173-3 earlier this month.

Sainvil has now PR’d by nearly 14 feet this year and nearly 30 feet since he graduated from Florence (although he did throw 157-6 the summer of 2017 at the American JavFest in East Stroudsburg).

He’s now ranked fourth in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and 38th in NCAA Division 3.

When Sainvil was a freshman, in the spring of 2014, his javelin partner at the Hall of Fame Relays in Maple Shade was senior Curtis Thompson, who went on to become a four-time All-America at Mississippi State, won the 2016 NCAA Championship, broke the U.S. Olympic Trials meet record in 2016 and won the 2018 U.S. championship.

Thompson, currently the No. 3 ranked American at 258-11, is No. 16 in U.S. history at 271-11.

But his former Hall of Fame Relays partner isn’t doing so badly himself!

It appears Sainvil went by “Marrick” Sainvil until his sophomore year at Florence.

Rancocas Valley graduate Danielle Steff shattered Monmouth’s school record in the javelin Saturday with a 166-6 bomb in a dual meet against Rider in Lawrenceville.

Steff broke her own school record of 164-3, set by Kelsey Reese at the 2014 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships, alsoi in Lawrenceville.

Steff’s previous PR was a 164-2 – one inch shy of Reese’s school record – set at the NCAA East Region preliminary rounds in Jacksonville in May of 2019.

Steff fouled on three of her first five throws, and her best throw going into her final attempt was a 157-9. 

Her mark ranks No. 22 in NCAA Division 1 so far this spring and No. 1 in the MAAC by nearly 30 feet. She’s also thrown 130-7 in the discus and 37-7 1/4 in the shot this spring.

She also ranks No. 19 among all U.S. women, according to the IAAF 2021 international performance list 

https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/javelin-throw/outdoor/women/senior/2021?regionType=countries&region=usa&page=1&bestResultsOnly=true

Steff is only about 10 feet from the U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying standard of 177-2. 

She’s also closing in on the all-time South Jersey alumni new javelin record of 169-9 set at the 2017 Penn Relays by Bordentown graduate Kelly Yanucil of St. Mary’s in Emmittsburg, Md.

 

Rowan freshman Jah’mere Beasley, a Sterling graduate, ran a fast wind-legal 200 Saturday in a meet at West Chester University’s Farrell Stadium.

Beasley ran 21.72 into a 0.1 meters-per-second headwind, leading a 1-2 Rowan finish with freshman teammate Nana Ageymang, who was second in 22.44.

Beasley, who already ranks No. 1 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference with a 10.86 100 from last weekend (and a 10.95 with legal wind), now ranks No. 1 in the 200 as well. Nobody else in the NJAC is under 22 seconds.

His 200 time is No. 8 in NCAA Division 3 and No. 2 among Division 3 freshmen, behind only Jayden Sloan of McMurry University of Abilene, Texas, who ran 21.67 at the Incarnate Word Invitational in San Antonio this past weekend. 

Sloan also ran a leg on McMurry’s 3:15.13 4-by-4 team, which is the only Division 3 school in the country that’s run faster than Rowan’s 3:15.86.

Beasley has lifetime best of 21.30 from the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington. This is the earliest in any season he’s ever run under 22 seconds.

Lehigh sophomore Connor Melko of Bishop Eustace outraced a field of 31 runners to win his first collegiate track 5,000.

Melko ran 14:27.92 at the Bucknell Quad Meet in Lewisburg, Pa., outpacing Garrett Gough of Army by 65 meters. Gough was second in 14:39.23.

In his only other track 5,000, Melko ran 14:47.53 to place 10th at New balance Outdoor Nationals in June of 2019 in Greensboro, N.C.

Melko’s time is No. 2 this year in the Patriot League, behind only Army junior Marshall Beatty, who ran 14:27.61 in a meet in Annapolis, Md., last weekend. Beatty did not compete this weekend at Bucknell.

No splits available on the official results, and as we’ve noted before, Lehigh’s lame web site is one of the few in NCAA Division 1 that doesn’t offer men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor all-time top-10 performance list, so we can’t tell you where Melko ranks in school history or what the school’s freshman record is.

 

Kingsway graduate Rachel Vick dipped down for a rare 800 Saturday and turned in a huge collegiate PR for Connecticut.

Vick, who hadn’t run an open 800 in two years, placed second in the UConn Dog Fight in Storrs with a time of 2:13.48. She finished second to teammate Amy Piccolo, who won the race in 2:12.05.

This was Vick’s first 800 indoors or out since a meet in Storrs in April of 2019. She shattered her PR of 2:16.89, which she ran at the Brown Springtime Invitational in April of 2018 in Providence. Those are the only three 800s she’s run in three years at U. Conn.

Vick didn’t race indoors in 2020 or 2021 and Connecticut didn’t have an outdoor season in 2020, so Vick has only raced three times since May of 2019. Her first two races this spring were 1,500s.

Vick focused on the 1,600 and 3,200 at Kingsway, but she did run a 2:12.28 at Group 4 sectionals in 2017 at Egg Harbor, finishing just behind Brooke Fazio of Ridge, who ran 2:11.25. Fazio has run 2:04.18 this spring.