From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Junior Nikki Clifford’s 59.8 anchor leg – 20 minutes after a 2:19.4 open 800 – helped Cherokee run the fastest 4-by-4 in the state so far this year.

Cherokee ran 4:04.4 in an outdoor “indoor season” dual meet against Cinnaminson Thursday at Cherokee. The fastest previous time run by a New Jersey high school this year indoors or outdoors was Hillsborough’s 4:06.5 in an outdoor meet Saturday at Hunterdon Central.

The fastest previous 4-by-4 this year indoors or outdoors by a outhitting Jersey school was Cherokee’s 4:10.43 indoor at the Bubble on Monday. The 4:04 is Cherokee’s fastest 4-by-4 since 2016.

Junior Allison Cooke led off for the Chiefs with a 60.5 split, soph Kelsey Giglio followed with a 61.7 and senior Meghan Carroll ran 62.4 to set up Clifford.

About 20 minutes earlier, Clifford negative-split a 2:19.4, going out in 71.3 and coming back in 68.1. Niglio (2:25.9) and Carroll (2:30.1) also doubled back after running the 800. All four of them then ran a 4-by-200 about 10 minute later, winning in 1:54.8.

Clifford’s 2:19.4 was only about half a second off her PR of 2:18.87 on the same track in June of 2019. Clifford is the second South Jersey girl to go under 2:20 this year indoors or outdoors. Haddonfield’s Lindsay Colflesh ran 2:15.18 at the Cherokee Winter Distance Invitational last week. 

Rancocas Valley graduate Danielle Steff, a junior at Monmouth, threw 151-5 in her first javelin competition in two years.

Steff competed Saturday at a Monmouth-Army dual meet at Shea Stadium in West Point, N.Y.  

Her mark is No. 16 in NCAA Division 1 so far this outdoor season and No. 1 in the Metro Atlantic Conference.

It’s also No. 29 among all U.S. women through Thursday, according to the IAAF performance list.

Steff has a PR of 164-2 from the NCAA East Regional Preliminary meet in Jacksonville in May of 2019. She went on to place 23rd at NCAAs. Her 164-2 is No. 2 in Monmouth history, behind a 164-3 by Kelsey Reese in 2014.

At Army, Steff also threw the discus a personal-best 130-7 and the shot 37-7 1/4. She has a shot PR of 39-11 1/4 from a meet at Navy in January of 2020. She had never thrown the discus before in a college meet. She had a high school PR of 99-5 from a meet in 2016 at Lenape. Her shot put mark is No. 3 currently in the Metro Atlantic.

Steff had a high school best of 139-0 in the javelin, No. 17 in South Jersey history going into this spring season.

Connor Melko, a Lehigh sophomore from Bishop Eustace, opened his season Saturday with a fast 1,500 in a meet on Lehigh’s Goodman track in Bethlehem.

Melko placed second in 3:52.88, which converts to about 4:11.5 for a full mile (or 4:10.0 for 1,600 meters). That’s far under Melko’s previous PR of 4:17.02, which he ran for a mile in Albany last winter.

Robert Guidicipietro of Wagner College on Staten Island won the race in 3:52.53.

Melko’s previous 1,500 PR was a 4:07.54 indoors in the Millrose Trials at the Armory in the winter of 2018, his junior year at Eustace. Of course, high school runners don’t run too many 1,500s. Melko had a high school 1,600 PR of 4:16.20 from a meet in the spring of his junior year at Holmdel, so his race Saturday was equivalent to about a 6-second PR.

Melko even doubled back to run 1:56.48 and place third in the 800. They were the first 800 and 1,500 of his college career and his first outdoor meet since the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.

Even doubling back, he missed his 800 PR by 1-100th of a second. Melko ran 1:56.47 to win the 800 at the 2019 Camden County Championships at Haddon Township.

Lehigh’s track and field web site has about 10,000 ads on it provides media guide or historical information about the program – school records, top-10 lists, conference champions, All-Americans, nothing – so I can’t provide any context for Melko’s 1,500 performance when it comes to Lehigh’s track history.

But I can tell you he now ranks 52nd in NCAA Division 1, according to TFRRS, and No. 12 among sophomores. His 3:52.88 is third in the Patriot League, behind junior Caden Foster of Army [3:49.92] and Bucknell’s Connor McMenamin [3:52.56]. His 1:56.48 is No. 5 on the Patriot League performance list.

https://www.tfrrs.org/lists/3191.html#event13

Joe Metzger PR’d again Tuesday, this time bombing the shot 57-5 at the final Rebel Shot Put Series meet at the Bubble.

Metzger, a Delsea senior, took a 54-1 1/4 PR into this indoor season, that coming in a meet at the Bennett Center last February.

He extended it to 54-8 3/4 on Feb. 25, then 55-6 1/4 on March 9 and 56-4 last Tuesday before hitting 57-5 this Tuesday.

That’s four PRs in 26 days.

Metzger placed second to 60-foot thrower Tyler Konopka of Toms River South, who threw 58-10 1/4.

Metzger’s throw puts him at No. 27 in South Jersey history indoors and is No. 8 in Gloucester County history.

Here’s a look at the combined Gloucester County indoor / outdoor list, with each athlete’s best throw:

64-10 ½ … Jon Kalnas [Paulsboro], 1997 [outdoors]
62-10 ¼ … Nick Pulli [West Deptford], 2014 [outdoors]
61-10 ½ … Harry Dilks [Pitman], 1971 [outdoors]
61-6 … Josh Awotunde [Delsea], 2013 [outdoors]
60-11 ½ … Ryan Knight [Delsea], 1996 [outdoors]
59-7 ¾ … Chris Pressley [Woodbury], 2003 [outdoors]
59-3 … Kwabena Keene [Washington Twp.], 2008 [outdoors]
58-9 … Greg Ross [Deptford], 1976 [indoors]
58-8 ¾ … Bill Goldsborough [Delsea], 2018 [indoors]
58-8 ½ … Bob Baylor [Paulsboro], 1965 [outdoors]
58-0 … Shamsiddan Little [Paulsboro], 2013 [outdoors]
57-11 … Kwabena Keene [Washington Twp], 2008 [indoors]
57-9 ½ … Rich Lewis [Williamstown], 1985 [indoors]
57-5 … Joe Metzger [Delea], 2021 [indoors]
56-5 ¼ … Chris Pressley [Woodbury], 2003 [indoors]

Jewel Ash’s first outdoor college track meet was a very good one.

Ash, an Eastern graduate and freshman at Charleston Southern in South Carolina, won the 400-meter intermediates at the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational at Doug Shaw Stadium in Myrtle Beach in 1:02.43. She edged teammate Caroline Edmondson, who was second in 1:03.11.

It took Ash one college race to move into the all-time Charleston Southern top-10. Her 1:02.43 ranks seventh in school history, just behind Amerikorie Odey’s 62.12 at the 2009 Big South Championships. Odey ran for Willingboro, graduating in 2006.

Ash has run faster only once and that was in her last outdoor meet – 21 months ago. She ran 1:01.46 at the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.

Her time is No. 1 so far this outdoor season in the Big South and No. 12 among all NCAA Division 1 freshmen.

Ash also ran 14.68 in the 100-meter hurdles trials over the weekend, although that was assisted by a 5.1-meters-per-second wind and not eligible for record or list purposes. She ran a bit slower in the final, which was also wind-aided.

Last month, Ash ran 57.33 indoors for the flat 400, an indoor PR.

In her first collegiate outdoor 800, Sterling graduate Sydney Coppolino of Virginia ran 2:12.43 at the UVA Opener Saturday in Charlottesville.

Coppolino did not race at all this past indoor season or last spring, so this appears to be her first race since the ACC Indoor Championships at Notre Dame in February of 2020, when she ran her overall PR of 2:10.67.

It looks like her first outdoor 800 in four years – since she ran her outdoor 2:11.45 for 5th place at the 2017 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington.

Williamstown graduate Gabrielle Farquharson, in her first 100-meter dash in nearly two years, ran 11.69 Saturday, although I have no idea where it happened.

Farquharson is listed on the IAAF performance list as running 11.69 on Saturday, with the meet identified only as “Carolina (PUR),” and I have no clue what that means, but the IAAF web site is the most reliable place on Earth for track results, so it did happen. 

We also learned from the IAAF site that Farquharson ran that 11.69 into a 1.9-meters-per-second wind, which makes the performance even more impressive.

Even though the results are listed on the IAAF site, no meet called “Carolina (PUR) is listed on the IAAF results site. 

Wherever she did it, it’s No. 17 among U.S. women in the early going this outdoor season.

Farquharson has a wind-legal PR of 11.32 – that’s with a 1.6 wind at her back – from 2016 when she was competing for Rutgers. She’s also run as fast as 23.07 for 200 meters and 53.20 for the 400.

On Friday – at “Carolina (PUR)” – Farquharson also long jumped 20-0, which puts her at No. 32 in the U.S. this spring. She has a PR of 21-5 1/4, also from 2016.

This appears to be Farquharson’s first outdoor meet since July 6, 2019, when she ran 11.60 and 23.87 at Monteverde, Fla.

 

It took Brielle Smith one throw to etch her name onto the all-time Stanford javelin top-10.

In her collegiate debut for Stanford, Oakcrest graduate Brielle Smith threw 157-5 at the Hornet Invitational in Sacramento. Smith won the event by 21 inches over teammate Virginia Miller, who threw 155-8. Miller has a 162-8 PR.

Smith hit 157-5 on the first collegiate throw. She also threw 154-10, 152-11 and 151-10 in her series.

Her mark is No. 10 in Stanford history, bumping 2015 All-America Victoria Smith for a spot in the top-10. Smith threw 156-5 at the 2015 NCAA Division 1 West Preliminary Round in Austin. 

Smith is the No. 8 freshman in NCAA Division 1, No. 23 overall in the country and No. 5 in the Pac-12.

This was Smith’s first meet since June of 2018, when she won the Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington with a throw of 157-0. Smith set the state New Jersey state mark of 168-6 with the new javelin in April 2019 at the Woodbury Relays. 

 

In his first meet in nearly two years, Florence’s Curtis Thompson threw 252-8 to win the javelin Saturday at the Falcon Classic in Montevallo, Ala.

It was the 25-year-old Thompson’s first meet since the Bulldog Relays in Starkville, Miss., on March 23, 2019.

Thompson, a four-time All-America at Mississippi State, the 2016 NCAA champ and 2018 U.S. national champ, has a PR of 271-11 from the 2016 Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. That’s No. 16 in U.S. history.

Thompson’s mark is No. 22 in the world so far early in the 2021 outdoor season and the No. 1 throw among Americans. He bumped Donovan Banks as the top U.S. thrower early in the outdoor season. Banks threw 246-2 last week at a meet in Mobile, Ala.

Thompson opened with a 244-7 and then the 252-8 followed by a 240-5, 240-10 and a foul and a 236-1.

 

St. Augustine senior David Kenny led seven half-milers under 2:02 and four under 2:00 Saturday at the Cherokee Distance Invitational, winning the 800 in a personal-best 1:57.16.

Cumberland junior Jalen Ridgeway took the field through 400 meters in 55.80, with Timber Creek senior Brian Eaton (55.88) and Kingsway junior Jeffery Heineman (56.34) on his tail, and Kenny 20 meters back of the lead in 57.73.

But Kenny closed strong, with a 59.41 second lap to edge Ridgeway by four meters. Ridgeway was second in 1:57.58, Heineman ran 1:58.69 and Eaton 1:59.36.

Kenny’s previous PR was a 1:58.84 indoors at Virginia Beach in January. Heineman lowered his PR from 1:59.04 at indoor states last year, and Eaton from 2:00.20 in a meet at the Bubble last month.

The time is an outdoor PR for Ridgeway, who ran 1:57.91 for Toms River North as a freshman at the state Group 4 meet at Franklin. He’s run 1:53.72 indoor at the 2000 Meet of Champs at Ocean Breeze.

It looks like the St. Augustine school record is 1:57.08, set by Chris Gough at Parochial A sectionals at South Plainfield in 2011. Anybody know if Mark Sivieri ever ran a fast 800 in high school?

Haddon Heights senior Andrew Bayna (2:01.53) and Timber Creek senior Joshua Thaler (2:01.99) also ran big PRs. For Thaler, it was his first time under 2:08!

Four other South Jersey half-milers ran sub-2:05: Washington Township senior Julian Lawson (2:03.75), Eustace junior Ryan Carney (2:03.84), Cherry Hill East sophomore (2:04.27) and Cherokee sophomore Thomas Bromley (2:04.51). All were PRs.