From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Malachi James turned in the fastest 100 time by a Syracuse sprinter in at least 16 years on Friday.

James, a freshman from Burlington City, ran 10.32 into a 0.6 meters-per-second headwind at the ACC Championbships in Winston-Salem, N.C., and qualified for Saturday’s final.

James set the New Jersey state record at 10.28 last year at the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken but also had a 10.18 at South Jersey Group 1 sectionals that was negated because there was no wind gauge at Pennsauken.

After playing football for Syracuse as a true freshman, he sat out the indoor season and didn’t race outdoors until a meet in Tampa in late March. He ran a wind-aided 10.29 in Albany last month, but his race Friday was a collegiate PR and only 4-100ths of a second off his wind-legal PR of 10.28.

I’d love to tell you where James’ performance ranks in Syracuse history, but Syracuse’s track web site is one of a very few NCAA Division 1 programs that does not have an all-time top-10 performance list. So the best I can do is look back through the TFRRS year by year and that shows nobody running as fast as 10.28 as far back as it goes, which is 2010.

The final is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday back at Kentner Stadium on the Wake Forest campus.

Delsea’s Nico Morales became the first South Jersey pole vaulter ever to clear 18 feet Friday at the Big Ten Conference Championships in Eugene, Ore.

Morales, a senior at Rutgers, cleared 18 feet on his 3rd attempt. He’s only the 4th vaulter ever from New Jersey to clear 18 feet. Bradley Jelmert of Watchung Hills cleared 18-9 ¼ in Pittsburg, Kans., in December 2023, current Rutgers junior Kevin O’Sullivan cleared 18-2 indoors in January at the Armory and current Rutgers sophomore Brian O’Sullivan cleared 18-1 in a meet in Tampa last month. On Friday, Kevin O’Sullivan no-heighted and Brian O’Sullivan joined Morales clearing 18 feet.

Coming into this weekend, only 15 NCAA Division 1 vaulters had cleared 18 feet this year, including Jelmert, a senior at Arkansas State. The 18-foot clearance puts Morales in the No. 39 spot this year among U.S. men.

Morales had a PR of 16-9 ½ coming into this indoor season. He cleared 17 feet for the first time in January at the Ott Center with a 17-2 ¾ that made him the first South Jersey 17-footer. He improved to 17-6 ½ in February in Cambridge, Mass., and then 17-9 in his most recent meet, the Rutgers Relays in Piscataway a month ago.

On Friday, Morales opened at 17-0 ¼ and cleared on his 1st attempt before getting over the bar at 17-4 ¼ and 17-8 ¼ on his 2nd tries and 18 on his 3rd. He took three attempts at 18-2.

Illinois sophomore Cody Johnson won the competition with an 18-2 clearance on his second attempt. Morales was one of four others to clear 18-0, including Brian O’Sullivan. Morales placed 5th with more misses than the three others who cleared 18-0.

Northern Burlington senior Liliah Gordon smashed the Central Jersey Group 3,200-meter run meet record Friday at Jackson Liberty.

Gordon won the race in 10:28.74, edging nemesis Allison Lee of West Windsor-Plainsboro North, who was 2nd in 10:29.49, also under the previous record.

The previous meet record was 10:31.6 hand timed by Middletown South’s Cate Guiney at the 1999 Central Jersey Group 3 meet at Monmouth Regional in Tinton Falls.

Gordon, a two-time Foot Locker finalist and 5,000 All-America, won the indoor Meet of Champions in 10:13.41 at Ocean Breze. She was only 6 ½ seconds off her outdoor PR of 10:22.20 from the Glenn Loucks Games in White Plains, N.Y., last May.

Eastern junior Natalie Dumas ran the fastest intermediate hurdles race in South Jersey sectional history and state public school history Friday at the Group 4 meet at Pennsauken.

Dumas, the West Philly Nationals champ last spring at 58.32, nearly PR’d, winning the sectional race in 58.37 at Pennsauken.

That broke the South Jersey Group 4 sectional and overall South Jersey sectional record of 1:00.12 set by Winslow Township’s Krystal Cantey in 2005 at Egg Harbor. Willingboro’s Danielle Myricks ran a hand-timed 1:00.1 in 2001 in Group 3, also at Egg Harbor.

The fastest previous public school sectional performance was a 59.04 by Reanda Richards of West Essex at the 2018 North 1 Group 3 meet at River Dell.

The only faster time in the U.S. this year according to the MileSplit national database is a 57.75 by Sydney Sutton of the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., in a meet last month in Columbia, S.C. Sutton was the Boston Nationals 400 champ indoors in March.

The overall New Jersey 400IH sectional record is 55.52 by world record holder and four-time Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin at the 2017 Parochial A Sectionalsat at Egg Harbor.

Her time is No. 58 among U.S. women this year, No. 3 on the U.S. Under-20 list and No. 8 on the world Under-20 list.

Rancocas Valley senior Cecilia King placed second in 1:01.12 , 5th-fastest in Burlington County history, fastest by an Rancocas Valley girl since Meet of Champions winner Tonya ran 59.03 in 1988 and fastest by any Burlington County girl since Meredith Updike of Cinnaminson ran 1:00.67 at the  2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington. 

Earlier Friday, Dumas won the 800 in 2:14.30, leading five runners under 2:16. Cherokee juniors Alyssa Suriano [2:14.75] and Sofia Recinto [2:14.97] and Vineland seniors Ashlynn Newton [2:15.50] and Georgina Chalow [2:15.61] all broke 2:16.

Woodstown junior Joshua Crawford smashed the meet record, senior Cole Lucas wasn’t far behind and junior junior Karson Chew gave the Wolverinces three of the first five four finishers in the South Jersey Group 1 800 Friday at Pennsauken.

Crawford slashed his PR from 1:56.97 from Haddonfield Distance Night earlier this month to 1:53.59, breaking the meet record of 1:53.9 hand-timed set by legendary Fred Sharpe of Paulsboro in 1997.

That’s 2^nd-fastest in Salem County history, behind only a 1:52.97 by Penns Grove’s Jaymes Dennison at the 2013 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield.

Lucas ran a huge PR of his own in 2^nd with a 1:54.87, which is the 3^rd-fastest time in meet history, behind Crawford’s time Friday and Dennison’s 1:54.45 in 2013, and 3^rd-fastest in Salem County history. His previous PR was a 1:58.08, also at Haddonfield Distance Night.

And Chew also broke two minutes, taking 5^th in 1:59.92 and giving Woodstown 22 points in the first individual final on the track.

Gateway junior Nathanial Martinez was 3^rd in 1:59.14 and Woodbury junior Elijah Young was 4^th in 1:59.76.

Here’s a look at all the sub-1:57 times in South Jersey Group 1 meet history:
1:53.59 … Joshua Crawford [Woodstown], 2025 [1]
1:53.9h … Fred Sharpe [Paulsboro], 1997 [1]
1:54.87 … Cole Lucas [Woodstown], 2025 [2]
1:55.02 … Luke Petela [Haddonfield], 2015 [1]
1:55.45 … Jaymes Dennison [Penns Grove], 2013 [1]
1:56.15 … Scott Hubbard [Audubon], 2022 [1]
1:56.46 … Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 2024 [1]
1:56.47 … Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 2023 [1]

Premier Wynn blazed the fastest 400 of his life Friday and led all qualifiers in the prelims of the MEAC Championships.

Wynn, a Norfolk State sophomore from Pennsauken, ran 46.00 in the second of four heats on his home track. Teammate Vincent Bond was the next-fastest qualifier for Saturday’s final with a 46.86 in the third heat.

Wynn’s previous PR was a 46.38 in his last race, on April 12 in Durham, N.C.  Before that, it was a 46.64 indoors in Virginia Beach in February.

Wynn will be in Lane 5 for the final, which is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. Saturday.

His time is 6^th-fastest all-time by a South Jersey quarter-miler. Here’s my best effort at an all-time top-10:

44.30 … Lamont Smith [Willingboro], June 19, 1996, Atlanta
45.26 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], April 12, 1986, Tampa, Fla.
45.31 … Gabirle Moronta [Pleasantville], April 5, 2025, Gainesville, Fla.
45.49 … Darrell Bush [Woodbury], April 11, 2015, Tucson, Ariz.
45.98 … Antonio Abney [Willingboro], May 29, 2010, Charlotte, N.C.
46.00 … Premier Wynn [Pennsauken], May 16, 2025, Norfolk, Va.
46.05 … Schefer Sherrer [Vineland], May 18, 2005, Levelland, Texas
46.13 … Brandon Outlaw [Moorestown], May 15, 2021, Raleigh, N.C.
46.19 … Maurice Ransome [Vineland], May 23-25, 1990, Naperville, Ill.
46.26 … Marvin Lewis [Willingboro], July 29, 2010, Nairobi, Kenya

Moorestown’s Will Inglis, a sophomore at Elizabethtown, ran the a huge 800 PR and the 7^th-fastest time in school history Thursday in Williamstown, Mass.

Inglis ran 1:52.37 and placed 3^rd in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships at Williams College.

His previous PR was a 1:53.49 just last week when he placed 2^nd in the Landmark Conference Championships in Selinsgrove, Pa. Inglis never ran under 1:57 until last month at Millersville, and his PR before he arrived at E-town was a 2:02.10 at 2023 South Jersey Group 3 Sectionals at Delsea. He ran 2:00.31 indoors as a freshman at the Armnory but incredibly didn’t break two minutes until April 4.

Now he’s one of the fastest in school history and 6^th-fastest in NCAA Division 3 Mid-Atlantic Region.

This isn’t a meet where you can double the 800 and 1,500, but at the conference meet Inglis PR’d in the 1,500 with a giant PR of 3:53.42. His previous best was a 4:04.93 two weeks earlier in York, Pa., and before that 4:18.94, also in York.

Inglis’s 3:53.42 is the equivalent of a 4:12.09 for a full mile or 4:10.62 for 1,600 meters. His high school PR was 4:35.53 in May of 2023 at Delsea, so he’s gotten 25 seconds faster in two years.

His 3:53.42 is 3^rd-fastest in school history and fastest in 18 years, since Patrick Donovan ran 3:51.61 at Swarthmore in May 2007. It’s 8^th-fastest in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Camden Catholic’s Leah Clear ran the 4th-fastest 1,500 in Delaware history Thursday afternoon at the Coastal Athletic Conference Championships.

Clear, a Delaware sophomore from Cherry Hill, ran a lifetime-best 4:26.51 at North Carolina AT&T in Greensboro and placed 6th after qualifying for the final with a 4:33.81 on Wednesday. She closed in 69.74

Tht moves her less than 1 ½ seconds off the all-time South Jersey alumni top-10. West Deptford’s Megan McGlinchey is currently No. 10 at 4:25.21.

Clear had a PR of 4:35.73 as a freshman from a meet in Charlottesville. She lowered it to 4:33.33 in Raleigh in March and then had a huge breakthrough in Princeton two weeks ago with a 4:26.89 before PR’ing again Thursday.

Clear’s high school PR was 5:13.56 for 1,600 meters from the 2023 state Parochial A meet in Somerset. Her race Thursday converts to a 4:46.15 for 1,600 meters, so she’s now 27 ½ seconds faster than she was two years ago.

Of the three Delaware runners ahead of her on the all-time Delaware list, the two most-recent didn’t run this fast as freshmen or sophomores. Mary Schilly ran 4:23.0 in 1980 but there’s no way to figure out what she ran in her first two seasons. So Clear at worst is the fastest freshman or sophomore at Delaware in 45 years.

Sprinters Eli Hendricks, a sophomore from Penns Grove, and Rajahn Dixon, a freshman from Eastern, ran two of the fastest times in Rowan history Monday evening at the Widener Final Qualifier in Chester, Pa.

Hendricks lowered his PR from 21.34 from last month in Atlanta to 21.21 wind and Dixon lowered his PR from 21.34 indoors at the Ott Center in February to 21.22 in the same race. There was a legal wind reading of 0.5.

With Bridgeton’s Shamar Love already at 21.18 from the NJAC Championships in Ewing earlier this month and Highland’s Robert McKinney at 21.29 from Atlanta last month, Rowan now has four sprinters under 21.30. They’re ranked 15th, 21st, 23rd and 35th in NCAA Division 3 this year.

On my “best-attempt-at-an” all-time Rowan list, Love, Hendricks, Dixon and McKinney are No. 2, 3, 4 and 6 in school history

20.91 … Jah’mere Beasley [Sterling], NCAA Division 3, Geneva, Ohio, May 28, 2022 [+1.9]
21.18 … Shamar Love [Bridgeton], NJAC Championships, Ewing, May 3, 2025 [+1.4]
21.21 … Eli Hendricks [Penns Grove], Widener Final Qualifier, Chester, Pa., May 12, 2025 [+0.5]
21.22 … Rajahn Dixon [Eastern], Widener Final Qualifier, Chester, Pa., May 12, 2025 [+0.5]
21.28 … Charles Cooper [Paulsboro], NCAA Division 3, Berea, Ohio, May 26, 1979 [N/A]
21.29 … Robert McKinney [Highland], Georgia Tech Invitational, Atlanta, April 18, 2025 [+1.4]
21.31 … Ali Ejaz [Glassboro], NJAC Championships, Glassboro, N.J., May 26, 2012 [+1.7]
21.32 … Shai Mumford [West Deptford], Oneonta [N.Y.] Final Qualifier, May 18, 2017 [+1.2]
21.39 … Evan Corcoran [Kingsway], NJAC Championships, Ewing, May 3, 2025 [+1.4]
21.42 … Amara Conte [Ferris], NJAC Championships, Mahwah, N.J., May 6, 2023 [+0.9]

Kingsway’s Noemi Haller ran one of the fastest freshman 400s in South Jersey history Monday at Spartan Sprint Night at Deptford.

Haller lowered her PR from 57.04 from South Jersey Elite at Delsea earlier this month to 55.98 in only her 3^rdmajor outdoor 400. She ran 59.06 indoors at Ocean Breeze.

Haller’s time is fastest this year by a New Jersey freshman, and it’s 9^th-fastest overall. It’s No. 3^rd-fastest among South Jersey quarter-milers, behind Sianni Wynn’s South Jersey-record 52.80 and Natalie Dumas’s 54.06.

It’s also No. 10 all-time in Gloucester County. She broke the Kingsway school record of 56.24 set by Thaila Cooper when she won the 400 at the 2013 state Group 3 meet in South Plainfield. Cooper also previously held the Gloucester County freshman record with a 57.53 at the 2012 Meet of Champions at Old Bridge.

Wynn set the South Jersey freshman record of 53.97 at Group 4 states two years ago in Somerset.

All-Time Gloucester County 400 List
53.51 … Dana Burnett [Williamstown], 1996
53.49 … Arianna Sharpe [Clayton], 2022
54.62 … Audrey Wilson [Deptford], 2008
54.83 … Dahlia Beasley [Washington Twp.], 2024
53.60 … Amirah Sharpe [Clayton], 2021
55.3h … Lori Lewis [Woodbury], 1978
55.50 … Sabrina Burrell [Delsea], 2014
55.72 … Kiara Lester [Deptford], 2015
55.93 … Brianna Crofton [Delsea], 2009
55.98 … Noemi Haller [Kingsway], 2025