From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Big horizontal jumps double for Glassboro sophomore Moses Robles to open the outdoor season.

Robles jumped 22-1 and 45-11 ½ at the Deptford Spartan Relays, the top marks in both jumps by South Jersey athletes so far this spring. State-wide, Robles ranks 5th in the long jump and 3rd in the triple jump and 1st in both among sophomores.

Robles had a 44-10, a 45-7 ½ and a 45-11 ½ in his triple jump series and a 21-7 in addition to his 22-1 in his long jump series.

Robles jumped 21-3 ¼ and 44-5 ½ last spring and then improved to 23-4 and 46-4 ½ indoors, the 23-4 when he won Easterns and set a South Jersey sophomore record at the Armory and the 46-4 ½ at the Ott Center. He is No. 3 in Gloucester County history indoors in the long jump and No. 5 in the triple jump.

Last weekend, freshman Dakota Jones from Washington Township lowered the NJIT hurdles record from 14.78 down to 14.69. On Saturday, she dropped it another half second.

Jones ran a huge PR of 14.16 in the trials of the 100-meter hurdles at the Sam Howell Invitational at Princeton’s Weaver Stadium with a legal tailwind of 1.7 meters per second.

So she’s now lowered the school record 62-100ths of a second in the span of a week.

That’s No. 3 in the America East Conference behind two women from UMBC.

Jones placed 5th in the final in 14.27.

The 14.16 was also a lifetime best. Jones’ PR at Washington Township was 14.41, which she ran this past May at South Jersey Group 4 Sectionals at Pennsauken, where she placed 4th.

He’s not just a long jumper, although he was an All-America indoors and jumped over 27 feet. He’s not just a hurdler, either, even though he set a Princeton school record of 7.69 indoors.

Turns out Princeton senior Greg Foster is also a pretty fast sprinter, and on Saturday he ran a wind-aided 10.36 in his first-ever collegiate 100 at the Sam Howell Invitational at Princeton’s Weaver Stadium and ran a leg on the 2nd-fastest 400-meter relay in school history.

Foster’s last 100-meter dash was at a meet on his home track in high school at Lawrenceville Prep, where he ran 11.09 in May of 2022.

Foster, from Lumberton, led off Princeton’s 400-meter relay team, which won with a meet-record 39.29. That’s No. 12 this spring in NCAA Division 1. He was joined by sophomore Jadon Spain from Highland Falls, N.Y., Jackson Clarke of Danville, Pa., and Charlie Sexton of Auburn, Ala.

Princeton’s school record is 39.14 set at 2022 NCAA East Prelims in Bloomington, Ind., by Simang’aliso Ndhlovu of Lusaka, Zambia, Ibrahim Ayorinde of Oakville, Ontario, Daniel Duncan from North Plainfield and Greg Sholars from Fort Worth, Texas.

Foster hasn’t hurdled or long jumped yet this spring.

MIT’s Jacob Cobb from West Deptford ran the 4th-fastest steeplechase so far this year in NCAA Division 3 Saturday.

Cobb ran 9:09.15 at the Sam Howell Invitational at Princeton’s Weaver Stadium. Cobb is coming off an indoor season where he ran a 4:07.01 full mile and raced at the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Birmingham, Ala. He also raced the steeple at outdoor NCAAs last spring in Geneva, Ohio, and D-3 Cross Country Nationals in Spartansburg, S.C.

Cobb is No. 3 in South Jersey history with his steeple PR of 8:53.62, which he ran last May Jacob Cobb [West Deptford], May 10, 2025, in Williamstown, Mass.

Delsea senior Hannah Nuhfer opened her 2026 outdoor season with the No. 3 discus throw in the country this year.

Nuhfer threw 170-8 at the Deptford Spartan Relays. No series information because “Pioneer Timing” is clueless and doesn’t realize this is 2026 and field event series are mandatory in live results. But that’s her 2nd-best throw ever behind her South Jersey-record 178-9 when she won the discus national title at West Philly Nationals in June. That was actually her last meet throwing the discus, so she’s thrown 170-plus in two consecutive meets.

Nuhfer is No. 3 nationally according to MileSplit’s U.S. database behind Jaslene Massey of Aliso Niguel of Aliso Viejo, Calif., who threw 188-7 last month in a meet at Irvine, Calif., and Jenna Tunks of Oakridge Secondary School in London, Ontario, who threw 176-6 ¾ last month in a meet at Ramona, Okla. So I guess that makes her No. 2 among U.S. high school throwers.

Nuhfer also opened in the shot put Saturday with a state-leading 44-1 ½. She threw 48-0 indoors and placed 2nd at Boston Nationals with a 46-3.

Eastern senior Humberto Cuellar PR’d in the shot Saturday at the Spartan Relays at Deptford with a 53-7 ½.

That’s the best throw by an Eastern athlete in 16 years, since Jarred Williams set the school record of 55-1 at the state Group 4 meet at Egg Harbor. It’s the best throw so far this spring in South Jersey and 6th-best in the state. It’s No. 2 in Group 4, behind Daniel Riga of Franklin Township, who threw 56-10 last weekend in Somerset.

No field series info available for Cuellar – hey, “Pioneer Timing,” it’s 2026, get with the times here – but Cuellar topped his PR of 53-3 ¾ that he threw at indoor states at the Bubble in February. Cuellar’s previous outdoor PR was 48-10 ½ from last year’s state Group 4 meet, also in Somerset.

Also at Deptford, Delsea junior Sheldon Goldsborough threw 52-2 ¼ for 2nd place. Goldsborough. He PR’d at 53-5 indoors at the state Group 3 meet at the Bubble.

Rowan had a 24-foot long jumper this weekend and it wasn’t 2026 indoor national leader Anthony Parker from Salem, and it wasn’t 2026 indoor All-America Bright John of Sterling.

Rowan’s 3rd 24-foot long jumper this year is freshman Christopher Ross from Walkill Valley High School in Hardyston Township in Sussex County.

In his first outdoor college meet at the Ursinus Springfest Saturday in Collegeville, Ross leaped 24-1, the No. 3 jump so far this outdoor season in NCAA Division 3.

His previous wind-legal PR was 22-2 ½ at the Ott Center last month, although he did jump 22-10 ¾ (with no wind guage) in the 2023 Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex county meet in Vernon Township. His best high school jump that was wind-legal was a 22-1 at 2023 West Philly Nationals.

Ross did not compete at all in 2024 or 2025 – looks like he was at Penn State during some of that time but never competed in a meet – before resurfacing with full eligibility at Rowan this past winter.

But that 24-1 was no fluke. Ross had a huge series, with a 23-3, 23-10, 23-0, 24-1 and 23-10 ½ before finishing with a foul. So he had the five-best jumps of his life in one meet, averaging 23-7 ¼ on his five legal jumps.

So his average jump was 16 ¾ inches beyond his previous legal PR.

Parker has been hurt and hasn’t competed since the AARTFC Championships at the Armory the first week of March, although he’s getting close. He jumped 25-0, No. 16 in D-3 history indoors, at Ocean Breeze in February. Sterling’s John, 5th at D-3 Nationals, jumped a legal 23-8 ¾ Saturday at a meet in Daytona Beach, Fla., and he’s now No. 5 in Division 3. Junior Damarion Potts from South Brunswick hit 23-5 ¼ wind-aided in Daytona (and had a legal 22-6 ½) and junior Josiah Williams from Mainland Regional jumped a PR 22-11 ¾ at Ursinus. Senior Chace Pearson from Timber Creek PR’d at 22-7 at Ursinus.

So Rowan has five long jumpers over 22-7 so far this spring and none of them are Parker, the top jumper in Division 3 indoors. Ross, John and Potts are ranked 3rd, 5th and 9th so far in Division 3.

Willingboro’s Jamere Brooks, a freshman at Rowan College Gloucester County, ran a huge hurdles PR and the 2nd-fastest time in the NJCAA Division 2 at the Ursinus Springfest Saturday.

Brooks lowered his PR over the 42-inch hurdles from 16.03 from the Stockton Invite last weekend all the way down to 15.25 in only his 2nd race over the 42-inch barriers.

Brooks didn’t compete indoors, so this was only his 2nd hurdles race since last May.

The only faster time in the NJCAA – National Junior College Athletic Association – Division 2 is a 15.22 by Robert Salazar-Rosell of Thaddeus Stevens of Hoboken, also at the Stockton Invite.

Brooks had a high school PR of 14.79 over the 39-inch hurdles from his win last year at the Burlington County Open at Lenape.

What’s the school record in the hurdles? Good luck with that. If you click the “records” section on the school’s web site, you get “page not found.”

I can tell you that South Jersey Track Hall of Famer John Sease, also from Willingboro, ran 14.34 for the old Gloucester County College – which became Rowan College Gloucester County – when he won the 1981 NJCAA national title at San Angelo State College in Texas. He also ran a hand-timed 13.9 at the 1981 Metropolitan Championships at Franklin Field.

In his first 400 since May, Pennsauken’s Premier Wynn – now a junior at Tennessee – ran 46.15 at the Pepsi Relays Saturday in Gainesville.

Because of an injury, Wynn hadn’t raced at all since an indoor 300 in Nashville in December, his only previous race for the Vols after transferring from Norfolk State after last year’s outdoor season.

But it was a successful return to action for Wynn, who ran within 15-100ths of a second of his PR of 46.00 from the prelims of the MEAC Championships in May in Norfolk. That’s 6th-fastest ever by a South Jersey quarter-miler. Wynn won the final in 46.53 and that was his final race as a Spartan.

Wynn’s 46.15 is 10th-fastest in the SEC so far this year and 20th-fastest in NCAA Division 1, which tells you how competitive the SEC is.

Ajani Dwyer became New Jersey’s fastest sprinter in nearly 30 years Saturday when he won the 100-meter dash at the Pepsi Relays in a wind-legal 10.06.

Dwyer, a 2024 Washington Township graduate and Penn State sophomore, ran the fastest 100 by a South Jersey sprinter since Edgewood’s Dennis Mitchell ran 10.02 at the Stockholm DN Galan at Olympiastadion in Sweden on July 7, 1997.

Olympic gold medalists Carl Lewis and Mitchell are the only South Jersey sprinters to ever run faster than Dwyer did Saturday in Gainesville on Mitchell’s old college track.

Dwyer lowered his legal PR from 10.16, which he ran at Heyward Field this past May. He ran a slightly wind-aided 9.96 with a 2.2 meters-per-second tailwind in Orlando last weekend. The wind reading for this race was 0.2.

His time is 4^th-fastest in the world this year with legal wind and fastest by an American. He broke the Penn State wind-legal school record of 10.15 set at 2024 NCAA East Prelims in Leington Kentucky by Olympian and Ramapo transfer Cheickna Traore, who attended Innovation High in Jersey City and competed for Snyder.

Dwyer is now tied for the collegiate lead in wind-legal races with LSU junior Jaiden Reid, who ran 10.06 in Baton Rouge on Friday.

All-Time New Jersey 100-Meter Dash Alumni List
9.86 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], Aug. 25, 1991, Tokyo, Japan [+1.2]
9.91 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], Sept. 7, 1996, Milan, Italy  [+1.2]
10.06 … Ajani Dwyer [Washington Twp.], April 4, 2026, Gainesville, Fla. [+0.2]
10.12 … Mario Heslop [Franklin Twp.], April 9, 2022, Atlanta [-1.3]
10.15 … Cheickna Traore [Snyder], May 24, 2024, Lexington, Ky. [+0.7]
10.16 … Ajani Dwyer [Washington Twp.], May 16, 2025, Eugene, Ore,. [+0.5]
10.19 … Michael Garvin [Don Bosco], April 4, 2009, Austin, Texas [+1.6]
10.21 … Nadále Buntin [J.P. Stevens], May 13, 2023, Bloomington, Ind. [+1.0]
10.23 … Ashhad Agyapong [Trenton], June 7, 2008, Holmdel, N.J. [+0.0]
10.24 … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], June 26, 1979, Västerås, Sweden [+1.0]
10.27 … Barry Douglas [Willingboro], May 4, 1996, Fairfax  [+1.3]