From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Jessica Woodard, who threw a personal-best 60-3 to win the shot put Saturday at the Big 12 meet in Lawrence, Kans., added another PR in the discus Sunday.

Woodard placed fourth in the discus with a throw of 179-11 1/2, breaking her previous PR of 178-1, which she just set two weeks ago at the Penn Relays.

Woodard opened with a 165-3 1/4 and improved to 168-9 1/4 on her second throw. She fouled on her third throw but opened the finals with her first PR of the competition, a 178-5 3/4.

After a foul on her fifth attempt, she PR’d again on her final attempt, heaving the shot 179-11 1/2 to move ahead of Ieva Zarankaite of Oklahoma State, from fifth into fourth place.

Shadae Lawrence of Kansas State won with a 205-4 1/4, the best throw by a collegian this year, No. 3 by an American and No. 13 in the world.

Ocean City senior Steve Jernee eclipsed the 180-foot barrier for the first time at the South Jersey Invitational last weekend, and nine days later he eclipsed the 190-foot barrier for the first time.

Jernee broke his own Cape May County record in the javelin Friday with a huge throw of 191-5 at the Cape May County meet at Ocean City.

Before last week, Jernee’s PR was 172-10 from meet of Champions his sophomore year, back in 2015.

The 191-5 is No. 4 in New Jersey this year and No. 3 in South Jersey. It’s also No. 12 on the all-time South Jersey list with the current implement, which went into use in 2002. Interesting that all five of South Jersey’s throwers who have surpassed 201 feet have done it in the last four years.

224-10 … Curtis Thompson [Florence], 2014
216- 6 … Chris Mirabelli [Holy Cross], 2014
206-10 … Cade Antonucci [Holy Spirit], 2016
206- 8 … Nick Mirabelli [Rancocas Valley], 2017
203- 6 … Stephen Benigno [Cherry Hill East], 2014
201- 0 … Sean Biehn [Burlington City], 2006
196- 9 … Terrance Smith (Oakcrest), 2006
192- 6 … Matt Rafferty (Northern Burlington), 2012
192- 6 … Christopher Reider (Eastern), 2010
192- 3 … Shane McDevitt (Cinnaminson), 2014
191- 6 … Robert Marks (Rancocas Valley), 2016
191- 5 … Steve Jernee (Ocean City), 2017
191- 5 … Andrew Pierce (Cumberland Reg.), 2009
190- 0 … Andrew Forbes (Williamstown), 2011

Jernee also won the discus at the Cape May County meet with a throw of 135-0 and the shot with a personal-best 46-3 1/4.

Ocean City outscored second-place Middle Township 167-84 to win the boys team title.

The Ocean City girls also won the team title, defeating Middle by a 185 1/3-86 1/3 margin.

Cherokee graduate Jess Woodard, now a junior three-time All-America at Oklahoma, shattered the 60-foot barrier in the shot put for the first time and won the Big 12 Conference title by more than three feet.

Woodard set a facility record of 60-3 at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kans. Her previous season best was 55-11 when she won the Penn Relays last month. Her previous PR was 58-7 3/4 when she placed third at NCAA nationals in Eugene last June.

Woodard moved up to the No. 3 spot in NCAA Division 1

Woodard threw 53-8 3/4 on her first throw and uncorked the 60-3 bomb on her second to essentially lock up the title. She followed with throws of 57-4 1/2 – also good enough to win the title – and 54-5 3/4 before fouling on her last two attempts.

With the bomb, Woodard moved up to the No. 11 spot on the 2017 IAAF world list and No. 6 American woman.

Her mark is also probably somewhere in the all-time top-25 among college women, but that’s going to take some research because nobody maintains all-time college lists beyond the top 10. But I’ll get right on it!

In her first major race since she won last year’s Meet of Champions 100, Williamstown senior Bria Mack edged Delsea senior Cecelia Gerstenbacher by 4-100ths of a second Thursday to win a loaded Gloucester County Meet 100 over a loaded field at Delsea.

Mack ran 12.01 to Gerstenbacher’s 12.05, with Meet of Champions runner-up Iyana Kollock of Our Lady of Mercy third in 12.44.

The 12.05 was a PR for Gerstenbacher, who had run 12.09 twice — at the Tri-County meet and sectionals in 2015.

The times are No. 2 and 3 in South Jersey so far this year, behind an 11.95 by Aliyah Taylor of Rancocas Valley last month at the Lenape Invitational.

Taylor hasn’t raced since pulling a hamstring in the Penn Relays 4-by-400 but is expected back for the Burlington County Open a week from Saturday.

On Thursday at Delsea, Mack also ran a 400 leg on Williamstown’s third-place 4-by-4. Gerstenbacher ran 24.92 to win the 200 and 58.42 to place second in the 400 behind teammate Toni Glatz, who ran 57.62.

Gerstenbacher’s 58.42 is another PR, breaking her previous mark of 58.50 set indoors at last year’s states in the Bubble.

She’s also undefeated this year at 200 meters and ranked No. 2 in South Jersey at 24.84, 1-100th of a second behind RV’s Taylor.

Meanwhile, Glatz’s 57.62 is also a PR, breaking her previous mark of 58.25 set this past winter at the Bubble at indoor Meet of Champions.

 

Absegami senior Joshonda Johnson, among the best in South Jersey in a variety of events, focused her energy on the 100-meter high hurdles Wednesday at the Atlantic County meet and came through with a near-PR 14.50 for the win, the fastest in South Jersey this year.

Johnson has a PR of 14.47 from last year’s Cape Atlantic Conference championships. Her time supplants a 14.54 from Sarah Jones of Bishop Eustace from the Rowan Invite as fastest by a South Jersey hurdler this spring.

It’s also No. 5 in the state this year.

Johnson is one of the most versatile athletes in South Jersey. She’s long jumped as far as 17-8 3/4 (last week at Rowan), she’s run 56.63 in the 400 (fourth in the Meet of Champions last year), she’s run as fast as 1:01.73 in the intermediates (second at states last year) and she’s even run cross country for Absegami in the fall.

But on Wednesday, she just focused on the highs, took third in the long jump and ran legs on two winning relay teams — the 400-meter team won in 49.06 and the 1,600 ran 4:06.61 at Buena.

 

 

Because of the forecast for terrible weather Saturday, meet officials have cancelled the Burlington County Scholastic League meet and postponed the Camden County meet a week.

It will be the first time in at least half a century there is no BCSL meet.

The BCSL meet has been held every year – either as a stand-alone meet or scored out of the County Open – since at least the mid-1960s. After 10 years running concurrently with the Burlington County Open, it returned to a stand-along meet in 2002.

The Camden County meet was postponed a week, from 9 a.m. Saturday at Haddon Township to 9 a.m. next Saturday, May 20. That will be just three days after the Olympic Conference meet at Washington Township, which a lot of the same teams contest.

 

Kelly Yanucil is making the most of her senior year at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmittsburg, Md.

Yanucil, a Bordentown High School graduate, followed her second consecutive javelin win at the Penn Relays — she’s only the sixth woman in history to do that — with her third straight win at the Northeastern Conference Championships. She’s only the third to do that.

Yanucil threw 164-10 at the conference meet this past weekend at her home track in Emmittsburg, just shy of her PR and school-record 169-9 that she threw at the Penn Relays one weekend earlier on the fields between the Schuylkill Expressway and the Northeast Corridor Amtrak lines.

She’s only the third woman in NEC history to win three straight javelin titles, following Kelly Rahfon of St. Francis from 1998 through 2000 and another South Jersey product, Helen Wilks of Bridgeton and Monmouth, from 2009 through 2011.

She fell just short of her own meet record of 165-9 that she set as a sophomore at the 2015 NEC meet.

Yanucil, an All-America last year, is ranked 18th in NCAA Division 1 but is only two feet out of the top-10 in a very crowded group.

Yanucil is also ranked No. 20 among U.S. women and No. 13 among American collegiates.

Where did this come from???

Pennsville senior Robert Saulin is known mainly for his football prowess. He was an all-South Jersey pick and as a junior helped Pennsville win the South Jersey Group 2 title as a two-way defensive end/tight end and this past year reach the Group 2 finals again. He recently committed to Temple after originally committing to U. Conn.

But in track?

Saulin won the Salem County title as a sophomore, but according to the New Jersey Milesplit database had competed in just two meets over the last two year and had thrown the discus in only one of them — last year’s Bridgeton Relays.

So what did Saulin do on Tuesday? He threw the discus 159 feet, three inches to win the Salem County title by 20 feet at Schalick.

Would you believe it was a 23-foot PR?

Saulin’s previous PR was 136-7 from the Bridgeton Relays last year, the only meet he is listed as competing in the discus since the end of the 2015 season.

The 159-3 is the best throw by a Salem County discus thrower since Anthony Robertson of Penns Grove hit 170 feet at the 2014 Tri-County Conference meet. Before that you have to go back to 2007, when Pennsville’s John Clark threw 170-3.

That 159-3 throw is No. 3 in South Jersey this year, behind only Collingswood’s Adam Hunt (175-5 at the South Jersey Invitational) and Holy Spirit’s versatile Cade Antonucci (169-1 at Woodbury) and No. 9 on the 2017 New Jersey performance list.

This from a guy who had thrown the discus once in a major meet in the last two years! He’s obviously a tremendous athlete, but this was quite a performance.

If the Milesplit database is accurate, Saulin’s 2014 season ended after the South Jersey Relays, his 2015 season after the Tri-County meet and his 2016 season ended after the Salem County meet.

Safe to say his 2017 season is just getting started!

 

Salem senior Jonathan Taylor ran the fastest 100 meters in New Jersey this year Tuesday afternoon at the Salem County meet on Schalick’s track in Pittsgrove Township.

Taylor came within 9-100ths of his PR and Salem County record of 10.55, which he set at sectionals last year. He went on to win the Meet of Champions last spring with a 10.61.

On Tuesday, Taylor ran 10.64 to win his second straight Salem County title. He hasn’t lost a 100-meter dash since states his sophomore year, when he was DQ’d for a false start after placing fifth at sectionals.

The 100 was the only race Taylor entered. It was his first open 100 in anything other than a dual meet since last year’s Meet of Champs.

Taylor replaces Paul VI’s Antonio Tarantino atop the 2017 New Jersey 100-meter dash list. Tarantino ran 10.68 in a meet in Bucks County back in early April and has not participated in an open race in a major meet since. He did split 50.5 on Paul VI’s 1,600-meter relay team at Penn.

Taylor, a running back on Salem’s football team, plans to follow two other South Jersey running backs — Ron Dayne and current Eagle Corey Clement — to Madison, Wisc., to play football for the Wisconsin Badgers.

Here’s a look at the all-time South Jersey 100-meter dash list

100-METER DASH
10.35 … Jamar Ervin [Camden], 2000
10.36 … Damiere Byrd [Timber Creek], 2010
10.44h .. Bill Gaines [Clearview], 1966
10.44h .. Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], 1983
10.45 … James Townsend [Holy Cross], 2003
10.47 … James Brown [Glassboro], 2009
10.53 … Todd Dutch [Washington Twp.], 2001
10.54 … Fabian Santiago [Oakrest], 2010
10.55 … Jonathan Taylor [Salem], 2017
10.55 … Todd Dutch [Washington Twp.], 2002
10.57 … Jamil Benjamin [Cumberland Regional], 2006
10.57 … Geoff Navaro [Absegami], 2008
10.58 … Anthony Miles [Winslow Twp.], 2003
10.60 … Robert Page [Kingsway], 2008
10.60 … Marquis Bonds [Millville], 2007
10.60 … Shawney Kersey [Woodbury], 2009
10.62 … Kashif Moore [Burlington Twp.], 2007
10.63 … John Stone [Mainland Reg.], 1997
10.63 … Sabli Gonnet [Eastern], 2007
10.64 … Jeremy Cooper [Mainland Reg.], 1997
10.64h … Israel Cook [Cumberland Reg.], 1981
10.64h … Mike Parker [Salem], 1981
10.64h … Flipper Anderson [Paulsboro], 1983
10.64h … Chuck Carter [Eastern], 1985
10.65 … Dominique Irons [Haddon Heights], 2013
10.65 … Rocco Orville [St. Joe’s-Hammonton], 2015
10.65 … Dorian Bryant [Kingsway], 2003
10.66 … Bobby Orro [Pemberton], 1993
10.66 … Bruce Owens [Deptford], 2004
10.67 … Antraye Miles [Winslow Twp.], 2003
10.67 … T.J. Johnson [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2009
10.67 … Kashif Miller [Haddon Heights], 2014
10.68 … Marquis Bonds [Bridgeton], 2007
10.69 … Robert Darby [Pennsauken], 2006
10.69 … Darnell Charles [Oakcrest], 2012
10.71 … Albert Newkirk [Camden], 1997
10.72 … Reggie Morton [Oakcrest], 2012
10.72 … Sterling Pierce [Rancocas Valley], 2015
10.73 … Franklin Dallas [Woodrow Wilson], 1986
10.73 … Sean McPherson [Delsea}, 2010
10.74 … Adonis Jennings [Timber Creek], 2014
10.74 … Brian Reagan [Cherry Hill East], 2012
10.74h … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], 1979
10.74h … Clem Leslie [Vineland], 1981
10.74h … Kevin Jones [Pleasantville], 1982
10.74h … Tony Jones [Edgewood], 1982
10.74h … Carl Brown [Eastern], 1983
10.74h … Kenny Reynolds [Willingboro], 1986
10.74h … Don Brooks [Pleasantville], 1988

Pennsville sophomore Arianna Smith lowered her 400 PR to 57.39 Tuesday as part of a triple win at the Salem County meet at Schalick High in Pittsgrove Township.

Smith set PRs in all three events she competed in.

Smith, who never broke 62 for 400 meters as a freshman, lowered her PR from 57.77 just three days ago at the Rowan Open to 57.39, fastest this year by a South Jersey girl and No. 4 in the state. It’s also fastest in the state by a Group 1 runner.

Smith also won the 200-meter dash in a personal-best 25.82 and the 100-meter hurdles in a PR 15.18 after running 18.30 in the trials.

Her previous hurdles in both were also set at Rowan the Rowan Invite — 15.33 in the prelims of the highs this past weekend and 27.11 in the 200 at Rowan last year,.

Pennsville placed second in team scoring to Schalick, which finished with a 134 1/2-77 margin of victory.

Full results from Schalick are here.