From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Lumberton’s Greg Foster recorded his best long jump mark in nearly two years Friday afternoon with a 25-8 ¾ on his 2nd attempt at the Sam Howell Invitational at Weaver Stadium, his home track at Princeton University.

That was the best of three jumps of 25-4 or better in the best series of his life. He recorded three of the 9-best jumps of his life on Friday.

The 25-8 ¾ is Foster’s best jump since he PR’d at 26-1 ¾ at the 2003 Ivy League Championships at Franklin Field, his 4th-best jump ever and his 2nd-best outdoor jump. And it was also his best ever that wasn’t on his final attempt. Six of his eight-best all-time jumps have come on his 6th attempt.

He added a 25-4 on his 5th attempt and a 25-6 ¼ on his 6th, making this the first time he’s jumped 25-4 or better three times in the same meet and averaged 25-4 ¼ on his four legal jumps.

Foster, a graduate of Lawrenceville School, fouled on his 1st and 3rd attempts. He added a 24-10 ½ on his 4th jump before finishing with two more 25-footers. I don’t see any wind readings, but hopefully there was a wing guage there and the wind readings show up eventually.

Foster’s 25-8 ¾ is No. 20 among U.S. men and No. 4 in NCAA Division 1 so far this spring.

After the 2024 indoor season, Foster underwent foot surgery and didn’t compete for 11 months. He’s the top hurdler in the Ivy League at 13.93 from a meet in West Long Branch last weekend, but he hasn’t done a long jump-hurdles double yet this outdoor season.

Rider freshman Joel Blamon from Cinnaminson placed 5th with a season-best 22-3 1/2 on his 3rd jump.

Greg Foster All-Time 25-Foot Jumps
26-1 ¾ … Heps, Philadelphia, May 7, 2023 [6th jump]
25-10 ¾ … Wesley Brown Invitational, Annapolis, Md., Jan. 21, 2023, [6th jump]
25-9 ½ … Heps, Hanover, N.H., Feb. 26, 2023 [6th jump]
25-8 ¾ … Sam Howell Invitational, Princeton, April 4, 2025 [2nd jump]
25-6 ¼ … New Balance Nationals, Philadelphia, June 19, 2022 [6th jump]
25-6 ¼ … Sam Howell Invitational, Princeton, April 4, 2025 [6th jump]
25-4 ¾ … New Balance Nationals, Philadelphia, June 19, 2022 [5th jump]
25-4 ½ … Nike Indoor Nationals, Staten Island, March 13, 2022 [6th jump]
25-4 … Sam Howell Invitational, Princeton, April 4, 2025 [5th jump]
25-2 ¾ … H-Y-P, Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 28, 2023 [4th jump]
25-2 … Joe Handleman Invitational, Princeton, Dec. 10, 2022 [1st jump]
25-2 … H-Y-P, Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 28, 2023 [6th jump]
25-0 ½ … New Balance Nationals, Philadelphia, June 19, 2022 [4th jump]

Widener sophomore Thomas Flear from Clearview ran the 4th-fastest 10,000 in school history this weekend on his home track in Chester, Pa.

Flear ran 30:37.76 at Widener’s own Danny Curran Invitational on Saturday. That’s fastest so far this year in the NCAA Division 3 Metro Region and it’s 4th-fastest in the Middle Atlantic Conference but only 12 seconds out of the top spot. Runners from Lebanon Valley and Messiah who are ahead of him on the conference list compete in a different region – the Middle Atlantic.

In any case, Flear’s time is fastest by a Widener distance runner in six years and trails only the Sudanese refugee and West Philadelphia High graduate Macharia Yuot [29:21.08 at the 2005 Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.], Will McDermott of Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast Catholic in Upper Darby, Delaware County, Pa. [30:13.41 at Widener in 2018] and Matthew Kazanjian of Penncrest High in Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pa. [30;32.53 at Widener in 2019] on the all-time Widener performance list.

Flear’s previous 10,000 PR was 30:46.66 at the same meet on the same track last March.

Flear also ranks 6th in school history in the 5,000 [14:39.41 last year at Widener] and 10th on the indoor 5,000 list [14:58.93 last year at Ocean Breeze].

At Clearview, Flear had PRs of 4:47.26 and 10:19.51. His 10,000 pace this weekend – 4:54 per 1,600 meters – is only 6 ½ seconds per mile over 6.2 miles slower than he ran for his 1,600 PR in high school.

Texas Tech sophomore Leah Howard from Millville won the javelin Thursday at the Masked Rider Open at Fuller Track and Field Complex in Lubbock, Texas.

Howard threw a season-best 154-3 and won by one inch over Bruna Viera de Jesus of New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, N. Mex. Viera de Jesus and Howard both hit their best throw on their 6th and final attempts, with Howard throwing last after a 152-1 on her 2nd attempt.

Howard threw a lifetime-best 164-4 last May at the Big Ten Championships in Waco, where she placed 6th. That’s No. 3 in Texas Tech history.

Howard set the South Jersey record of 163-1 at the 2023 Woodbury Relays.

Eastern’s Kadence Dumas, a sophomore at Delaware, ran an 800 PR and the 5th-fastest time in school history over the weekend at the Raleigh Relays.

Dumas ran 2:08.72, dropping her PR from 2:08.90 from last year’s Coastal Athletic Association Championships at Elon, N.C.

Racing in the 14th of 18 sections, Dumas was out in 63.28 and back in 65.44. She’s No. 3 in the Coastal Athletic Association, behind two seniors – Jordan Mozie of Hampton [2:06.78] and Fajr Kelly of North Carolina A&T [2:07.08].

Her time is fastest by a Delaware half-miler in six years, since both Michaela Meyer [2:07.02 also in Raleigh] and Jeanette Bendolph [2:08.69 in Elon, N.C.] ran slightly faster. (Meyer transferred to Virginia and won the 800 at the 2021 NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., in 2:00.28. Post-collegiately, she’s run 1:58.55.)

At Eastern, Dumas won the 2023 outdoor Meet of Champions in Somerset 2:10.44. She also ran 55.90 and 5:03.12.

Delaware women’s track records held by South Jersey athletes: Halima Scott of Camden Big Picture Learning Academy [ran for Wilson] in the indoor 400 [53.97] and outdoor 400 [53.01], Lenape’s Carly Pettipaw in the 600 [1:32.59] and Asha Quant of Holy Cross in the long jump outdoors [19-11 ½].

Up next for the Blue Hens is their own Delaware Invitational Saturday at Grant Stadium in Newark.

In her first meet for Rowan, Salem High’s Diamond Eaddy won the javelin at the Danny Curran Invitational at Widener University in Chester, Pa., Saturday and recorded the top mark so far in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

Eaddy threw 125-9 on her 3rd attempt. She also had a 124-4 on her 2nd throw and a 120-10 on her first throw of the finals.

Eaddy spent her freshman year at Lincoln University in Lower Oxford Township, Chester County, where she PR’d at 125-11 in a different meet at Widener. She placed 2nd in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships last May in Salisbury, N.C., with a 118-0, and didn’t compete again until Saturday.

At Salem, Eaddy had a PR of 107-0 from the 2022 state Group 1 meet at Pennsauken. So she’s improved nearly 20 feet since high school.

The top three throwers in the NJAC so far are Eaddy at 125-9, Rowan senior and Isabelle Deal from Washington Township [122-0] and Rowan senior Dimitra Kossis from Haddon Heights [PR 114-2].

Deal, a four-time All-America (three times for Ursinus, once for Rowan), ranks 18th in NCAA Division 3 history with her 155-0 PR from May of 2023 in Selinsgrove, Pa. She’s the Ursinus javelin school record holder and the Rowan indoor and outdoor shot put school record holder.

 

Desi Stroud became the latest member of the South Jersey 24-foot club over the weekend with a huge long jump PR at the Danny Curran Invitational at Widener University in Chester, Pa.

Stroud, a sophomore from Atlantic County Vo-Tech, jumped 24-3, breaking the Holy Family outdoor school record of 23-6.

That 23-6 was initially achieved in March of last year by current Holy Family sophomore Odane Smith in Bridgewater, Va. Current Holy Family junior Javon Bowen jumped 23-6 on his final attempt at Widener Saturday, and Stroud jumped 24-3 on his final attempt. So Stroud either broke Smith’s record or broke a record shared by Smith and Bowen, depending what order they were jumping in Chester. Presumably, Stroud was jumping before Bowen in the finals since Bowen had a superior jump in the trials. If that’s the case, Stroud broke Smith’s record and then Bowen jumped 23-6 on the final attempt of the competition.

In any case, Stroud’s previous outdoor PR was 23-4 ¾ from a week earlier in Galloway Township, right up Route 9 from his hometown of Mays Landing. He has an indoor PR of 23-8 ¾ from Ocean Breeze in February 2024. His outdoor PR coming into the season was 22-1 ¼ when he placed 3rd in South Jersey Group 4 sectionals at Pennsauken in June 2023.

Stroud had a solid series, with jumps of 21-0, 22-1 ¼, 22-6, 23-1 ¾ and 22-0 leading up to his breakthrough 24-3.

It’s possible there was no wind gauge at the meet, which is insane for a major college track meet, but every jump has a 0.0 wind reading, so doesn’t look good. I’m trying to look into that. Hopefully, wind readings were taken, they’re just not in the results.

Stroud’s mark is No. 12 in NCAA Division 2 so far this year. Stroud, Bowen and Smith are the top three jumpers in the East Coast Conference.

He’s the 3rd long jumper from Atlantic County to jump 24 feet, following Mainland Regional’s Paul Klemic [25-2 PR in Waverly, Iowa, in 2005] and Absegami’s Demetrius Rooks [24-8 ½ in Greensboro, N.C., in 2016].

Here’s my best attempt at an all-time South Jersey alumni 24-foot long jump:

29-1 ¼ … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], Aug. 30, 1991, Tokyo
26-3 ¼ … Matt Rose [Bordentown], Mary 4, 1991, Knoxville, Tenn.
26-1 ¾ … Greg Foster [Lumberton], May 6, 2023, Philadelphia
26-1 ¾ … Chris Gillis [Pennsauken], May 12, 2006, Waco, Texas
26-1 ½i … Kerry Vivett [Edgewood], 1991, Track and Field News
26-1 ¼ … Mike Morrison [Willingboro], May 13, 2006, Fayetteville, Ark.
25-8 ¼ … Desmond Hamilton [Pennsauken], May 13, 2007, Princeton
25-7 … Jerome Robinson [Bordentown], July 20, 1991, New York
25-2 … Paul Klemic [Mainland Reg.], May 26, 2005, Waverly, Iowa
25-0 ¾ … Zach Manorowitz [Pennsville], May 7, 2022, Lawrenceville
24-11 ¾ … Antwan Dickerson [Pennsauken], May 24, 2018, Sacramento, Calif.
24-11 ¼ … Anthony Miles [Winslow Twp.], June 5, 2002, Brunswick, Maine
24-8 ½ … Demetrius Rooks [Absegami], May 6, 2016, Greensboro, N.C.
24-4 ¾ … Jeffrey-Jon Tucker [Eastern], April 1, 2016, Glassboro
24-3 ¾ … Mikhail Micheaux [Eastern], June 1, 2013, Egg Harbor Twp.
24-3 … Desi Stroud [Atlantic County Vo-Tech], March 28, 2025, Chester, Pa.
24-0 … Anthony Averett [Woodbury], April 28, 2012, Philadelphia

Big 1,500 PR for Wake Forest sophomore Grace Wassell from Highland this weekend at the Raleigh Relays.

Wassell ran 4:29.08, a huge drop from her previous official PR of 4:37.32 from a meet in Charlotte last March.

Although when she ran her mile PR of 4:51.12 indoors in Columbia, S.C., last month, she probably came through 1,500 meters somewhere around 4:31.6, but no 1,500 splits were taken (only 1,409 and 1,609, so we extrapolated).

In any case, that’s a big breakthrough for Wassell, who had a high school PR of 5:01.03 for a full mile from Armory Nationals in March 2022, equivalent of a 4:59.28 for 1,600 meters.

Wassell’s time is fastest by a South Jersey collegian since Kristin Siegle of Buena and Rider ran 4:22.45 at NCAA East Prelims in Jacksonville in 2019. That was Siegle’s final race.

Kingsway’s Damon Dukes Jr. ran the 7th-fastest 100 in school history and a huge PR Saturday in his first outdoor race since transferring to the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Dukes won the 100 at the Towson (Md.) Invitational at Johnny Unitas Stadium in 10.62. His previous PR was a 10.89 this past May in the prelims of the America East Championships at UMBC – as a freshman at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

So his NJIT PR was run at UMBC and his UMBC PR was run at Towson.

Either way, that’s a huge drop of more than a quarter of a second, which you just don’t see.

That 10.62 ties Negasi Gerima for 6th-fastest in school history. Gerima ran 10.62 in 2000. Couldn’t find the meet. Disappointed in myself for that.

Anyway, Dukes’ high school PR at Kingsway was 10.92 at Cherokee in May of 2023 as a Kingsway senior. He went on to place 3rd at Group 4 states in Somerset in 10.94.

Dukes actually PR’d with a 10.80 in the trials. He also ran 21.97 in the 200. He PR’d at 21.70 as a NJIT freshman in the America East prelims in Boston in February of 2024. His high school PR was 22.20 at the 2023 Gloucester County Championships at Deptford, where he was 2nd to Washington Township’s Ajani Dwyer.

Indoors, Dukes ran 6.91 and 21.82, 10th on the UMBC indoor all-time performance list. His 6.91 is 3-100ths of a second off the top-10.

Dukes set the NJIT record over 60 meters with a 6.89 in the prelims of the 2024 America Eat meet in Boston last February.

In the 100 at Towson, Lindenwold graduate Fitzgerald Asher, a freshman at Camden County College, ran a PR 11.04 in the prelims and 11.07 in the final. Asher’s high school PR was 11.17 at 2003 South Jersey Group 2 sectionals at Delsea.

 

An auspicious outdoor track debut this weekend for Rider freshman Dylan Giloley from Washington Township.

Giloley won the 100 at the Rider 5-Way meet in Lawrenceville in 12.09 into a 0.8 meters-per-second headwind.

That’s 4th-fastest in Rider history and fastest in 12 years, since freshman La’tazah Coleman of Appoquinimink High in Middletown, Del., set the school record of 11.95 in Richmond in March 2013.

The only other Rider sprinters to go faster are Lillian Laboy of Plainfield [12.01 in 1994] and Mia Riley of Caldwell [12.03 in 2012].

Other South Jersey sprinters on the Rider all-time 100 list are Mariah Stephens of Egg Harbor Township [4th at 12.13], Genesis Walker of Bordentown 5th at 12.15] and Tierra Taylor of Pemberton [tied for 9th at 12.32].

Indoors, Giloley ran 7.66 for 60 meters at the Ott [No. 4 in school history] and 24.89 for 200 meters in Boston [No. 2 in school history]. She placed 4th in the 200 and 7th in the 60 at the MAC Championships at the Armory last month.

Quite an outdoor college track debut for Highland’s Cortland Webb, a true freshman at Rider.

In his first 400-meter hurdles race in college, Webb finished 1st with a lifetime-best 54.99 Saturday at the Rider 5-Way meet in Lawrenceville.

Webb’s previous PR was a 55.27 this past May at the Tri-County Conference Championships at Delsea.

Webb is coming off a promising indoor season, which included a big 800 PR of 1:56.84 at Ocean Breeze last month. His high school PR was 1:58.38, also from Ocean Breeze.

Webb’s time is fastest in the Metro Atlantic Conference so far this outdoor season and fastest by a Rider freshman since Noah Rivera-Sharp ran 53.83 at the 2019 MAC championships in West Long Branch.