From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Salem’s Anthony Parker destroyed Rowan’ s indoor long jump record Friday in his fourth collegiate meet.

Parker, a freshman, won the long jump at the Metropolitan Invitational at Ocean Breeze with 24-9 ¾ on his final attempt, breaking the school record of 24-2 ½ set by Ahmir Johnson of Wissahickon High at the Armory in 2024. Parker jumped 24-1 ½ at the Armory last week, missing Johnson’s record by an inch.

His jump Friday is No. 2 in NCAA Division 3 this year, behind only senior Joshua Rivers of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, who jumped 25-5 ½ in a home meet last month.

It’s the best jump in Division 3 by a freshman in nine years, since Matt Fleming of Benedictine University of Lisle, Ill., jumped 24-10 in a meet in February 2017 in Kenosha, Wisc.

Parker’s jump is No. 24 in NCAA Division 3 history, according to the records and lists section on the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches web site. https://web4.ustfccca.org/iz/records-lists/atb-lists/9?view=full.

He also broke the NJAC indoor record of 24-8 ½ set in 1988 by Stockton’s Greg Foster of Shawnee at the Division 3 Championships in Northampton, Mass. Foster’s son Greg, a junior at Princeton, is currently the No. 2 long jumper in Division 1 at 26-5 ¾.

Parker’s jump is also No. 14 all-time by South Jersey alums.

He opened at 22-4 before a couple 23-foot jumps at 23-6 and 23-7. After a 22-11 to open the finals, he passed on his 5th attempt before finishing strong with the 24-9 ¾. Amari Campbell of St. Peter’s and St. Joe’s Metuchen in Jersey City placed 2nd with a 23-7 ¾

Parker tied Rowan’s all-conditions record of 24-9 ¾ set by Ahmir Johnson outdoors at the 2022 NCAA Division 3 Championships in Geneva, Ohio, with a legal 1.0 wind.

Parker had a high school indoor PR of 22-3 when he placed 4th in the Meet of Champions this past March at Ocean Breeze. His lifetime best before Saturday was 23-9 in a meet at Delsea this past May with no wind gauge at the long jump. His outdoor wind-legal best was 21-7 ¾ at West Philly Nationals, one of the few outdoor meets that has a wind guage at the horizontal jumps.

Rowan sophomore Chace Pearson of Timber Creek, a transfer from Barton County College in Great Bend, Kans., placed 7th at 22-6 ¾, a college PR for Pearson. At Timber Creek he jumped 23-3 when he won the 2022 indoor Meet of Champions at the Bubble.

Sophomore Lauren Fadairo from Rancocas Valley smashed Quinnipiac’s triple jump record at the Dr. Sander Scorcher at the Armory.

Fadairo jumped 39-7 ¼, breaking the indoor school record of 39-7 set at the 2022 ECAC Championships in Boston by Britney Del Mundo from Fair Lawn High in Bergen County.

Fadairo’s previous indoor PR was a 38-11 ¾ earlier this month at a meet in Kingston, R.I. Her outdoor PR is 39-5 ¾ when she placed 4th at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships in May in Lawrenceville.

Fadairo’s 39-7 ¼ is No. 1 in the MAAC so far this year. Her high school PR was 38-7 ¾ when she placed 2nd at the state Group 4 meet in Somerset this past May.

Jonelle Lewis, a Monmouth freshman from Kingsway, ran a PR 7.71 in the 60 Friday afternoon at Ocean Breeze, moving into the No. 9 spot in school history in just her 3rd collegiate meet.

Lewis placed 2nd in the 60 at the Metropolitan Invitational, just 3-100ths of a second behind Cassandra Lemus-Sodji from St. John’s, who won the race in 7.68.

Lewis came into the meet with a PR of 7.84 from earlier this month at the Ott Center. She lowered that to 7.77 in the prelims before smashing her PR in the final.

Although she’s 9th in school history, she’s only 1-100th of a second out of 6th place because there are three women tied at 7.70.

Her time is fastest by a Monmouth freshman in 11 years, since Domoah Kutu-Akoi from Silver Spring, Md., set the school freshman record of 7.64 at 2015 ECACs at Boston University.

Lewis ran 7.20 for Kingsway last winter and has a 100 PR of 11.90 from 2024 Group 4 sectionals at Pennsauken.

Erika Kemp opened her 2026 season with a monster half marathon at the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon earlier this month.

Kemp, a Rancocas Valley graduate, covered the 13.1-mile course in 1:08.42, 25th-fastest in U.S. history lowering her own New Jersey alumni record.

Kemp’s previous half marathon best was 1:09.10 two years ago also in Houston.

Kemp, 31, was racing for only the 2nd time since she raced the marathon at the World Championships in Tokyo in September. She ran a half-marathon in Boston in November in 1:12.47.

Her 1:08.42 is an average of 5:14.7 per mile over 13.1 miles. That time is 16th-fastest in the world this year and 5th-fastest among U.S. women, with the top 17 women’s times coming from Houston.

Kemp has had good success in Houston. That’s where she ran her breakthrough marathon, a 2:22.56 marathon in January 2025, 12th-fastest in U.S. history and also a New Jersey alumni record.

Kemp graduated from R.V. in 2013 and then became a six-time All-America at North Carolina. She won the 2021 U.S. 20K title in New Haven and placed 8th at 10,000 meters on the track at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene. She has track PRs of 8:53.06 for 3,000 meters at the Armory in 2020, 15:10.10 for 5,000 meters outdoors in Boston in 2021 and 32:10 for 10K on the road in Northport, N.Y., in September 2024.

Desi Stroud, a Holy Family junior from Mays Landing and Atlantic County Tech, uncorked the 2nd-best long jump in NCAA Division 2 East Region this weekend, a 23-7 ½ leap that was about an inch shy of his lifetime indoor PR.

Stroud hit 23-7 ½ on his 3rd jump at the Hounds Classic at Moravian’s Breidgam Fieldhouse in Bethhlehem, just off his indoor PR of 23-8 ¾ from a meet at Ocean Breeze in February 2024. Stroud has a lifetime-best 24-3 from an outdoor meet at Widener last March. Although that was at a meet without a wind gauge, it’s listed as Holy Family’s school record. Looks like his best wind-legal jump is a 23-4 ¾ at Stockton this past March. Which would make his jump this weekend a legal PR.

That 23-7 ½ is No. 20 in NCAA Division 2 and best this year in the Central Atlantiic Collegiate Conference.

Holy Family’s indoor long jump record is 25-2 ¾ by current Holy Family senior Javon Bowen of Kingston, Jamaica, from a meet at Ocean Breeze last January.

Bowen, Stroud and Odane Smith from Edwin Allen in Jamaica [23-3 ½] rank 2nd, 3rd and 4th in NCAA Division 2 East Region so far this season.

Next for Holy Family is the Widener Schuykill Showcase this weekend at the Ott Center.

Winslow Township’s Jayden Poteat is off to a hot start as a freshman at Hampton.

Poteat is 2nd-fastest in the Colonial Athletic Association in the 400 with a lifetime-best 47.88 and 4th in the 200 with a PR 21.52. He also ran leadoff on Hampton’s 1,600-meter relay team, which is 2nd in the conference at 3:12.08.

Poteat ran the 21.52 in Lynchburg this past weekend and the 47.88 earlier this month in Louisville. Hampton ran 3:12.08 last month at the Ott Center. They were his first collegiate races at 200 or 400 meters.

Poteat ran a windy 21.48 at the 2024 state Group 3 meet at Delsea, but his previous wind-legal 200 was a 21.67 a week earlier at sectionals, also at Delsea. His previous 400 PR was a 48.23 when he won the 2024 state title.

Poteat hadn’t raced in nearly a year. After winning state Group 3 titles indoors at 55 and 400 meters at the Bubble in February, he did not compete last outdoor season. So that was his first 400 in 10 months and his first 200 since a 21.72 at the Ott Center in December of 2024.

Poteat is one of three South Jersey athletes at Hampton, located across the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel from Norfolk.

Washington Township’s Yashahya Brown, the 2024 national high hurdles champ, is in his first year at Hampton after a year at Rutgers and ran 8.59 in Lynchburg this past weekend in his first race for Hampton. Brown ran 13.82 in Tampa last spring, 4th-fastest in Rutgers history.

Also at Hampton is Dominic Bassey, Poteat’s former Winslow teammate. Bassey, who ran 1:52.15 and 53.35 in the intermediates last spring, has yet to race this indoor season.

Hampton will be at the Ott Center Feb. 6-7 for the Penn Classic.

Pemberton senior Jaden Goins, whose 6.40 last week at the Ott Center is 10^th-fastest in South Jersey history and 5^th-fastest all-time Burlington County, ran the fastest 60 in New Jersey this year Saturday at Ocean Breeze.

Goins ran 7.00 in the trials against a loaded field of sprinters from across the East Coast at the Shoe Company New York International Showcase.

Holmdel junior Jason Rualo ran 7.03 in the trials, 2^nd-fastest in New Jersey this year. Goins ran 7.03 in the final. Rualo didn’t make the final. So they are No. 1 and 2 in New Jersey this year. Camden senior Jawan Brownlee ran 7.08 in the trials, now 4^th-fastest in New Jersey this year.

Goins’ time is 11^th-fastest in South Jersey history and 3^rd-fastest all-time Burlington County, behind Malachi James of Burlington City [6.71 in 2024] and Samuel Thomas of Northern Burlington [6.91 in 2023].

This was Goins’ first high school 60. He has never run indoor track before.

All-Time South Jersey 60-Meter Dash
6.70 … Damiere Byrd [Timber Creek], 2011
6.71 … Malachi James [Burlington City], 2024
6.76 … Ajani Dywer [Washington Twp.], 2024
6.83 … Jamar Ervin [Camden], 2001
6.87 … Chris Church [Millville], 2007
6.91 … Samuel Thomas [Nothern Burlington], 2023
6.93 … A.J. Bunton [West Deptford], 2006
6.96 … Julian Onesti [St. Augustine], 2025
6.96 … M.J. Lincoln [Lenape], 2025
6.97 … Marquis Taylor [Woodbury], 2025
7.00 … Prince Kim [Bordentown], 2008
7.00 … David Smith [Rancocas Valley], 2025
7.00 … Jaden Goins [Pemberton], 2026
7.01 … Michael Bolling [Willingboro], 1999
7.02 … Rob McGriff [Camden], 2006
7.03 … Gary Gordon [Willingboro], 1995
7.03 … Albert Newkirk [Camden], 1996
7.04 … Thomas Hampton [Clayton], 2018
7.06 … Sherron Bullock [Camden], 2004
7.06 … Fabian Santiago [Oakcrest], 2012
7.08 … Curtis Fitzpatrick [Egg Harbor Twp.], 2013
7.08 … Jawan Brownlee [Camden], 2026
7.08 … Aaron Mull [Hammonton], 2024

Oakcrest’s Alexia Bey, a Rowan senior, popped a huge weight throw PR Saturday and the No. 16 throw in NCAA Division 3 this year.

Bey won the weight throw at the Seamus McElligott Invitational at Haverord’s Alumni Fieldhouse with a throw of 53-11 on her 5^th throw.

That’s No. 1 in the NJAC by more than four feet and looks like it makes her the No. 3 performer in Rowan history behind the school record 55-3 ¾ set by Pitman’s Emily Galvin at Ocean Breeze in 2023 and a 55-0 ¼ by Makayla Taylor of Randolph in Rochester in 2022.

Bey’s previous PR in the 20-pound weight throw was a 50-8 a week ago at Ocean Breeze. She’s thrown 39-8 in the shot and 154-7 in the hammer throw. She was 2^nd in the shot and 5^th in the weight throw last winter in the outdoor NJAC meet at the Ott Center.

Bey threw 36-5 in the shot at Oakcrest and placed 4^th in the state Group 2 meet in Somerset in the spring of 2022. She only competed outdoors in high school, so she never competed in the weight throw until she arrived at Rowan.

Her season best in the shot was a 39-3 ¼ at Ocean Breeze earlier this month. That’s No. 2 in the NJAC this year behind Taniya Giles of Clifton and Montclair State, who threw 39-9 ¼ at the Armory last month.

Rowan is ranked No. 2 in the initial NCAA Division 3 poll, released Tuesday by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association .

The poll is based on the latest NCAA Division 3 performance list and projected point totals in events contested at nationals.

Wisconsin-Oshkosh is No. 1 with 278 points and Rowan is No. 2 with 217 points.

Rowan men ranked in the top eight nationally include Seth Clevenger of Haddonfield, No. 1 in both the mile and 3,000, Masai Byrd of Rancocas Valley, No. 6 in the 60, Rajahn Dixon of Eastern, No. 7 in the 200, Kwaku Nkrumah of Teaneck and Jason Agyemang of North Plainfield, who are tied for 3^rd in the hurdles; David Brown of Edison, Jamile Gantt of Paulsboro, Arrington Rhym of Hamilton West and Noah Wampole of Radnor, who are 1^st, 2^nd, 5^th and 7^th in the high jump; Anthony Parker of Salem, 3^rd in the long jump; and Joshua Justin of Passaic Tech, who is 5^th in the triple jump.

Also, Rowan’s 4-by-4 team of Dixon, Glassboro’s Dallas Hohney, Teddy Wilson of Toms River North and Nicholas Garman of Cedar Crest in Lebanon, Pa. is ranked 6^th in the 1,600-meter relay but with a ton of upside.

Rowan also has a number of potential national qualifiers who haven’t competed yet or haven’t competed in their best events yet. Clevenger alone will be No. 1 in the 5,000 whenever he races one and could make Rowan’s DMR a national contender. Blaik Slavinski of Point Pleasant Borough ran 1:47.65 last indoor season for Clemson but hasn’t run an 800 yet for Rowan; and Hohney ran 1:50.71 last winter for Rider.

Rowan sprinter Eli Hendricks from Penns Grove was a 200 finalist at NCAAs last year and could be back in the mix this year, and Willingboro’s Eric Foster Jr. has run 8.02 in the 60-meter highs, which would put him squarely among national qualifiers. As it is, he’s 10^th at 8.12 based on 2026 times. Additionally, Dixon and Slavinski could both be factors in the 400.

Other NJAC schools in the top 50 include TCNJ 16^th, Montclair State 33^rd and Stockton 47^th.

The Rowan women are ranked 2^nd in the Metro Region with 302 points, behind only TCNJ with 393. Stockton is 5^th.

Oakcrest’s Alexia Bey, a Rowan senior, popped a huge weight throw PR Saturday and the No. 16 throw in NCAA Division 3 this year.

Bey won the weight throw at the Seamus McElligott Invitational at Haverord’s Alumni Fieldhouse with a throw of 53-11 on her 5^th throw.

That’s No. 1 in the NJAC by more than four feet and looks like it makes her the No. 3 performer in Rowan history behind the school record 55-3 ¾ set by Pitman’s Emily Galvin at Ocean Breeze in 2023 and a 55-0 ¼ by Makayla Taylor of Randolph in Rochester in 2022.

Bey’s previous PR in the 20-pound weight throw was a 50-8 a week ago at Ocean Breeze. She’s thrown 39-8 in the shot and 154-7 in the hammer throw. She was 2^nd in the shot and 5^th in the weight throw last winter in the outdoor NJAC meet at the Ott Center.

Bey threw 36-5 in the shot at Oakcrest and placed 4^th in the state Group 2 meet in Somerset in the spring of 2022. She only competed outdoors in high school, so she never competed in the weight throw until she arrived at Rowan.

Her season best in the shot was a 39-3 ¼ at Ocean Breeze earlier this month. That’s No. 2 in the NJAC this year behind Taniya Giles of Clifton and Montclair State, who threw 39-9 ¼ at the Armory last month.

Moorestown’s Hannah Byrd-Leitner, a freshman at Virginia, recorded the 2nd-best indoor pole vault of her life Friday in Blacksburg, Va.

Byrd-Leitner cleared 12-11 on her 1st attempt at the Hokie Invitational at Virginia Tech, her best indoor clearance since a 13-0 clearance when she won the state Group 3 title at the Bubble this past February as a senior at Moorestown.

She took three attempts at a lifetime-best 13-3. Post-collegiate Sydney Horn, a 10-tine All-America at High Point, won the event at 14-10 ¾, 8th-best in the world this year.

Byrd-Leitner’s 12-11 is 5th-best all-time clearance by a Virginia freshman and 11th on the all-time Virginia performance list.

She’s now tied for 9th in the Atlantic Coast Conference this year and No. 2 freshman, behind only Annie Kerr of North Carolina, who cleared 13-3 last week in Chapel Hill.

Byrd-Leitner’s lifetime best is 13-2 from her win at the 2024 outdoor Meet of Champions at Pennsauken.