From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Rutgers senior Shelby Whetstone from Lenape ran a two-second indoor 800 PR this weekend in Chicago.

Whetstone ran 2:06.80 at the 4th annual Wisconsin Badgers Windy City Invite at the Dr. Conrad Worrill Indoor Track at Gately Park.

Her previous indoor PR was 2:08.96 from a week earlier in a meet at Boston University. Before this month, Whetstone’s indoor PR was 2:09.61.

Her time is No. 3 in Rutgers history indoors behind Kassidy Johnson [2:04.36 in 2023 in Geneva, Ohio] and North Hunterdon’s Alex Carlson [2:05.26 in 2024 in Boston].

Whetstone’s outdoor PR is 2:05.14 from a meet this past May in Lexington, Ky.

Rutgers is scheduled to compete in the Big Ten Conference Championships at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis on Friday and Saturday. The women’s 800 qualifying is at 3:20 p.m., with the final at 2:20 p.m. Saturday.

Woodstown’s Molly Lodge and Triton’s Nevaeh Lorjuste took home three gold medals for Rowan and and Pennsauken’s Jasmine Pope took home two at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center in West Philly.

Lodge won the 200-meter dash in 25.37 and ran on Rowan’s 1st-place 800-meter and 1,600-meter relay teams. She’s now won 11 conference titles indoors and out including relays. She also placed 3rd in the 60 in 7.86.p

Lorjuste won her 3rd NJAC 400-meter dash title – two outdoors, one indoors – and she now has nine NJAC wins, including relays. She ran a season-best 58.00 in the 400 and also ran on the winning 4-by-2 and 4-by-4 teams.

And Pope also ran legs on both winning relay teams in addition to placing 3rd in the 400 in 58.70.

Rowan won the 800-meter relay in 1:40.75 with Lodge, Pope, senior Jasmine Broadway of Burlington Township and Lorjuste. The Profs won the 4-by-4 with Lodge, freshman Paige Franklin of Williamstown, Pope and Lorjuste.

Rowan’s 4-by-2 time broke the school record of 1:41.61 set last February at Ocean Breeze by Pope, Lorjuste, Kat Pederson and Lodge and it’s 2nd-fastest in meet history behind TCNJ’s 1:40.49 in 2023. Broadway also ran 26.00 for 4th in the 200.

The Profs ran 3:53.87 to win the 4-by-4, smashing the meet record of 3:55.15 set in 2015 by Rowan with a lineup incluiding Jessalynn Wright from Cherokee, Shailia Williams of Pemberton, Brianna Angelella and Lexxus Matos of Camden Catholic and matched in 2018 by The College of New Jersey with Lenape’s Shannon Lambert on the 3rd leg. Franklin also ran the 400 leg on Rowan’s distance medley, which placed 2nd in 12:26.76.

Rowan freshman Nyla Jones from Timber Creek won the 60-meter hurdles in a lifetime-best 8.95, which makes her the No. 6 freshman in NCAA Division 3 and 3rd-fastest in meet history.

Senior Anna Sasse from Williamstown placed 2nd in the mile in 5:08.67 and 4th in the 3,2000 in 10:36.02.

Junior Lexi Bey from Oakcrest placed in both throws, taking 2nd in the shot put at 39-8 and 5th in the weight throw with a 46-3 ½.

Allyson Wernik of Washington Township ran 4th in the mile in 5:18.23 and Sidney Whetstone of Lenape was 4th in the long jump at 16-7 ¾.

TCNJ, which won the team title by 5 ½ points over Rowan, got a 4th place in the 800 from senior Erin Hanlon of Ocean City in 2:22.98 and a 6th in the 5,000 from junior Savannah Hodgens of Mainland in 19:14.48.

Stockton junior Eva Morrison from Mainland Regional won the pole vault with an 11-1 ¾ clearance, which matched her PR from last winter in a meet at Marietta, Ohio, while she was attending Frostburg. Stockton junior Madelyn Valasek from Shawnee ran 10:28.06 and placed 2nd in the 3,000. Stockton also won the DMR in 12:09.60, 12th-fastest this year in Division 3, with senior Amanda McNally on the 1,200 leg and Valasek anchoring.

Also for Stockton, sophomore Elaina Styer, a transfer from Cornell who won the pentathlon on Saturday, placed 2nd in the high jump at 5-4 ¼.

And Rutgers-Newark senior Fejiro Akiri of Cherokee placed 3rd in the shot with a 39-4 ½ and 4th in the weight at 47-3.

Junior Sunsarai Moore and senior Ashley Armstrong won state titles for Glassboro at the State Group 1 Championships at the Bubble in Toms River Sunday.

Moore won the shot put with a 37-2 ¼ throw, and Armstrong tied her PR of 5-2 and tied for first with Taylor Peters of Butler. Both had two misses before both cleared 5-2 on their first attempt.

They are Glassboro’s first state champions since 2009, when Zenee Gadson won the 55-meter dash in 7.55 and Simohn Miller won the shot at 36-7 ¼.

Glassboro and Clayton were the top South Jersrey schools in Group 1 with 19 points and Schalick was one point behind with 18.

For Clayton, senior Leila Ortiz placed 2nd in both the 55 in 7.55 and the 400 in 1:00.60. Clayton senior Miyana Johnson placed 5th in the high jump at 5-0 and 6th in the 55 with a 7.61 after a 7.52 in the trials.

For Schalick, senior Jordan Hadfield picked up 2nd places in the 1,600 in 5:09.08 and the 3,200 in 11:19.59, and senior Gia Marellacci was 5th in the 400 in 1:01.70.

Haddon Township senior Emersen Levins placed 3rd in the pole vault at 10-0 tying her lifetime best, and junior Casey Birdwell was 6th in the hurdles in a PR 9.19.

Woodstown senior Jaime Deale placed 3rd in the 400 in 1:00.75, Woodbury junior Zaryn Cooper ran 8.70 for 3rd in the hurdles [and 8.68 in the trials], Audubon senior Elizabeth Burtica tied her PR of 10-0 and tied for 4th in the pole vault, West Deptford junior Kayla Romanoski was 5th in the 800 in 2:23.56 and Pennsville senior Megan Morris cleared 9-6 for the 8th straight meet and placed 6th in the vault.

What a monster weekend for Rowan freshman Rajahn Dixon at the New Jersey Athletic Conference meet at the Ott Center in West Philly.

Dixon won the 200 in a meet-record 21.34, he won the 400 in 48.15, 4th-fastest in meet history and he anchored Rowan’s 800-meter relay team, whose 1:25.45 is the fastest in NCAA Division 3 history and 6th-fastest in college track history.

He’s the first Rowan sprinter ever to double the 200 and 400 at an indoor NJAC meet.

Whew.

Rowan, ranked 4th in NCAA Division 3, won its 10th consecutive NJAC title, outscoring 2nd -place TCNJ 278-175. And Dixon didn’t run the 4-by-4 Sunday – Rowan broke the meet record without him – but he will at nationals.

Dixon entered the weekend with PRs of 21.53 at Boston University earlier this month and 49.11 from the Armory in January.

His 21.34 in the 200 broke the meet record by 1-100th of a second. In 2023, Ramapo’s Cheickna Traore – a 2021 Ivory Coast Olympian at 200 meters – ran 21.35. He smashed his own school record of 21.53, which broke a 26-year-old record of 21.56 set at the 1999 NJAC meet at the Armory by Rich Dixon (no relation). He’s also tied with the fastest time in NCAA Division 3 this year. Sam Blaskowski of Wisconsin-La Crosses ran 21.34 last month in a meet in La Crosse.

In the 400, Dixon took nearly a second off his PR, and his 48.15 is also 5th-fastest in Division 3 and 4th-fastest in meet history, behind Dixon’s 47.86 in 2000, a 47.90 by Thomas Hunter of New Jersey City in 2006 and a 47.99 by Sterling graduate Francis Terry of Rowan in 2018. Rowan’s Amara Conte also ran 48.15 in 2023. Conti set Rowan’s school record of 47.21 when he won the 2023 NCAA Division 3 title in Birmingham, Ala.

We wrote about Rowan’s absurd 1:25.45 on Saturday, the fastest 800-meter relay ever run by a Division 3 school. You can read about that performance here, but that’s currently No. 4 in the world and No. 1 among teams with an all-U.S. lineup. Dixon split 20.94 on the anchor leg. Some other highlights of South Jersey athletes from an incredible NJAC meet:

60-METER DASH: Rowan junior Masai Byrd placed 3rd in a hot final that produced three of the 14-fastest times in Division 3 this year. Byrd’s 6.83 broke his own school record of 6.84 Stockton senior Carson Latham from Bordentown PR’d with a 6.91 for 4th place.

200-METER DASH: Rowan sophomore Eli Hendricks from Penns Grove placed 3rd in a PR 21.59 – the No. 15 time in Division 3 – and Latham ran an indoor PR 21.86 for 4th. Byrd was 6th with a PR 22.06.

400-METER DASH: Rowan went 1-2-3-5-6 in the 400, with freshman Luke Halbruner from Ocean City 3rd in 49.36 behind Dixon and Samael Milevoix. Sterling graduate Jarquil Young, a Rowan junior, was 5th in 49.76 and Audubon graduate James Coleman, a senior, was 6th in 50.06.

800-METER RUN: Ocean City graduate Tyler Greene, a Rowan junior, ran 1:57.74 for 3rd in the 800.

MILE: Rutgers-Camden sophomore Jacob Dinerman of Haddon Township ran away from the field over the last 400 meters, closing in 61.14 and crossing the line in 4:11.39. That’s the 2nd-fastest time in meet history, just off the meet-record 4:10.18 set in 2018 by Ramapo’s Jeremy Hernandez. He’s the first NJAC mile winner from Rutgers-Camden. Rowan junior Cole Kolodziej from Washington Township ran 4:24.88 for sixth.

3,000-METER RUN: Rowan senior Joshu Cason, a graduate of Camden County Tech, won his 2nd straight 3,000 title with a 8:35.88, closing in 30.22 and 63.00. Dinerman closed in 27.85 and 60.68 to move up from 5th with 200 meters to go and finished 2nd in 8:41.01. And Timber Creek grad Giancarlo Vega, a Rowan senior, ran 8:41.38 for 3rd.

5,000-METER RUN: Rowan senior Matthew Conway from Haddon Township won in 14:58.93, and Rowan senior Caleb Clevenger from Haddonfield ran 15:25.53 for 6th.

60-METER HURDLES: Rowan freshman Jamir Brown from Riverside ran 7.74 in the trials to break the meet record of 7.92 set two minutes earlier by Rowan junior Kwaku Nkrumah in the previous semifinal. Nkrumah broke his own meet record of 7.93 set last year. Brown’s 7.72 is the 2nd-fastest time ever run in Division 3, behind his own 7.72 back in December. Sterling’s Marquise Young ran 7.95 in the trials and Rowan junior Anais Hughes ran 8.38. Nobody ran as fast in the final, but Brown won the race in 7.94 and Hughes was 5th at 8.41.

HIGH JUMP: Sophomore Jamile Gantt from Paulsboro led a 1-2-3 Rowan sweep with a 6-8 clearane. He had a couple decent attempts at a meet-record 7-0 ¼. Egg Harbor Township’s Ahmad Fogg, a Stockton sophomore, placed 5th at 6-1 ½.

LONG JUMP: Fogg, a transfer from Penn State in his first year at Stockton and his first year of indoor track, won the long jump with a 23-4 on his 1st jump.

TRIPLE JUMP: Fogg jumped an indoor PR 46-10 ¼ to place 3rd in the triple. It was only his second collegiate triple jump competition.

POLE VAULT: No South Jersey medalists in the vault, but Rowan went 1-2-4.

SHOT PUT: Salem High’s Jayden Wright, a junior at TCNJ, placed 2nd with a 50-1 ¼, just one inch off his PR from earlier this year at the Armory. Delsea grad Josh Caudill, a Rowan junior, threw 49-4 ½ on his final attempt to take 4th place. That’s Caudill’s PR with the 16-pound shot.

WEIGHT THROW: TCNJ senior George Agyei-Sam from Lindenwold threw 51-8 ½ for 3rd place in the weight.

800-METER RELAY: A historic race for an all-South Jersey lineup. You can read up on their record-setting race here.

1,600-METER RELAY: Rowan and TCNJ both ran under the meet record of 3:17.04 set in 2018 by Rowan’s Chris Mesiano [Schalick], Justin Bishop [Mainland Regional], Jamil Jackson [Highland] and Francis Terry [Sterling]. Rowan ran 3:16.63 and TCNJ 3:17.05. Sterling Marquis Young led off for Rowan with a 48.34 split, followed by Nana Agyemang [49.23] to Sterling’s Jarquil Young [49.13] to Ocean City’s Luke Halbruner [49.89].

DISTANCE MEDLEY: Rowan ran 10:26.91 for 2nd and Stockton 10:37.40 for 3rd. Rowan ran Ocean City’s Greene on the 1,200, freshman Angel Gonzalez from Triton on the 400, sophomore Colin Patterson from Haddon Heights on the 800 and Kolodziej anchoring. Stockton used senior Joseph deBeaumont from Highland on the 1,200 and freshman Landon Jenter from Eastern on the 800.

HEPTATHLON: Rowan sophomore Anthony Lanteigne from Williamstown placed 3rd in the heptathlon with 3,963 points.

Woodbury senior Marquis Taylor, the state Group 1 champ at 400 meters last spring, won his first three indoor state titles Sunday at the Bubble in Toms River.

Taylor ran 6.46 to win the 55-meter dash and 50.91 to win the 400 at the state Group 1 meet. He’s the first Woodbury sprinter to double the 55 and 400 since 2011, when Darrell Bush won the 55 in 6.59 and the 400 in 50.03.

In the 55, Taylor ran 6.46, the 2nd-fastest time in Group 1 meet history and led four South Jersey sprinters in the top six. Schalick sophomore David Stewart ran 6.68 for 3rd and the Camden duo of juniors Jaiden Steele and Christian Braxton placed 5th and 6th in 6.71 and 6.72.

In the 400, Taylor edge Gloucester County rival Alexander Osayemi, a senior at Clayton, by 5-100ths of a second. Osayemi ran 50.96. Buena junior Yandel Montanez placed 4th in 51.79 and was the top underclassman in the race, and Camden’s Steele ran 52.43 for 6th.

Taylor picked up his 3rd win in the 1,600-meter relay, where he was joined by juniors Shiwoe Varpilah, Elijah Young and Jasir Brown. They ran 3:31.29, edging Woodstown, who ran 3:31.60 with senior Cole Lucas and juniors Karson Chew, Anthony Costello and Joshua Crawford. Audubon made it a 1-2-3 South Jersey finish with the all-underclass quartet of junior Kowie Limbaga, sophomore Evan Calhoun, junior Paul Davis and junior Dylan Gallagher running 3:34.81.

Hasbrouck Heights won the Group 1 title with 40 points, with Glassboro 2nd with 31 ½, Woodebury 3rd with 30 and Woodstown 5th with 22.

Woodstown junior Joshua Crawford won the 800, and you can read about that race here.

Glassboro had three medalists in the high jump, with junior Amari Sabb clearing 6-2 for 2nd and freshmen Moses Robles and Mahki Parker taking 4th and 6th at 6-0 and 5-10. The Bulldogs also got 2nd-place finishes from Ty Blackman in the 1,600 in 4:23.49 and senior Kyle Williams, who PR’d with a 52-7 ¼ in the shot put, and Salem senior Anthony Parker placed 2nd in the hurdles in 7.66.

For Schalick, in addition to Stewart, junior Salvatore Longo cleared 12-0 for the first time indoors or outdoors to place 6th in the pole vault.

Haddon Township senior Jacob George, the Group 1 sectional champ, placed 2nd in the pole vault with a 13-0 clearance, and junior Shaun Maloney ran 2:04.25 for 6th in the 800.

In addition to Crawford, Woodstown junior Jacob Marino ran 10:15.17 for 3rd place in the 3,200. Gateway junior David Houck and Glassboro sophomore Lucas Kudless took 5th and 6th in that 3,200, Houck in 10:21.78 and Kudless rn 10:21.99 for 6th.

Clayton senior Pedro Ibarra threw a lifetime-best 45-5 ½ for 6th in the shot put.

Junior Natalie Dumas won the 400 and 800 and anchored the winning 4-by-4 and the Eastern girls won their first indoor state title Saturday at the Bubble in Toms River.

In the 400, Dumas ran 56.04 to edge sophomore Rhia Randolph of West Orange, last year’s indoor Meet of Champions winner as a freshman at Union Catholic. Randolph was 2nd in 56.24.

In the 800, Dumas ran 2:13.81 and ran away from Manalapan’s Jessica Abbott in what wound up as a pivotal finish in the final team standings.

Manalapan and Eastern both scored 30 points to share the team title. Going into the relay, Manalapan had 30 points and Eastern had 20, so Eastern needed to win the 4-by-4 while Manalapan didn’t score to deliver the team title to the Vikings. Manalapan wound up getting DQ’d in an earlier section but would have had to run 4:07.02 to score and they have a season best of 4:11.78.

Eastern took care of the relay with junior Adriana Marella, senior Samantha Osei-Kyei and senior Jasmine Davies setting up Dumas. Eastern won the 4-by-4 in 4:01.66, finishing eight meters ahead of Kingsway, who was 2nd in 4:02.97.

Ridgewood finished 3rd with 24 points and Washington Township 4th with 18 points. Eastern is the first South Jersey school to win Group 4 since Rancocas Valley in 2017.

For Washington Township, senior Dakota Jones won the hurdles in 8.28 becoming the Minutemaids’ 1st indoor state champ in eight years, since Kami Joi Hickson in the 800 back in 2017.

Junior Cali Lacovara placed 3rd in the pole vault with a 10-6 clearance, matching her indoor PR, and senior Ella Karp placed 5th in the shot put with a 40-7 ¾ throw.

Kingsway’s 2nd-place 4-by-4 team consisted of seniors Jonelle Lewis, senior Camryn Stanard, freshman Noemi Haller and sophomore Norah Brown.

Lewis also placed 6th in the 55 in 7.32 after a PR 7.20 in the trials that is tied for 9th-fastest in Gloucester County history. Haller also placed 6th in the 400 in 59.48.

For Cherokee, junior Alyssa Suriano ran a nearly four-second indoor-outdoor PR of 2:19.95 to place 5th in the 800, junior Madeline Meder ran an indoor PR 11:21.91 for 5th in the 3,200, and freshman Erin Healy ran an 18-second 3,200 PR 11:23.27 for 6th place.

Atlantic County Tech sophomore Brianna Growalt placed 3rd in the hurdles in 8.53.

Also, Rancocas Valley senior Milena Otoo cleared 10-0 for 5th in the pole vault, and Williamstown senior Addison Inge tied for 6th in the high jump with a 5-2 clearance.

Norfolk State sophomore Premier Wynn from Pennsauken led all qualifiers to the 400-meter dash finals at the MEAC Championships Sunday at the Armory.

Wynn ran a season-best 47.32 in the trials, and he’ll be in Lane 5 in the final, which is scheduled for 1:20 p.m. Monday.

Wynn ran within half a second of his 400 PR of 46.82 from last year’s MEAC meet at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Wynn also ran a PR 21.25, the 2nd-fastest qualifying time in the 200. His previous PR was a 21.42 when he placed 5th at last year’s MAAC Championships. The 200 final is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday, so will be a short recovery period before that 200.

Norfolk State is the top seed in the 4-by-4 at 3:07.75, and Wynn is listed as the second leg for the final, which is scheduled for 3:20 p.m. Monday.

Ajani Dwyer posted the fastest qualifying time in the 60-meter dash Sunday at the U.S. Championships at Ocean Breeze.

Dwyer, a Penn State freshman from Washington Township, ran 6.54, lowering his PR from 6.55, which he ran at Bucknell in December. His time is 6th-fastest among U.S. men this year.

Dwyer tied the Penn State school record set by Olympian Cheickna Traore at last year’s Big Ten Championships in Geneva, Ohio.

Running in the first of three semifinal races, Dwyer finished just ahead of 2018 World Championship medalist and 2021 Olympian and Ronnie Baker, who ran 6.57.

According to the World Athletics database, Dwyer’s time equals the 2nd-fastest ever by a U.S. sprinter in the Under-20 age group, behind only D’Angelo Cherry, who ran 6.52 in Boston at the 2009 U.S. Championships. Dwyer, 18, turns 19 in May.

Dwyer’s time is only 1-100th off the fastest time ever run by a New Jersey sprinter over 60 meters. In 1994, Edgewood graduate Dennis Mitchell ran 6.53 in a meet in Stuttgart, Germany.

The 60 final is scheduled for 2:54 p.m. Sunday.

For the first time in 19 years, Woodstown has a state champion. And Joshua Crawford has a county record.

Crawford, a Woodstown junior, ran a lifetime-best 1:59.01 and edged Shore Regional sophomore Brady McHugh by two meters to win the 800 at the state Group 1 championships Sunday at the Bubble in Toms River.

He’s Woodstown’s first indoor state champion since Brendan McDonough won the 800 in 2:00.42 at the 2006 state Group 1 meet at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym.

He broke the Salem County indoor record of 1:59.21 set at 2020 Group 1 states at the Bubble by Schalick’s Greg McGuire.

This is Crawford’s first time under two minutes indoors. His previous PR was 2:01.51 when he won sectionals last weekend. He ran 1:59.49 last spring at Group 1 states in Somerset.

Senior teammate Cole Lucas placed 4th in the same race in 2:02.59, giving the Wolverines 14 points in the 800.

Penns Grove’s Jaymes Dennison set the Salem County outdoor record of 1:52.97 at the 2013 Meet of Champions in South Plainfield. He went on to run 1:47.63 at a meet in Tempe, Ariz., in 2017 as an Iowa State junior. That’s 4th-fastest ever by a South Jersey high school graduate.

Mariah Stephens of Egg Harbor Township popped a long jump lifetime best 19-10 ¼ to win the MAAC title and smash the Rider school record Saturday at the Armory.

Stephens, a Rider senior, jumped 19-10 ¼ on her only legal jump of the competition to win her 11th MAAC individual title.

Her previous best was a 19-7 ½ earlier this month at Ocean Breeze. She broke the school record of 19-8 ¾ set by another Atlantic County jumper, Holy Spirit graduate Asia Young, at the 2018 MAAC championships at the Armory. The only superior jump in Rider history is Raisa Thunig’s outdoor school-record 20-1 ½ in a meet in Lawrenceville in 2023.

Stephens also leads all qualifiers into Sunday’s hurdles final with an 8.60, just off her lifetime-best 8.57 from the prelims at the 2023 MAAC Championships, also at the Armory. That 8.57 is No. 2 in school history behind Sara Gardner’s 8.41 at the 2019 MAAC meet at the Armory.

Stephens also found time to jump in the 60-meter dash trials and PR’d with a 7.60, which is also No. 2 in school history, behind only Tierra Taylor’s 7.57 at the 2017 MAAC meet at the Armory. She’s the No. 3 qualifier in the dash, just ahead of teammate Dylan Giloley, a freshman from Washington Township, who ran 7.67. She’s already No. 4 in school history with her 7.66 from December at the Ott Center. Giloley also advanced in the 200 with a 25.12.

Absegami’s Diamond McLaughlin, a senior at St. Peter’s, ran 57.37 in the 400 trials and is the No. 3 seed going into the final.

In the men’s meet, Rider freshman Damere Lassiter of Glassboro threw 53-9 to place 5th in the weight throw.