Indoor Nationals Recap: New Balance and Nike
Spring weather may have arrived, but winter track isn’t over yet! Last week, there were two different indoor national championships: New Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston and Nike Indoor Nationals in New York. Qualification standards for these meets can be pretty steep, but the rewards for making it include a party-like atmosphere, awesome photos, cool swag, and a chance to raise your game to the next level by surrounding yourself with national-caliber athletes. Plus a chance to race in whatever uniform you want (looking at you, Notre Dame hurdlers).
Check out the top results from both meets below. And then don’t tune out from winter track just yet! Adidas will host its own national meet in Virginia Meet this week, which should feature a few more Mercer County runners.
See full results from NBNI here and NIN here.
Girls Highlights
Rhianna Scott gets the baton from Jael Gaines going into the 400m leg of Lawrenceville’s SMR at New Balance Nationals Indoor 2025. | Robert Kellert for MileSplit
The Lawrenceville girls SMR team is All-American after taking 3rd place at NBNI! And they did it in spectacular fashion, running 4:03.67 to crush the Mercer County record! Running in the second-fastest heat, the Lawrenceville’s 200m runners blasted to the lead and quickly opened up a big gap, with Sofia Swindell and Jael Gaines combining for an opening 400m of 50.02. Rhianna Scott continued to build on the lead with a 400m split of 58.15, and then Blair Bartlett anchored with a 2:15.50 800m to easily hold off Westford MA for the heat win. That chopped 5 seconds off the county record, which this same quartet had set earlier this season.
Lawrenceville’s girls team is loaded with immense talent, so it’s no surprise that they continue putting together amazing relays. Coming back after their county-record SMR, the Big Red ran a 3:50.88 to win their heat and place 9th overall at NBNI! Sofia Swindell kicked it off with a phenomenal split of 55.58 to give them the lead, Jael Gaines followed that with a 57.94 to continue stretching the field, Yasmin Willie handed off in first place with a 1:00.53 split, and then Rhianna Scott closed it out with a 56.83 in one of her best races ever – complete with fireworks down the homestretch. Those four girls were less than a second off of their own school and county record from earlier this season.
Another local team to shine in the 4x400m at NBNI was WW-P South. Running together in their last indoor race, the Pirates’ quartet of star seniors rose to the occasion and delivered a spectacular performance, taking 25th place in 3:58.79! They crushed their school record by 3 seconds and became just the third Mercer County school to go sub-4:00 in the last 20+ years. Like Lawrenceville, the WW-P South girls went wire-to-wire to win their heat, too. Adama Turay (59.91) opened with a stellar leadoff leg, Saraiah Hoover (1:01.24) and Claire Dumortier (1:00.27) ran very strong to hold the narrow lead through the middle legs, and Anastasia Kudin (57.37) left everyone in the dust with a blistering anchor leg.
Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) had an impressive and busy weekend! She started on Friday in Boston for NBNI, where she finished 22nd in the two mile with a 10:31.54 – her PR in a girls-only race – and then came back a few hours later to anchor Lawrenceville’s All-American SMR team with a 2:15.50 800m. Two days later, she travelled up to New York for NIN, where she ran 4:52.53 to finish 15th in the mile. That all caps a historic season where she finished NJ #2 in the 1600m, NJ #2 in the 3200m, and NJ #8 in the 800m. She’s earned a nice break before spring track!
Allison Lee (WW-P North) already holds county records and course records in XC, and now she’s added her name to the winter track records list! In the 5000m at NBNI, she placed 11th in the Championship 5000m with a time of 17:13.10, which smashed the prior county record of 18:01 by Katie Kellner (WW-P South) in 2008. And Lee wasn’t the only one under that old record: Princeton’s Kajol Karra ran 17:42.36 to take 6th in her 5000m section at NBNI.
More Girls Results
Girls 200m. Sofia Swindell (Lawrenceville) ran a season’s best of 24.13 to place 11th at NBNI. That lifts her to NJ #4 this winter!
Girls 400m. Rhianna Scott (Lawrenceville) tied her PR of 57.98 in the 400m, and Jael Gaines (Lawrenceville) improved on her season’s best with a 58.36.
Girls 800m. Alaina Sabo (Notre Dame) impressed in the freshman 800m at NBNI, where she used a very strong last 200m to win her heat in a 3-second PR of 2:18.80. That time was good for 10th overall, and it also moves her up to #3 in Mercer County.
Girls Mile. Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley) ran 5:04.08 for the full mile to place 3rd in her heat and 12th overall in the Emerging Elite division at NIN. That’s a new PR for the sophomore.
Girls Shot Put. Anna Casciano (Hun) threw 39-3 to take 21st place at NIN in the junior’s first nationals meet.
Girls Pentathlon. Peddie’s Tessa Hughes had a great day at NIN, where she placed 7th in the pentathlon with a school-record 3329 points. She set PRs in the 60mH (9.19), 800m (2:28.21), and shot put (24-6.25), and she came very close to her PRs in the high jump (5-4.5) and long jump (16-10).
Girls DMR. WW-P North’s DMR team (Zui Chinchalkar, Brie Davis-Owens, Sara Secora, and Allison Lee) finished 18th in the country with a 12:15.22 at NBNI. That’s one of the fastest times by any Mercer County team in recent years, and it’s easily #1 in the county this year.
Girls 4xMile. Mercer County has some of the fastest distance girls in the state, so it’s no surprise that three different schools ran great 4xMile relays this weekend! Princeton (Phoenix Roth, Grace Hegedus, Rosemary Warren, and Kajol Karra) led the way with a 21:37.66 for 12th at NBIN. Not far behind in the same heat was WW-P North (Zui Chinchalkar, Vivian Ma, Allison Lee, and Sara Secora) in 21:54.79 for 16th. Meanwhile, Hopewell Valley (Elsie Rey-de-Castro, Claire Dumont, Maddie LaChance, and Sydney Young) ran 22:18.15 for 5th place at NIN.
Boys Highlights
Notre Dame’s AJ Crawford, Christopher Young, Zamir Jones, and Bryce Marsh took 3rd place in the shuttle hurdles relay at New Balance Indoor Nationals 2025. | Courtesy of Coach Mickey Solujich
Notre Dame brought home four All-Americans after AJ Crawford, Zamir Jones, Bryce Marsh, and Christopher Young took 3rd place in the NBNI shuttle hurdles with a time of 30.45! That caps an incredible season for the Irish hurdlers. With five boys in the top 13 on the Mercer County 55mH leaderboard – these four boys plus Nolan Schmitz – Notre Dame’s squad is both talented and consistent. They’ve run the shuttle hurdles five times and have either won or broken 30.5 every time. They earned their crowns on Sunday!
In the boys shot put, Sean Wilton (Princeton) capped his winter season with another throw of 60+ feet, going 60-6.75 to take 8th at NIN. He ended his season at NJ #5, improved his PR by 5 feet, and is poised for an exciting spring campaign.
Matin Mahmoud (Lawrence) made the most of his trip to Boston with a huge triple jump of 46-7.5! That’s #1 in Mercer County, #5 in New Jersey, and a new school record at Lawrence.
More Boys Results
Boys 60mH. Christopher Young (Notre Dame) ran a PR of 8.13 to finish 27th at NBNI. That time is at least as impressive as his 55mH PR of 7.61 from the Meet of Champions. Over at NIN, Tristan Jusino Lansing (Lawrence) took 29th place with a 8.31 in his first 60mH race.
Boys 400m. Gavin Alvarez (Allentown) won his 400m section at NIN with a 50.33, which was good for 11th in the Emerging Elite division. He also ran a 7.24 in his first-ever 60m race.
Boys 800m. Ayodele Joa-Griffith (Lawrenceville) trimmed 0.1 off his county-leading PR with a 1:56.05 at NBNI. In the freshman race, Agrim Jha (WW-P North) set a PR of 2:05.72.
Boys 1600m. Agrim Jha (WW-P North) placed 18th in the freshman mile at NBNI with a PR of 4:30.60, which makes him #3 in Mercer County this winter.
Boys SMR. Lawrenceville (Tolu Olatunji, Arunav Sarkar, Amari Akakpo, and Adele Joa-Griffith) run 3:38.91, just about equalling their season’s best which was already #1 in Mercer County.
Boys DMR. Lawrenceville (Arunav Sarkar, Amari Akakpo, Naren Maharana, and Tolu Olatunji) ran 10:59.18 to become the first Mercer County team to go under 11:00 this season.