Prep States 2025 Recap
Public schools aren’t the only ones peaking for championship season – it was Prep States this week, too! Lawrenceville’s Tsai Fieldhouse hosted the NJISAA Championships this year, which divided prep schools into two classes based on size. Lawrenceville, Peddie, and Hun competed in Class A, while Pennington, Princeton Day, and Stuart Country Day ran in Class B.
First off, congrats to Lawrenceville for sweeping the boys and girls Class A championships! The boys team in particular stepped up big time; they were a distant 6th last year, so they made massive improvements this year. This was the first time Lawrenceville swept since 2022, which also happens to be when they last hosted the meet. So home field advantage – or the motivation to defend their home turf – has been good to them!
Check out some of the top results below.
Girls Results
Girls Team Scores. Lawrenceville dominated the Class A competition, scoring 138 points to Oak Knoll’s 91. The Big Red took 1st or 2nd (or both) in every event except one. Peddie finished third with 47 points.
Girls 55m. After cruising through the prelims with an 8.12 – a time only three other girls in NJ have run this season – Sofia Swindell (Lawrenceville) blasted an incredible time of 7.97 to win the finals! That’s NJ #2 and US #13 this winter! It’s also #2 in Mercer County history, second only to the 7.93 that Wendy Vereen (Trenton) ran back in 1984. And considering the trajectory that Swindell is on – she came into this season with a PR of 8.23 and has now PR’d in the hurdles in four straight meets – she’s definitely a threat to break that record, too.
Tessa Hughes (Peddie), who is also one of the top hurdlers in the state, ran great times of 8.44 in the prelims and 8.53 in the finals, but she had to settle for 2nd place behind Swindell’s historic run. Rebecca Streeter (Lawrenceville) took 5th place with a big PR of 9.62. In the Class B race, Natalia Soffer (Princeton Day) cut over 0.2 off her PR to take 4th in 10.41.
Girls 55mH. If her record-setting 55mH race wasn’t enough, Sofia Swindell (Lawrenceville) also ran a blistering 55m dash. To be precise, she ran two blistering dashes: her 7.15 in the prelims trimmed .01 off her PR – moving her to NJ #10 this season – and then she backed it up with a 7.18 to win the finals. And even with Swindell’s swift time, her classmates Lexie Koch (Lawrenceville) and Jalia Dublin (Lawrenceville) finished impressively close to her! Koch finished 2nd in 7.32, which is a new PR by .02. Dublin, who is in her first season of winter track and has never raced a 55m before, had a great debut of 7.36 for 3rd place, which puts her at a tie for #4 in Mercer County this season.
Girls 200m. Lexie Koch (Lawrenceville) placed 2nd in 25.69, just barely being edged out by Regan Moore (Oak Knoll). Tessa Hughes (Peddie) was close behind in 25.87 for 3rd place. Rhianna Scott (Lawrenceville, 4th in 26.45) and Jalia Dublin (Lawrenceville, 5th in 26.72) gave the Big Red three scorers in the 200m.
Girls 400m. The Lawrenceville girls took three of the top four places in the 400m. Rhianna Scott (Lawrenceville) won it by almost a second, running 1:00.34. Jael Gaines (Lawrenceville) was 3rd in 1:01.32, followed by Yasmin Willie (Lawrenceville) in 4th with a 1:02.69.
Girls 800m. Although Danya Spoor (Oak Knoll) ran away with the win in the 800m, Rory Laubach (Lawrenceville) and Matilda Kardhashi (Peddie) staged a nice battle for 2nd place. Laubach took the head-to-head win, 2:26.11 to 2:26.50, though Kardhashi got the nice consolation prize of a 2-second PR, even after doubling back from the 1600m. Lane Firestone (Lawrenceville) squeaked under 2:30 for the first time, running 2:29.99 for 5th. In Class B, Fatima El-Banna (Stuart Country Day) ran 2:35.86 to place 5th and score some points for Stuart Country Day.
Girls 1600m. Coming just a few days after her county-record run at the Millrose Games, Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) was back on the track for another 1600m. This time, she had to settle for 2nd place against Regan Moore (Oak Knoll), but she still ran an outstanding time of 4:54.68. Courtney Cane (Peddie) took 3rd place in 5:05, another great time. Matilda Kardhashi (Peddie) ran 5:31.94 for 6th place.
Girls 3200m. Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) just continues dropping incredible times. Here, she crushed the 3200m in 10:29.59 – that’s the US #2 time this season! And it came just an hour or so after running a 4:53 1600m! It’s also #2 all-time in Mercer County, second only to the 10:22 that Charlotte Bednar (Lawrenceville) ran in 2020. Considering that Bartlett came within 7 seconds of that on the back half of an impressive double – and considering that her 9:32 3000m from earlier this season is arguably even better than a 10:22 3200m – we’re definitely going to be on record watch when nationals roll around next month!
Girls 4x400m. The Lawrenceville girls didn’t go all-out in the 4x400m at this meet, but they still took 2nd place with an impressive 4:05.69, which is faster than any other team in Mercer County this season so far.
Girls Shot Put. Anna Casciano (Hun) uncorked a huge throw of 40-11.5 – that’s a PR by almost 10 inches, and it moves the junior up to #11 in New Jersey this winter! Olivia Allison (Lawrenceville) took 2nd in 30-3, followed by Aubrey Fraasch (Peddie) in 3rd with a throw of 29-6.5.
Girls Jumps. Audrey Cheng (Lawrenceville) won the pole vault in 11-0, and Tessa Hughes (Peddie) placed 2nd in the high jump with a 5-2.
Boys Results
Boys Team Scores. Lawrenceville won the Class A championship in a nailbiter – their 77 points were enough to top Seton Hall Prep by just 1 point! (They owe some thanks to the Peddie 4x400m team for running a school record to outlean Seton Hall in the final event!) Pennington had a good meet in Class B, finishing 3rd with 38 points, just one point out of 2nd place.
Boys 55m. Tahmere Brown (Pennington) won the Class B 55m dash in 6.64, giving the freshman his first of what will likely be many prep state championships! Pennington actually had two other young runners run great times and place in the top 5. Sophomore King Liu (Pennington) got 3rd in 6.91 and freshman Tenesie Taylor (Pennington) took 5th in 6.92, with both boys running nice PRs in the final. In Class A, Avery Radom (Hun) took 2nd place in 6.72, just about equalling his PR. Aiden Lee (Lawrenceville) got 8th place after running a big PR of 6.88 to squeak into the final, where he backed that time up with another 6.89. Luke Chon (Peddie) was just milliseconds behind, taking 10th place in 6.90.
Boys 55mH. In a very tight 55mH final, Corey Woodson (Lawrenceville) placed 3rd in 7.94, just barely ahead of Jelani Cine (Peddie) in 7.96. Aj Diallo (Lawrenceville) was next in 8.05 for 5th place.
Boys 200m. Jelani Cine (Peddie) ran a PR of 23.14 to win the Class A championship! His teammate, Ian Borges (Peddie) also ran a solid PR to grab 5th place in 23.81. Tahmere Brown (Pennington) ran 23.51 to take 2nd place in the Class B race.
Boys 400m. Luke Chon (Peddie) placed 2nd in the Class A 400m with a time of 52.51. Amari Akakpo (Lawrenceville) ran a PR of 53.20 to finish 6th and score a valuable point for Lawrenceville. In the Class B race, Seamus Manning (Pennington) ran 54.51 for 5th place, to go along with his 6th place in the 200m.
Boys 800m. Ayodele Joa-Griffith (Lawrenceville) took 2nd in 1:58.41. Behind him, Baker Pott (Peddie) and Dylan Patel (Peddie) finished together in 2:02.26 and 2:02.53 for 3rd and 4th. That was a nice season’s best for Patel and moved him to #5 in Mercer County. Luca Romanelli (Peddie) also had a great race and won a tight battle for 6th place, PR’ing by over a second in 2:05.26.
Boys 1600m. Last week, Owen Eldridge (Lawrenceville) was in an exciting one-on-one duel for the win at MAPLs, and he ended up 2nd in a PR of 4:24. This week, Eldridge found himself in the same situation, but he flipped the script and took the win with another PR of 4:22.16! That was two seconds ahead of Declan Kelly (Oratory Prep), and it’s the senior’s third straight meet under 4:30. A little further back, Dylan Patel (Peddie) won his own duel for 3rd place, setting a PR of 4:37.01. Mohamed Mohamed (Lawrenceville) also ran a PR of 4:40.74 to finish 6th place.
Boys 3200m. Owen Eldridge (Lawrenceville) doubled back from his great 1600m race to also claim the victory in the 3200m! His 9:48.02 gave him the win by 9 seconds. Taksh Gupta (Lawrenceville) got 4th place in 10:19, and Bastian Bocklage (Lawrenceville) was close behind in a PR of 10:23.97 for 5th place. Freshman Christopher Freeland (Pennington) PR’d ran 11:19.76 – his fourth straight PR in the 3200m – to win the Class B race! Sophomore Jasper Mackey (Princeton Day), competing in his first track meet ever, ran 11:59.37 to score 4 points for the Panthers.
Boys 4x400m. In one of the most exciting races of the day, the Peddie boys (Dasyer Bullock, Jelani Cine, Baker Pott, and Dylan Patel) capped off the meet with a narrow win in the 4x400m! Their time of 3:28.55 was a new school record – over two seconds faster than the prior mark that they set last week – and it took every bit of that record-setting effort to win the race by just 0.06 over Seton Hall. Lawrenceville also ran well, taking 3rd place in a season’s best of 3:32.39.
Boys Jumps. Aslan Aksu (Lawrenceville) cleared 13-0 to tie his PR and win by two feet. Ayo Britto (Lawrenceville) jumped 6-2 to win the high jump.
Boys Shot Put. Parker Hamilton (Peddie) took 2nd place in the shot put with a throw of 50-7, his second-longest throw ever. Joshua Witherspoon (Lawrenceville) threw 44-5 to take 5th place.