SJTCA #18 and Garden State Invitational Recap
In addition to recent championships like sectionals and prep states, there were two other good meets this past week where Mercer County athletes got to show off their championship-season fitness.
SJTCA #18. Notre Dame was one of the only local schools to not have sectionals or prep states these past two weeks, but they made up for it by bringing a fast squad to a very competitive SJTCA meet on Monday at Ocean Breeze. Full results here.
Garden State Invitational. On Friday, Ocean Breeze also hosted the Garden State Track Club’s very large invitational, which attracts tons of schools (and clubs) from NJ and neighboring states. Princeton and Lawrence were two of those schools. Full results here.
Catch some of this week’s best performances in each event below.
Girls Results
Girls 55m. At SJTCA, Isabella Daley (Notre Dame) was 8th in 7.46, shaving 0.01 off her PR. At the Garden State Invitational, Samya Jenkins (Lawrence) took 13th overall in 7.50.
Girls 200m. Isabella Daley (Notre Dame) doubled back from setting a 55m PR to run a big season’s best of 26.72 in the SJTCA 200m, winning her heat and placing 20th overall.
Girls 800m. At SJTCA, Alaina Sabo (Notre Dame) got 4th place with a time of 2:25.15, which was a big PR in the open 800m for the freshman. At the Garden State Invitational, Lena Murray (Princeton) finished 13th in 2:25.36, with Rachel Xin (Princeton) just a second behind in 2:26.57 for 15th. That’s a slight PR for Xin, her second PR in just four days. Lawrence also put two girls in the top 30: Slavina Dusichka placed 23rd after going out hard and hanging on for a nice PR of 2:30.06, and Izzy Meth ran 2:32.87 to get 30th and set her second PR of the day.
Girls 1600m. Just four days after winning the 1600m at sectionals, Kajol Karra (Princeton) ran even faster at the Garden State Invitational to get 7th place in 5:09.93. That’s her first time going sub-5:10, indoors or out. Izzy Meth (Lawrence) also ran very well and took 17th place in 5:21.86, which was a big PR and tied the Lawrence indoor school record! Princeton’s Rosemary Warren and Sevanne Knoch both PR’d by 5+ seconds, with Warren 29th in 5:30.26 and Knoch 34th in 5:33.77.
Phoenix Roth (Princeton) cruises in the final laps of her 3200m at the Garden State Invitational. | Jason Timochko for MileSplit
Girls 3200m. Phoenix Roth (Princeton) had an incredible race in the Garden State Invitational 3200m, taking 2nd place in 11:12.96. That cut almost 10 seconds off her PR and lifted her to NJ #22 this winter. And the fact that she closed her last 200m in a blistering 35.6 – even faster than almost everyone in the 1600m – suggests that she’s got more even in store.
Girls 4x200m. The 4x200m qualifying standard for the Eastern States Championships is 1:50, a mark that only two Mercer County teams had run before Friday. But in back-to-back heats at the Garden State Invitational, Lawrence and Princeton ran huge season’s bests to slip just hundredths under that cutoff! Lawrence (Samya Jenkins, Sasha Glover, Faith Jasper, and Soraya Parks) ran 1:49.90 to hit the standard and finish 14th overall. Princeton (Maddie Hamlin, Simone Henriques, Kacey Howes, and Lena Hamilton) cut it even closer, running 1:49.96 to book their ticket to Eastern States next month.
Girls Jumps. Ngozi Okeke-Agulu (Princeton) jumped 15-7.5 at the Garden State Invitational to place 1st in her flight and 11th overall.
Boys Results
Boys 55m. Aldric Crawford (Notre Dame) ran 6.72 for 7th in the SJTCA 55m, just a few hundredths off his season best.
Boys 55mH. Tristan Jusino Lansing (Lawrence) took 4th place at the Garden State Championship with a quick 7.68, his second-fastest time ever. Alexander Nikolov (Lawrence) set a PR of 8.23 for 21st place. At SJTCA, Christopher Young (Notre Dame) placed 3rd in 7.70, which moves him up to NJ #23. It’s also a PR by 0.02, meaning Young has PR’d in every single hurdles final this year, which is very impressive given the times he’s been running. Zamir Jones (Notre Dame) matched his PR of 8.02 to take 2nd in his heat and 9th overall.
Boys 200m. Kyle Carr (Princeton) won his heat at the Garden State Invitational in 23.51, placing 34th overall. Ben Gitai (Princeton), who ran some very fast times earlier this season but then hadn’t raced since January 17, returned to action with a 23.97.
Notre Dame’s Christopher Young (first) and Aldric Crawford (second) dig deep in the final meters of the 400m at SJTCA #18. | RunningWorksPics for MileSplit
Boys 400m. The Notre Dame sprinters have generally been focusing on the hurdles and the 55m dash this winter, but a couple of them got the chance to let loose in a 400m at SJTCA, and their strength certainly showed! Christopher Young (Notre Dame) won the meet in 50.50 – that’s #2 in Mercer County this winter and it’s over 0.5 seconds faster than his outdoor PR. Aldric Crawford (Notre Dame) was right behind him in 51.00 for 2nd place, also chopping over a half-second off his PR. Watch out for these two in the 400mH this spring. At the Garden State Invitational, Andrew Foreman (Princeton) ran 52.93 to PR by exactly 1 second.
Boys 800m. At SJTCA, Deagan Hopkins (Notre Dame) rode the fast heat of the 800m to a massive PR of 2:03.97, over seven seconds faster than what the sophomore ran at the CVC Championships. He’s just the 8th Mercer County runner to go under 2:04 in the open 800m this season. At the Garden State Invitational, Harrison Knoch (Princeton) and Saboor Qureshi (Princeton) set PRs of 2:06.79 and 2:07.62.
Boys 1600m. At the Garden State Invitational, Braedyn Capone (Princeton) unleashed a blazing kick to finish in 4:41.06, which crushed his PR by over 7 seconds.
Boys 4x800m. Notre Dame took 3rd place in the 4x400m with a run of 8:42.20. The top two teams, Morris Hills and Morris Knolls, were both pretty far ahead, but the Irish won a tight battle with three or four other teams for 3rd place.
Boys Jumps. Matin Mahmoud (Lawrence) jumped his second-longest triple jump ever, 45-11, to win the Garden State Invitational by just 1.75 inches! He set that mark on his first attempt but still went on to break 45’ four more times, including a 45-9.25 on his last attempt. In the high jump, Bryce Marsh (Notre Dame) matched his PR with a high jump of 6-2 to take 2nd place at SJTCA, and Ellington Hinds (Princeton) equalled his PR of 5-10 to place 11th at the Garden State Invitational. Aldric Crawford (Notre Dame) took 4th in the SJTCA long jump in 20-3.25. He’s one of just three Mercer County boys to jump over 20’ this winter.
Boys Shot Put. Sean Wilton (Princeton) continued his winning streak at the Garden State Invitational, this time taking down a couple of New York’s best shot putters with his throw of 59-1.5. At SJTCA, Jeylon Billups (Notre Dame) and Cameron Bailey (Notre Dame) both threw within a couple inches of their PRs to place in the top 10. Billups was 6th in 45-7.25 and Bailey was 8th in 43-8.25.