Weekend Highlights: Bartlett Crushes 3K, Swindell Double-PRs
There’s no better way to kick off winter break than with a track meet! Here’s which Mercer County schools were racing where this weekend:
Bishop Loughlin Games. This two-day meet at Ocean Breeze primarily attracts New York teams, but Peddie, Pennington, and Princeton were three of the few New Jersey teams to join in. Full results here. Now updated with results from the boys events on Sunday.
JAMBAR Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational. Lawrenceville competed in this large, competitive meet at the newly resurfaced (and blue) Armory in New York City. Full results here.
Bill Bruno Holiday Classic. Nottingham was one of 32 schools to race this meet at the Bubble in Toms River. Full results here.
SJTCA #4. This installment of the meet series was held at the brand new Ott Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which Hopewell Valley got its first look at. Full results here.
Below are some notable Mercer County performances from those meets.
Boys Results
Boys 55m. At Bill Bruno, Nkemakolam Uduma (Nottingham) ran a PR of 6.85 to qualify for the final and get 8th place. His teammate Tellon Koduah was 12th in 6.92.
Boys 600m/800m. Mohamed Toure (Nottingham) won the 800m at Bill Bruno with an indoor PR of 2:03.97. Update: Baker Pott (Peddie) took 7th in the Bishop Loughlin 600m, running 1:25.09. Most running equivalency calculators have that comparable to an 800m of 1:59 or so.
Boys 1600m/Mile. Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley) finished 5th in 4:39, a new indoor PR. His teammate Finnegan Curley got 10th in 4:50, and Colin Vickery was 15th in 4:52. In the JAMBAR mile, Mohamed Mohamed (Lawrenceville) ran 4:45.90, and his teammate Bastian Bocklage ran a PR of 4:49.30.
Ian Borges (Peddie) jumps at the Bishop Loughlin Games. | Derrick Dingle for MileSplit
Boys Jumps. At SJTCA, Joseph Dunbar (Hopewell Valley) went 18-1.5 for 12th in the long jump and 37-9 for 10th in the triple jump. Those were both indoor PRs for him. Update: At Bishop Loughlin, Ian Borges (Peddie) won the triple jump with an opening jump of 44-9.75. He also did the long jump and broke 20’ for the first time, jumping 20-0.5 for 4th place.
Boys Shot Put. Ernest Gaykai (Nottingham) took 4th at Bill Bruno with a toss of 43-11. At JAMBAR, Joshua Witherspoon (Lawrenceville) threw 43-5.25 for 6th. Update: Sean Wilton (Princeton) won the shot put at Bishop Loughlin with a throw of 59-2.25, his second PR in five days. That’s #11 in the United States! Wilton also did the weight throw for the first time, getting 3rd in 44-8.5. Parker Hamilton (Peddie) took 6th in the shot put with a throw of 47-3.
Boys 4x800m. The Hopewell Valley boys took 7th at SJTCA in 9:07.
Girls Results
Girls 55m. At Bishop Loughlin, Foluke Oladeji (Peddie) won the Freshman Girls 55m in 7.51, a very fast debut at that distance! Her teammate Madeline Hughes was 4th in the same freshman race, running 7.88. At Bill Bruno, Nottingham sophomore Gabriella Allen dropped her PR by more than 0.1 and ran 7.81 for 9th overall, barely missing out on making the finals. Her teammate Ty’Onna Johnson was 15th in 7.92. Pennington’s Layla Griffin ran 8.16 at Bishop Loughlin for 16th in the sophomore race.
Girls 55mH. At JAMBAR, Sofia Swindell (Lawrenceville) took 5th in 8.21, trimming 0.01 off her PR. That time is #2 in the state this season and moves her into a tie for 5th-fastest ever from Mercer County! At Bishop Loughlin, Tessa Hughes (Peddie) broke her own school record of 8.53 twice: she ran 8.47 in the prelims and then 8.39 in the finals for 2nd place! At SJTCA, Gwyneth Denham (Hopewell Valley) finished 15th in 9.95, breaking 10 for the first time (after running 10.01 twice!).
Girls 200m. In the JAMBAR 200m, Jael Gaines (Lawrenceville) did the 200m and ran 26.38. At SJTCA, Autumn Carter (Hopewell Valley) doubled back from getting silver in the 400m to run a 200m PR of 26.87 for 6th place.
Sofia Swindell (Lawrenceville) comes down the stretch in 3rd place in the 300m at the JAMBAR Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
Girls 300m. In the JAMBAR 300m, Sofia Swindell (Lawrenceville) ran a very quick 38.21 to take 3rd place. That’s the fastest 300m time ever recorded by a Mercer County girl, bettering the record of 38.79 set by Wendy Vereen (Trenton) in 1984. Rhianna Scott (Lawrenceville) also set a 300m PR of 40.76 for 14th place. At Bishop Loughlin, Tessa Hughes (Peddie) ran a great race to get 3rd in the varsity 300m race with a PR of 41.07. Her teammates Foluke Oladeji and Madeline Hughes took 2nd and 5th in the freshman 300m race.
Girls 400m. Autumn Carter (Hopewell Valley) took 2nd out of 68 girls at SJTCA in 59.49, which is a new indoor PR.
Girls 1600m. Elsie Rey-de-Castro (Hopewell Valley) took 6th at SJTCA in 5:32.14, and her teammate Maddie LaChance finished just a step behind her in 5:32.53.
Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) pushes to the line to win the 3000m at the JAMBAR Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
Girls 3000m. Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) absolutely crushed the 3000m at JAMBAR, winning with a PR and meet record of 9:32.29. The race went out fast, with her and Sophia McInnes (Bayport Blue Point) – one of the best runners in New York – going out in 3:05 for the first 1000m and 5:00 for the first 1600m. Just before the 2000m mark, Bartlett took the lead and quickly gapped McInnes, eventually winning by five seconds. According to MileSplit, Bartlett’s time is the 2nd-fastest indoor 3000m time ever by a New Jersey girl. It’s equivalent to a 3200m time of roughly 10:13, which would also be #2 indoors all-time in New Jersey, even counting two-mile races!
Girls Jump. At JAMBAR, Rhianna Scott (Lawrenceville) took 4th with a jump of 17-4. At SJTCA, Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley) jumped 4-10 to get 3rd, giving her a new indoor PR. Her Hopewell Valley teammate Erin Krakovski was 9th in 4-6.
Girls Shot Put. Catalina Holliday (Nottingham) continued her dominant start to the season by winning the shot put at Bill Bruno with a throw of 40-2. That’s already her third time over 40’ this season. At SJTCA, Uchenna Obidike (Hopewell Valley) took 5th in 30-7. Anna Casciano (Hun) won the Garfield HS Shot Put Invitational #2 meet with a throw of 37-0.
Girls 4x800m. The Hopewell Valley girls (Lizzy Eckle, Claire Dumont, Sydney Young, and Clara Mayer) won the 4x800m at SJTCA in 10:03. That’s the 3rd-fastest indoor 4x800m in Mercer County in the last five years.