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Lilly Shapiro continued her red hot 2021 outdoor season with a New Jersey state 1600m record on Wednesday at Bob Roggy Stadium in Holmdel, NJ.
The Colts Neck junior crossed the line at 4:40.15, after pacing from teammate Matt Bogdan, during the seeded section of Holmdel Twilight's Royal Rumble.
The performance took down the 1600m, not including converted miles, state record of 4:41.61 held by Josette Norris since 2013. Norris ran that to win the NJSIAA Meet of Champions. This also moves Shapiro to US No. 2 on the season.
Shapiro came through the first 400m at 69.8, the 800m 2:21.0, and 1200m 3:32.0.
The performance is only behind Danielle Tauro's 4:39.25 mile (4:37.45c) performance from 2006 at Nike Outdoor Nationals on the all-time 1600m/mile converted list.
There were plenty of fast girls in the seeded heat but also the combined races leading up to the main event.
Cate DeSousa continued her own PR campaign with an impressive 4:53.19 to move to NJ No. 2. Nicole Lipieta, 4:57.63, and Lucy Afanasewicz, 4:59.81, also broke five minutes.
On the boys side we saw what looked like a time trial from junior Kyle Rakitis of Kingsway, who seemingly shot out of a cannon to run a Gloucester County record 4:10.15. He left the field behind early and didn't look back as he put together splits of 62.5, 2:05.7, and 3:09.3 before closing in 60.8.
After this run, Rakitis, who dropped his PR by 7-plus seconds, now has his eyes on running under 4:10 by the end of the season, and taking a shot at the Meet of Champions title.
The performance by Rakitis broke the 42 year-old Gloucester County record of 4:11.7 (converted to 4:10.24 for 1,600) that Mike Martini of Gateway ran in 1979, and moves him up to NJ No. 2 on the season behind the 4:06.25 clocked by Jackson Braddock at the Ocean County Championships last Friday
Rakitis also cracks the top 30 in the US this season.
Also running well was Ethan Hood of Holmdel at 4:23.72, Ryan Johnson of Colts Neck 4:24.16, and Joshua Thaler of Timber Creek 4:24.97.
The meet also started off with a bang, in the girls 4x400m Holmdel ran to a school record 3:57.50 and moved up to NJ No. 2 on the season. The team closed out the relay riding a 54.5 anchor from Sydney Goldson.
In the boys 4x400m Rumson-Fair Haven took the win running 3:26.11. They already rank NJ No. 7 thanks to their Monmouth County winning 3:24.82 just last week.
