Results of Rising Stars Invit | Results of Cherokee Night of 3,200's | Photos from Cherokee
Holy Smokes!
What a day of distance racing across New Jersey on Thursday!!
One of the coolest things that has happened in the state over recent years is the smaller weekday invitationals that have multiplied, which are set up to give athletes and relay teams a chance to drop big PR's and achieve qualifying times or marks.
We saw that once again on Thursday when some of NJ's best hit the track and threw down eye-popping performances.
At the Rahway Rising Stars Invitational at Rahway River Park, Harvard-bound Mary Malague led a 1-2-3 finish for Metuchen in the girls 1,600 with a monster PR and NJ No. 1 time of 4:50.54, which is a school record. The previous Metuchen record of 4:57.05 was set when Rachel Suss win the Group 1 title in 2015.
Malague's previous PR of 5:10.41 came when she was second at the GMC Championships last spring. Malague, who plays basketball in the winter, finished fifth in the 3,200 at the Meet of Champions last June in 10:50.76
Caroline Schleif was second in 5:05.68 and Sara Lignell was third in 5:36.36 to give Metuchen the sweep!!! Metuehen can do a lot of damage in the DMR at the Penn Relays if they get accepted. Metuchen ran 12:02.82 indoors to place third at the Nike Nationals. The Penn Relays will accept updated 4x800 and DMR times until this Sunday, and will announce the qualifiers for those races this Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a few hours later and several miles away, there were lots of hot times dropped at Cherokee's Night of 3,200's, including the two fastest girls times in the state this season, and a 12 guys under 9:30!!!!
In a matchup of the pair of All-State distance runners in the state, Nicole Clifford of Cherokee, who is headed to Oklahoma, ran 10:46.71, and Kent Place junior Lindsay Hausman was second among girls in 10:49.40 in the mixed race.
The times by Clifford and Hausman are the two fastest girls times in the state this season.
Clifford's 10:46.71 is a PR of nearly 10 seconds. Her previous best was 10:55.58 at the Bennett Center in January. Hausman, second in the 3,200 at the Meet of Champions last spring, owns a 3,200 PR of 10:45.25 that she ran to win the State Non-Public A title this past indoor season.
In case you are wondering, Cherokee, which could have run either the 4x800 or the DMR at the Penn Relays, has chosen the 4x800. They ran 9:07.27 to place fourth in the 4x800 at the New Balance Nationals last month.
On the boys side, Haddonfield teammates, junior George Andrus (9:12.32) and senior Seth Clevenger (9:12.99) went 1-2, and Peyton Shute of Woodbury was third in 9:15.79. Those are the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 fastest times run in the state this season. Only Amiri Whittle of Hackensack has run faster this season (9:03.00 at the Arcadia Invit.).
Shute's 9:15.79 is a 19 second PR, and is the fastest 3,200 run a sophomore from NJ since Devin Hart of Point Pleasant Boro ran 9:05.49 to finish first at the 2017 Meet of Champions.