Mekhi Stafford torched the track with one of the fastest 100-meter dash times in state history when he finished first on Saturday at the Grand Prix meet in New York.
Stafford, a recent gradate of Ewing High, burned a 10.45 (+1.0 wind) in the Boys' Under-20 Division, which is tied for No. 8 in state history for all conditions and tied for the No. 2 all-time wind-legal performance in NJ history. Stafford's previous PR was the 10.56 he ran to win the 100m at the Meet of Champions earlier this month.
In the Girls' Under-20 100m dash, rising senior Jianna Molin of Hamilton North blasted a PR and NJ No. 5 time of 11.91 (wind legal +1.8) to place second. Molin's previous PR was 11.96 in the trials at the Meet of Champions where she placed third in the final in 12.09.
Looking deeper into the 10.45 by Stafford shows that the only faster wind legal automatic times ever recorded in NJ history than Stafford's 10.45 are the 10.35 (+2.0) by Jamar Ervin of Camden at the 2000 Meet of Champions, and the 10.39 (+.04) that Miles Shuler-Foster of Long Branch ran to finish first at the 2010 Meet of Champions. James Townsend of Holy Cross also ran a wind legal 10.45 (+1.2) at the 2003 Meet of Champions.
The three fastest all conditions 100m times in NJ history are by Danny Johnson NJ of Rahway, who ran 10.30 (+2.2) at the 2001 Meet of Champions, 10.30 (+5.4) by Fitzroy Ledgister of St. Peters Prep at the 2022 New Balance Nationals, and the 10.33 (no wind gauge) that the late Mario Heslop of Franklin ran at the 2019 Central Jersey, Group 4 Championships.