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Ajani Dwyer and Yashahya Brown lit up the track to ignite a sizzling day for Washington Township and Sofia Day, Clay Stevens, and Jordan Russell scored huge wins to highlight the action for New Jersey at Wednesday's Ocean Breeze Holiday Festival on Staten Island.
Dwyer and Brown, both seniors, left a lot of smoke on the track.
Dwyer made a remarkable indoor debut when he used a rocket start to propel him to victory in a red hot boys 55-meter dash with a stunning time of 6.33!! That ties Dwyer for the US lead this season, broke the meet record, and is No. 10 in NJ history. Dwyer edged Malachi James of Burlington City, a who ran a US No. 4 time of 6.36, also under the former meet record.
Dwyer also spilt 21.51 as the anchor on the 4x200 as he brought Washington Township across the line first with a US No. 1 time of 1:28.28, which is also No. 9 in NJ history. Junior John Santos led off the 4x200, Brown, ran second, and senior Logan Perez handled the third leg.
Brown continued his torrid start to the season by winning the 55 hurdles in a facility record 7.17!!! Brown ran a US No. 1 and NJ No. 3 all-time 7.13 earlier this month at the NY Armory.
I know you're wondering how close Dwyer, Brown and Washington's 4x200 squad came to the state records!!!
The state record in the 55 dash is 6.26 shared by Damiere Byrd of Timber Creek ( 2011) and Mario Heslop of Franklin (2018). In the 55 hurdles, Brown is chasing the state record of 7.07 set in 2017 by Cory Poole of East Orange. As for the 4x200, Washington Township is certainly within striking distance of the state record of 1:26.90, which was set by Camden in 2004.
Keep a eye on Dwyer, Brown, and Washington's 4x200, who could all make history this season!!!
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Day, Stevens, and Russell also turned in sparkling victories as all three produced personal best.
Day, a junior at Mainland, unleashed a huge kick when she ripped a 31.51 final 200 to rally for the win in the girls invitational 800 with a NJ No. 1/US No. 2 time of 2:13.96. Day, third at the bell, had a previous PR was 2:14.25.
Stevens, a sophomore at Manalapan, also came from behind to win, blasting a 30.68 last lap to erase a 2 second deficit to win the boys invitational 2-mile with a NJ No. 1 time of 9:35.05, which crushes his previous PR of 9:47.45 that he ran last spring in the 3,200.
Russell, a senior at Weehawken, took over the state lead in the high jump by clearing a PR of 6-6 to win on misses. That surpassed his former PR of 6-5 that he made last spring.