The Rumson girls completed a unique and amazing triple on Saturday.
It started on Jan. 24 when Rumson won the Monmouth County Championship at the Bennett Center in Toms River. Six days later on Jan. 30, the Bulldogs captured the Shore Conference title at the Bennett Center. Both local championships were filled with record-setting performances on the way to runaway victories.
After all that racing, Rumson returned to the track two days later and completed the trifecta, dropping a DMR bomb at the Ott Center in Philadelphia this past Saturday, stopping the clock at 12:00.97 to finish first at the Penn Relays Winter Showcase and take over the national lead this season!!!
Two major team titles and a US No. 1 DMR all within nine days!! That's one heck of a hat trick!!!
Rumson's 12:00.97, which shattered its school record by 18 seconds, is No. 15 in NJ history, qualified the squad for the Penn Relays in April at Franklin Field in Philly, and is the second US No. 1 time in the nation that Rumson has burned this season. The Bulldogs also ran 4:04.63 at the NJCTC Relays on Dec. 30 at Ocean Breeze, which still hands as the fastest time in the country!
The splits on Rumson's DMR were 3:44.30 for 1,200 by senior Izzy Rodriguez, 58.48 for 400 by senior Hannah Nitka, 2:09.93 for senior Reese Malone, and 5:08.27 for senior Clemmie Lilley. Malone's leg gave Rumson a 14-second lead over Padua Academy of Delaware, who finished second in 12:14.30.
As great as Rumson's DMR performance was, there is much more in the tank!!!
Lilley ran 4:55.27 to win the Monmouth County Championship last week and owns an outdoor 1,600 PR of 4:51.27. So you know she will slice a huge chunk of time off her 5:08.27 split from Saturday when she has to. And Rodriguez, Nitka, and Malone all have the potential to go a bit faster.
So that means if Rumson loads up the DMR again this season at Easterns or Nationals, they should take down the Monmouth County record of 11:49.73 set by Colts Neck at the 2022 Eastern States Championships. It's also possible that they could make a run at the state record of 11:41.12 set by Southern Regional at the 2009 Nike Indoor National Championships!!
Speaking of the DMR state record. There is virtually no chance that Southern's state record will still be standing at the end of the season. There are multiple teams that could take that record down.
In addition to Rumson, Union Catholic has the firepower to go close to 11:30 or even faster when they load it up.
So keep your eye on this special group of Rumson seniors, who are sure to be cooking up some more sizzling times over the final six weeks of the season!
