Taylor Cox sparked another huge charge by the Union Catholic girls on Saturday night when she burned the third fastest time in NJ history in the high hurdles and running on a relay squad came close to breaking another state record on Saturday night at the Arcadia Invitational in California.
A day after she ran on UC's NJ record and U.S. No. 2 all-time SMR that won in 3:48.83, Cox just missed breaking the state record in the 100 hurdles and ran on the 4x100 relay that also nearly broke the NJ record.
The University of Georgia-bound Cox, a 3-time national champ in the hurdles, finished third in the 100 hurdles in 13.35. The only NJ hurdlers to go faster are Dawn Bowles of Neptune (13.1 hand time/converts to 13.34) at the 1988 Golden West Invit.,) and Sydney McLaughlin of Union Catholic, who ran 13.34 she placed second as a freshman at the 2014 New Balance National Championships. Cox's previous PR of 13.38 came when she placed first at the New Balance National Championships last June.
Cox also ran the second leg on UC's fourth-place 4x100 relay that ran a NJ No. 2 all-time 45.71. That's just behind the NJ record of 45.45 that UC ran to finish second at the New Balance Nationals last year. Cox was joined on the 4x100 by freshman Maya Wyche, sophomore Sydney Chadwick, and senior Taylor Aska.
Another big record that almost fell came in the mile where UC's Paige Sheppard (4:43.61) and Sophia Thompson (4:43.73) finished fifth and sixth with the No. 2 and No. 3 fastest times ever run by a sophomore. The state sophomore record is 4:43.07, set in 2005 by the great Danielle Tauro of Southern Regional. Tauro also holds the overall state record in the mile of 4:39.25, which she ran to finish first at the 2007 Nike Nationals.
CBA FLEXES
CBA made its presence felt with several strong performances.
The Colts won the DMR Open race in 10:22.25, edging Valencia, second in 10:22.57. CBA's team consisted of junior Ryan Collins (3:12.05), senior Colin Burke (50.33), senior Alex Mastroly (1:58.61) and senior Thomas Field, who closed in 4:21.26 and caught Valencia to secure to the win by the narrowest of margins. CBA will be using an entirely different lineup when it defends its DMR title at the Penn Relays on April 25 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
In the 2-mile, senior Ryan Schmitt ran a NJ No. 1 time of 8:57.28 to place 15th and junior Luke Hnatt finished 24th in 9:00.85.
CBA senior Albert Yodakis finished seventh in the discus with a PR of 159-4.