Weekly Recap: Bartlett and Swindell Set Mercer County Records
The NJSIAA Group Championships were the main event this past week, but they weren’t the only event.
On Saturday, May 31, Lawrenceville brought a small crew on a very successful trip down to Maryland for the McNamara Last Chance National Qualifier. Featuring perennial powerhouses like Bullis and Bishop McNamara, this meet is billed as an ideal venue for fast times, and it did not disappoint on Saturday.
In the opening event, Blair Bartlett won the girls 3200m in a jaw-dropping time of 9:55.17! Her goal was to break 10:00, so she attacked the pace right from the gun — with blistering splits of 64 for 400m, 2:15 for 800m, and 4:44 for 1600m, she was even leading most of the boys in this mixed-gender race. Laps 5 and 6 slowed a bit, but she finished strong with a 74-second lap to achieve her sub-10 goal with room to spare.
Bartlett’s 8-second PR of 9:55.17 not only broke the Mercer County record but also is #2 all-time in New Jersey, just 2 seconds off the state record! Bartlett sits at US #2 in the 3200m right now. She’ll be in action again this Thursday at the Festival of Miles in St. Louis.
Sofia Swindell also had a phenomenal meet and got 2nd place in the 100mH a massive PR of 13.67! The senior came into the meet with a PR of 13.90 but smoked that in the prelims with a 13.80 for 2nd place in her heat. Despite that very quick time, she hadn’t gotten her characteristic great start out of the blocks, so she and Coach Derrhyl Duncan made it a goal for the finals to be the first to the first hurdle. Sure enough, in the finals, Swindell executed that perfectly, clearing the first hurdle right with the two Bullis stars and then never backing down. She ran a strong second half of the race and even pulled away from the one Bullis girl who had beat her in the prelims.
With that massive improvement of 13.67, Swindell tied WWP North’s Patrycja Dziekonska for the Mercer County record in the 100mH! Her mark also puts her at #8 all-time in New Jersey and #25 in the United States this spring.
Here are a few other highlights from around the region last week:
On Sunday, Lawrenceville brought some stars to the Grand Slam Future Champs meet at Franklin Field, which was the opening act for the second day of the Grand Slam Track Philadephia pro meet. Ayodele Joa-Griffith won a tight race in the boys 800m with a time of 1:55.48, and Jael Gaines took 5th place in the 400m in 57.08.
Running in a mixed-gender heat of the mile at the John Hay Pennsylvania Distance Festival in West Chester, Peddie’s Courtney Cane finished as the 8th girl in a fantastic time of 4:59.06! She had run 4:58.6 in the 1600m before, but Tuesday night’s race was her first time officially breaking 5:00 in the mile.
Princeton brought some of its top distance runners to the Cherokee Night Racer #2 meet on Tuesday night. Fletcher Harrison took 5th in the 800m with a 3-second PR of 2:02.57. In the girls 1600m, Phoenix Roth finished 5th in 5:14.94, and Grace Hegedus finished right behind her in a PR of 5:15.87 for 6th.
Ewing had a trio of sophomores who all PR’d in the 1600m at the Cherokee Night Racer with nearly identical times: Shazad Singh (4:47.85), Jayden Studivant (4:48.11), and Landyn Loesch (4:48.12).