| A new state record for the girls' discus, a flock of fast boys' and girls' 800-meter times and the first pairing of Ocean City's two sophomore stars in a relay event featured last weekend's action in New Jersey.
Jocelyn White of Delsea, who won the shot put at the indoor Nationals in New York in March, spun the discus 164-7 at the Ike Willis Invitational Friday night at Stockton State College in Pomona to break the 161-11 mark set by Helene Connell of Jackson Twp, a record that had not been approached since it was set at the 1977 state championships. White, who is headed to North Carolina University next fall, had been over 150 feet in two previous meets this spring, including her win a week earlier at the Penn Relays.
The same meet saw Ocean City's new phenom, Renee Tomlin win the individual 800 on Friday in 2:14.62, then come back with a 2:11.8 anchor in a 4:10.67 sprint medley victory on Saturday, when she also teamed with classmate Brittany Sedberry, the state cross-country champion, in a 12:07.09 distance medley win, the fastest by a New Jersey team this spring. In all three races, Renee was matched against Lauren Lewis of Southern Ocean Regional, who was making her return to action after a long injury siege that wiped out her indoor campaign.
Her 800, however, was only the second-fastest of the weekend as Becky Crossin of North Hunterdon won that event in 2:14.0 at the Bernards Invitational, a meet which also featured two fast hurdle victories, a 13.7 in the boys' race by David Whitehurst of Lawrenceville and a 14.0 in the girls' event by Tramaine Shaw of Piscataway, the Eastern indoor champion. Third in Whitehurst's race was his future Penn teammate Kyle Calvo of Somerville, who won the high jump at 6-8.
The boys' 800 action began last Tuesday when Mike Carrmody of Berkeley Heights had a 1:54.4 anchor leg in the 3200-meter race at the Mountain Valley Conference Relays. On Friday night, at the Essex County Relays, three boys bettered 1:55.0 in the 3200 relay, Bryan Scotland and Andre Fearon of St. Benedict's and Phil Baldwin of Seton Hall, while at the South Jersey Invitational at Buena High School, Rob Novak of Bordentown won the 800 in 1:54.89. The next day, at Bernards, indoor National champion Greg Gomez of Franklin won in 1:54.2 with John Guzman of Bridgewater right behind him at 1:54.4. Later that day, Carmody came back with a 1:53.2 anchor in the sprint medley at the Union County Relays.Scotland, Baldwin and Novak are all juniors.
Other stars of the weekend included sophomore Toniesha Friday of Franklin, who doubled the sprints in hand-times of 11.9 and 24.5 at Bernards; Aisha Bilal-Mack of East Orange, who ran a pair of 1:01.6 races in the 400-meter hurdles at the Essex relays and Benards; Will Allison of Palmyra, who had a probably wind-aided long jump of 23-8 1/4 at the South Jersey Invitational; Jon Anderson of Cinnaminson, who won the 1600 in 4:20.98 at the same meet; outhern Ocean freshman Danielle Tauro, who won the steeplechase in a record 7:18.3 at the Ike Willis Invitational and also anchored a 12:12.12 distance medley; Vanessa Wright of Haddonfield, who defeated Sedberry in the 1600 at that meet in 5:05.82; and Lisa Burkholder of Cherokee, who took the Willis 3200 in 10:54.95.
But perhaps the best news out of the Willis meet was the appearance there of meet director (and Woodrow Wilson coach) Derrick Adamson, who had suffered serious head injuries in a motorcycle injury earlier in the week. The indomitable two-time Jamaican Olympian (in the marathon) didn't let a little thing like two metal plates in his head keep him away and he was rewarded when Janilliah Nock won the 100-meter dash in 12.27, fastest time in the state to date.
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