AJEE WILSON’S 1:58.76 800STEALS THE SHOWAT DENMAN/NJ INTERNATIONAL MEETAT MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – None of the 700-plus competitors at Monmouth University last Sunday (June 22.2025) went home happier than Ajee Wilson.The two-time USA Olympian, 12-time USATF National champion, World Indoor champion and Diamond League champion, a graduate of nearby Neptune High School, and Philadelphia’s Temple University,who continues to live and train in Philadelphia, ran her fastest 800 meters in over three years and was totally delighted.Her 1:58.76 triumph. in the Joetta Clark Diggs women’s 800-meter run at the Elliott Denman/New Jersey International Meet at Monmouth’s Joe Compagni Track at Kessler Stadium, sent a clear signal that she was again ready to run with the national and global elite.“It’s been three long years, my body was just not responding (to workouts and racing),” she said.a few minutes after the confidence-building triumph.“But everything went great today. And, best of all, it was back home (in Monmouth County).”/McKenna Keegan (1:59.73) and Kassidy Johnson (2;00.78) ran 2-3 in a race that, on asun-splashed, steamy late afternoon, saw all of them better the meet record that had been in the books for 35 years. Joetta Clark (now Joetta Clark Diggs) had run 2:01.50 in 1990.NJ International events are named for prior greats of the sport – almost all of them New Jerseyproducts – And this two-lapper was titled the Joetta Clark Diggs women’s 800.And, in an interesting happenstance, Clark Diggs (the four-time Olympian and National Track and Field Hall of Famer) was not only on the premises – and competing in the women’s Masters 100-meter sprint – but was there to cheer on Ajee Wilson and all those in “her event,” too.Another Olympic 800-meter runner cheering from the sidelines – but not competing –was Monmouth University alumna Allie Wilson (no relation to Ajee), who ran the two-lapper at the 2024 Paris Games,It was thus a five-ringed gathering. All told, the three Olympians at the meet ran for this nation at seven Games from Seoul1988 to Barcelona 1992 to Atlanta 1996 to Sydney 2000 to London 2012 to Rio de Janeiro 2016to Paris 2024.With the 1:58.76, Ajee Wilson climbs to fourth on the USA list for this 2025 season which will be capped by the USA Nationals in Oregon in August and World Championships in Tokyo in September.There’s still a long road to travel but the 1:58.76 gives Wilson, who continues to live and train in Philadelphia, her home (following her Neptune High School stardom) for the past dozen years, the confidence she has the ability tomake that journey as a member of Team USA.For the third consecutive year, the meet was named for Elliott Denman, the West Long Branch resident who’d been a 1956 Olympian in the 50-kilometer race walk and twice a National champion, before moving from New York to New Jersey and starting a 35-year run as Olympic and all-sports writer and columnist for theAsbury Park Press, then continuing to write for an array of other newspapers, magazines and websites.Along the way, he found time to be a founding father of the “new” Shore Athletic Club in 1964, and saw the club gain major state, national and international prominence in the years since.The New Jersey International Meet was staged by Shore AC in cooperation with Monmouth University, and directed by Shore AC officers Joe Compagni, Dave Friedman and Erin O’Neill and a team of volunteers Its history began as the Bob Roggy Memorial Meet at Holmdel in 1987,following the tragic death, in an accident following the 1986 Olympic Sports Festival in Houston, of the brilliant Holmdel athlete who’d risen to World Number One in the javelin throw.Back on the track, fans were treated to a sizzling Dr. John Connors men’s 1500-meter racewon by Ben Allen of the Westchester County-based Empire Elite Club in 3:37.80 over Camden Gilmore (3:38.92) ,with four others under 3:44, representing sub-four minute mile pace.“Great meet,” said Allen, a former Minnesota collegiate star at Concoridia-St. Paul. “Thanks to everybody here for putting it on. We need more meets like this.”.Other top men’s track performers were Jonathan Farinha (10.47) in the Frank Budd Memorial 100, Jeff Chen (21,41) in the Andy Stanfield Memorial 200, Alex Amanywah (46.97) in the Larry James Memorial 400, and Will Culbertson (1:48.03) in the Rich Kenah 800, which saw eight more sub-1:50.Other leading women’s racers were Rachel Taylor (12.01) in the Fred Thompson 100, Zoe Goldstein (23.79) in the Stanfield 200, Jane Underwood (53.79) in the Aliann Pompey 400, and Abbe Goldstein (4:13.69) in the in the Chrissy D’Alessandro Shaheen Memorial 1500.Edward Williams sped the men’s Renaldo Nehemiah men’s 110 hurdle in 13.86; Sophia Myers claimed the Dawn Bowles women’s 100 hurdles in 14.03.The Bob Roggy Memorial men’s javelin throw continues as a feature event in the meet and waswon this time by Chris Fredericks with a toss of 231-10…Claiming the Barbara Friedrich Parcinski women’s javelin title was Julia Campezato with a 146-3 throw,with Parcinski, the famed Manasquan High School and Newark State (now Kean University) graduate and 1968 Olympian. on hand to cheer her on.Numerous brilliant peformances were recorded in the other throws.Going 1-2 in the Ira Wolfe men’s hammer were the nationally ranked Tyler Williams (239-0), Jordan Crayon (233-11.)Jordan West muscled out a 64-11 1/4 win over Chris Van Niekirk (64-5)t in the Al Blozis Memorial men’s shot put.Paris 2024 Olympian and Princeton graduate Obi Amaechi took the Art Swarts women’s discus throw with a near meet record toss of 189-9; Noah Kennedy-White led the Swarts men’s discus at 170-11.Princeton senior star Greg Foster Jr. extended the Herb Douglas Memorial long jump record to 26-0 1/4 in a duel with ex-Rutgers star A’Nan Bridgett (24-11 1/4.)Mike Pascuzzo Memorial high jump ttitlists were Isaiah Harris (6-8) in the men’s event and Grace Campbell (5-10) in the women’s competition. Paul Richard Memorial men’s and women’s pole vault champions were Dalton Yeust (15-3) and Sydney Horn (13-11 1/4.) Tops in the Norman Tate triple jump were Matayo McGraw (49-0 1/4), men and Kayla Woods (43-2 1/4), women.Leading rthe way in the Elliott Denman one-mile racewalk were Shore AC’s Ryan Allen, a Villanova senior, in 6:43.57, over Canada’s Dmitry Babenko. Dorit Attias of Lakewood led the women’s racewalk… Numerous other men’s and women’s events were staged in the Open, Masters and Youth categories, , providing action on all levels. Perhaps the busiest athlete all day was Shore AC’s tireless. Masters Division international star Rick Lee, 64, of Bayville, Ocean County. He won the meet’s first event, the Horace Ashenfelter 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:31.36, took his division of the Dr, Harry Nolan/Dr, George Sheehan Masters Mile in 5:34.73,, and was still running as the meet reached twilight, winning his Masters 5000-meter division in 19:00.12. Oh, and he added a little earlier speedwork with a 1:06.03 400.“Not bad for the day,” said the stamina-laden Lee.It’s just another chapter in his amazing career.He’s just back from a 60-64 divisional win in the famed and ultra-grueling Comrades Double Marathonin South Africa.The Mary Conry Memorial women’s masters mile went to Josiah Tanner (6;04.55.)A special feature once again was the Community Mile, in which over 30 took part, running, jogging, walking or strolling, in a benefit event for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and Shore AC Development Fund.In mid-meet ceremonies, scholarship awards were presented to scholastic senior stars May Hanlon ofToms River North (the Dick and Pat Hill Memorial Award) and Cleatus Oakes of Point Pleasant Boroand Liliah Gordon of Northern Burlington Regional (Shore AC Development Fund Awards.) Hanlon, just back from raising her personal high jump record to 5-7 1/4 placing sixth in the New Balance Nationls in Philadelphia, then took second in the Mike Pascuzzo HJ in this one.Inducted into the Shore AC Hall of Fame were noted coaches Aliann Pompey (St. John’sUniversity), Leroy Hayes (Asbury Park High School) and Caleb Morris (NeptuneHigh School), and 400-meter standout Maurelhena Walles, now excelling in theMasters ranks.Earning the Chester Bowman Memorial “Chariots of Fire” award wasShore AC charter member and former Monmouth (then-College) coach John Kuhi.Full results at Vipertiming.com.
