STATEN ISLAND – The New Jersey City University men's and women's track & field programs competed in the 2024 New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Indoor Championships on Monday, Feb. 19, at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Facility. The Gothic Knights had several standout performances, including a pair of 60-meter dash finalists, the second-fastest men's mile and fourth-fastest women's 800-meter times in indoor program history and a top-four finish for the women's 4x200-meter relay.
 
On the women's side of things, the Gothic Knights scored nine points as a team to snag eighth place overall out of the nine on the evening. The College of New Jersey won its sixth consecutive team title.
 
For NJCU, senior captain Ayriana Young (Jersey City, N.J./McNair Academic) started off her day with a personal record time of 8.13 seconds in the 60m prelims to place eighth overall out of 24 sprinters and punch her ticket to the finals. There, she posted a time of 8.16 to place eighth and score one point toward the team result. In that same prelim race, junior Chelsea Diggs (Jersey City, N.J./Hudson Catholic) PRed with a time of 8.88 to place 18th.
 
Junior Reyanna Henderson (Pemberton, N.J./Pemberton Two) PRed in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:01.24 to place 10th overall out of 21 runners in the prelims, missing out on a scoring position by just over half a second. In her Gothic Knights debut, freshman Jezena Aponte (Jersey City, N.J./Snyder) won her heat and just missed the scoring cut, placing ninth out of 14 runners in the 800m event with a PR of 2:32.16 – that time ranks fourth all-time in indoor program history.
 
A pair of relay squads for the Green and Gold scored, as well, as the 4x200m team made up of Young, Henderson, junior Ashley Adames (Jersey City, N.J./County Prep) and freshman Evelyn Wymer (Toronto, Ont./Notre Dame (H.S.)) posted a time of 1:50.75 to place fourth out of the eight competing teams and score five points overall – it was the program's fastest 4x200m time since the 2020 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Indoor Championships. Additionally, the NJCU 4x400m saw Henderson, Adames, Young and Aponte combine for a sixth-place time of 4:28.23 to notch three team points.
 
For the men, the Gothic Knights also scored nine points to take home ninth place. The team title went to Rowan University for the ninth consecutive season.
 
For NJCU, senior Jason Garcia (Jersey City, N.J./Dickinson) started off with a time of 7.10 in the 60m prelims to place eighth out of 22 sprinters and lock up a spot in the final. There, he tied his PR with a time of 7.08 to place seventh overall and earn two points towards the team score – both times also qualified for the All-Atlantic Region Track & Field Championships (AARTFC). Sophomore Juan Mercedes Cruz (El Seybo, Dominican Republic/Manville) also PRed in the 60m prelims and placed 11th with a time of 7.23.
 
Graduate student captain Jaime Tlatelpa (Jersey City, N.J./University Academy Charter) was a standout in the mile run, just missing out on scoring by 1.59 seconds, as he took home ninth place out of 17 runners with a PR time of 4:29.70 – that ranks second all-time in NJCU men's indoor program history. Meanwhile, a pair of Green and Gold sophomores stood out in the 400m, both just missing out on scoring finishes, as Gerard Victor (Irvington, N.J./Payne Tech) and Pratt Charles (Jersey City, N.J./University Charter) placed 11th and 12th out of 24 runners with times of 52.14 and 52.15, respectively –virtually tying one another in the fourth heat.
 
Three relays all scored two points apiece for the Gothic Knights, led by the distance medley relay. There, the team of Tlatelpa, junior Jon De Jesus (Perth Amboy, NJ/Perth Amboy), graduate student Adnan Kpodo (Irvington, N.J./Irvington) and senior Topu Saha (Jersey City, N.J./William L. Dickinson) notched the eighth-fastest time in indoor program history at 11:10.30 to place seventh. The 4x200m of Cruz, Garcia, freshman David Reyes (Keasbey, N.J./John F. Kennedy Memorial) and Charles crossed the finish line in seventh, as well, with a time of 1:32.45. Finally, the 4x400m squad of Victor, Cruz, Garcia and Charles also placed seventh with a time of 3:37.16.
 
Up Next:
Both squads return to action this coming Friday, Feb. 23, back at Ocean Breeze beginning at 1:00 p.m. for the FastTrack Last Chance Invitational. After that, the AARTFC Indoor Championships take place on the campus of Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y., from Friday to Saturday, March 1-2.