🏆 Congrats to the UC track and field teams, who swept the team titles once again at the Union County Championships on Friday in Plainfield!!🏆
💥That’s a record 11 straight championships for the girls, and the 6th in a row for the boys!!!💥
PRESSURE: APPLIED 💅
The 8x #NBNationals champion owns the current US #1 high school 800m time (2:01.50) and PRs of 4:33.67 (mile) and 16:44.3 (XC 5K)
She also becomes the first commit in @stanfordxctf ’s class of 2027.
Congrats @paige.e.sheppard 💔
BREAKING: Paige Sheppard (2027) of Union Catholic HS (NJ) has committed to Stanford!
Paige has the #1 800 & #2 time for Class of 2027 and is an 8-time New Balance Nationals champion. She was 13th at Brooks XC Nationals & 22nd at NXN this past year
Paige is Stanford’s first women’s distance commit for Class of 2027
📸: @westcoastxc
🗣️🗣️🗣️
Union Catholic NJ star Paige Sheppard announced on Instagram she has verbally committed to Stanford.
The eight-time #NBNationals champion is bringing lifetime bests of 2:01.50 (800m), 4:33.67 (Mile) and 16:44.3 (XC 5k) to Palo Alto in the fall of 2027.
📸: @will_a_nelson
💥Big shoutout to UC’s dynamic jumping duo of
Kiara Fleming and Morgan Holley!!💥
🔥At the Union County Conference Championships, Fleming broke the Union County record in the triple jump with a 40-5 and Holley soared 40-2.75, which is No. 2 in Union County history🔥
🏆The Vikings repeated as team champs in the Watchung Division!!!🏆
🙌How awesome is that!!🙌
It finally happened.
For the first time ever, NJ all-time greats and multiple national champions Paige Sheppard and Natalie Dumas clashed on the track, and the two legends produced a thrilling 800-meter battle over two laps on Friday night at the Track Night NYC at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York.
In a race that featured three national 800 champions, Sheppard, a junior at Union Catholic, came from behind to win the eagerly awaited clash, stopping the clock at ran 2:02.37. Dumas, a senior at Eastern, was third in 2:04.00. Jane Hickey of the Ursuline School New York got between the NJ duo, placing second in 2:03.68. Reagan Moore of Oak Knoll was fourth in 2:05.47.
Abbey Robisky of Union Catholic was 8th in 2:06.41, which is a new state freshman record and the 9th fastest time ever run by a freshmen in U.S. outdoor history!!! The former NJ freshman record of 2:07.11 was set by Sheppard two years ago.
Dumas, who is headed to Arkansas, grabbed the lead after a a very quick 59.30 first 400 with Hickey second (59.40) and Sheppard was third (59.55). Dumas and Hickey opened about a 15-meter gap on Sheppard with about 200 to go, but then Sheppard cranked it up and blasted to the lead as she hit the top of homestretch and pulled away for the win. Sheppard closed the fastest with a 1:02.83 last lap.
The race was a showdown between three of the best 800m runners in NJ history.
Sheppard, who has won two national titles in her career, the mile last June at the New Balance National Championships and the 800 at the NB Indoor Nationals in March, ran a NJ No. 4 all-time 2:01.50 at the Brooks PR Invitational last June.
Dumas, who has won 3 national titles (the 400m hurdles, the 400m, and the 800m, all at the NB Nationals last June), ran a NJ state outdoor record of 2:00.11 when she won the 800m at the New Balance National Championships last June.
Moore, a junior, won the 800 at the 2025 Nike Indoor Nationals, and owns a PR of 2:04.80.
Just when it looked like she was out of it Paige Sheppard runs down both Natalie Dumas and Jane Hickey in the final 100m to win the New Balance High School Girls Elite 800m in a US#1 2:02.37.
Hickey finishes second in 2:03.68 and Dumas finishes third in 2:04.00.
Link to full photo gallery in bio
Union Catholic (NJ) shows why they won the Penn Relays 4 x 800 going 1-2 in the New Balance High School Boys Elite 800m in the Track Night NYC, Teammates Keandre Kelly crossing in 1:52.08 with Ciaran Brosnan running 1:52.34 for second.
Link to full photo gallery in bio
NO DENYING HER!
In the final 100 meters, Paige Sheppard runs down both Natalie Dumas and Jane Hickey to win the New Balance High School Girls Elite 800m in a US#1 2:02.37.
Hickey finishes second in 2:03.68 and Dumas finishes third in 2:04.00.
📸: @johnnepolitan
The best 800 group in the country?!
Keandre Kelly takes the win in the New Balance High School Boys Elite 800m in 1:52.08, leading a Union Catholic NJ 1-2 at Track Night NYC with his teammate Ciaran Brosnan running 1:52.34 for second.
📸: @johnnepolitan
