The Delaware Track and Field Hall of Fame will induct five more accomplished runners on Nov. 20.
Former high school and college standouts Juliet Bottorff, Celina Emerson, Jernail Hayes and Christina Hillman and long-time Wilmington coach and road-racing fixture Jimmy Walsh comprise this year’s class.
Their enshrinement raises the number of inductees to 150 individuals and three teams since the hall of fame’s formation in 1994.
Inductions are Nov. 20 at the DuPont Country Club, where social hour starts at 11 a.m. followed by the luncheon banquet at noon. Tickets are $50 for the public and $40 for Delaware Track and Field Hall of Fame members and previous inductees. They are available by contacting Brian Strusowski at bstrusowski@verizon.net or 302-753-9052 by Nov. 11.
The 2022 inductees:
Juliet Bottorff
The Tatnall School distance phenom was the state’s top athlete in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track as a senior in 2008-09, completing a career in which she set nine state individual records and excelled at every distance from 800 to 3,200 meters. Bottorff anchored Tatnall’s winning distance medley relay team in the Championship of America at the Penn Relays as a senior. She then went to Duke, where she was 2011 NCAA 10,000-meter outdoor champion and a two-time All-American at that distance as well as in the 5,000 and in cross country. Bottorff was two-time ACC champ in the indoor 5,000, setting an ACC record in 2013. She also was on the 2010 USA world junior cross-country team. After college, she had six top-10 finishes at USA championship races.
Celina Emerson
Emerson was All-State in the 200 and 400 meters and in all the sprint relays at Delcastle from 2007-10 and state MVP as a senior when she sparked the Cougars to indoor and outdoor state team titles. She set state records in the 400 and on 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relay teams. Emerson was then a four-time All-American at Connecticut running the 400 and 4 x 400. She set a UConn school mark of 52.79 in the 400, was ECAC 400 champ outdoors in 52.86 and indoors in 53.39, won a Big East 400 in 53.17, the New England Championships in 54.40 and also took second in the American Athletic Conference meet in 52.80. She was also on 4 x 400 teams that won the AAC and set a 3:37.61 school record.
Jernail (Hayes) Radford
The Glasgow High speedster set state records in the 55-meter hurdles indoors and 100 and 300 hurdles outdoors while piling up 14 state championships. Radford was state MVP in 2005 and 2006. She then went to Seton Hall University and was an eight-time Big East champion, winning the 400 hurdles, 500 meters and 4 x 400 relays. She was also two-time NCAA All-American – in the open 400 and 400 hurdles — and set the school mark in the 400 hurdles. Radford’s success continued as a professional, as she was 2014 world indoor champ and 2012 world indoor runner-up in the 4 x 400 relay.
Christina Hillman
Hillman showed her prolific talents while attending St. Thomas More, winning three state titles in both the shot put and discus and 2011 New Balance Nationals indoor and Penn Relays and 2012 USA Junior Olympics shot-put titles. She set and still holds the national 17-18-year-old division and Junior Olympics record of 53-10. She was also second at the 2011 U-18 Junior Pan American Championships and fourth in the 2012 World Junior Championships. Hillman then went to Iowa State, where she was a seven-time All-American, highlighted by her 2014 indoor and outdoor NCAA championships in the shot put. She also won Big 12 indoor and outdoor shot-put titles in 2014 and won indoors again in 2016. At NCAAs, Hillman placed second and fourth (indoors) and fourth and sixth twice (outdoors). Her school records of 59-6 indoors and 58-2 outdoors still stand.
Jimmy Walsh
Walsh has been a fixture on the First State running scene for more than 40 years, having run his first Boston Marathon – and seventh marathon overall — as a 25-year-old in 1985. The 1978 Delcastle High grad later held the state-resident 5K road-race record in the 30-39 age class for 18 years. He has also been an influential coach, guiding Saint Elizabeth to 22 Catholic Youth Ministries cross country titles in the last 28 years. Walsh also served as president of the Delaware Sports Club, for which he long led weekly running sessions on the Tower Hill School track, and founded the annual Delaware Open Cross Country Championship, which will be held for the 38th year Nov. 26 at Brandywine Creek State Park.
Delaware Sports Hall of Fame seeks 2023 inductee nominations
The Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame will hold its annual public nomination event for 2023 induction candidates Sunday, Nov. 13, at the New Castle Presbyterian Church’s Christian Education Building at 25 East 2nd Street in New Castle at 2 p.m. Those nominating a candidate have five minutes to speak and highlight the person’s accomplishments that make he or she worthy of induction. Those who cannot attend may also nominate via Zoom video conferencing. Anyone planning to attend the event or wishing to make a nomination must contact DSMHOF executive director Scott Selheimer at desports@desports.org or 302-562-5129.
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