Hilt, Marini named to All-NJAC Women's Track & Field Team
CAMDEN, N.J. (May 11, 2023) –Rutgers University-Camden senior
Emily Hilt and junior
Alexis Marini are two of the top throwers in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and both athletes earned recognition today when the NJAC announced its all-conference women's track & field team.
Hilt earned NJAC First Team honors in the hammer throw and NJAC Honorable Mention in both the discus and the shot put, capping off her honors by being named the Outstanding Field Athlete of the NJAC Championship meet.
Marini captured NJAC Honorable Mention in the hammer throw.
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The Scarlet Raptors' dynamic duo helped the Rutgers-Camden women finish fifth out of 10 teams at the conference championship, their highest finish since a fourth-place showing in 2006.
Hilt captured the NJAC hammer throw title for the second consecutive year, finishing first in a field of 24 athletes, while setting a meet record of 54.19 meters. She broke her old NJAC Championship mark of 51.02 set while winning the 2022 title. Marini finished third in that field with a PR of 50.47 meters, more than two meters farther than her previous best of 48.16 meters.
Hilt also finished third of 25 athletes in the shot put (12.03 meters) and third of 22 in the discus (35.92 meters). Marini was fourth in the discus (35.78 meters) and 15th in the shot put (10.34 meters).
Hilt has etched her name all over the Rutgers-Camden record books during her career. She holds four program records, including outdoor marks for the hammer throw (54.33 meters at the Osprey Open on April 7, 2023) and the shot put (13.03 meters at the NJAC Championships on May 9, 2022). She holds the indoor records for the shot put (13.01 meters at the NJAC Championships on Feb. 24, 2020) and the weight throw (16.60 meters at the NJAC Championships on Feb. 20, 2023. She previously held the outdoor program record in the discus (37.49 meters) until Marini broke that mark this spring.
During the 2022 outdoor season, Hilt finished 14th out of 22 athletes in the hammer throw at the NCAA Division III Championships. She will be heading back to the NCAA Championships, held May 26-27 in Rochester, New York, again this season. She currently holds the 11th-best hammer throw in Division III this season with her program-record 54.33-meter mark.
Between her indoor and outdoor seasons, Hilt has earned 13 All-NJAC honors. In addition to her three All-NJAC outdoor honors this season, she also was named NJAC First Team in the hammer and NJAC Second Team in the shot put in 2022 and captured NJAC Second Team in the discus and Honorable Mention in both the hammer and the shot put in 2021. Her indoor honors include NJAC Second Team in the hammer (2022-23 season), NJAC Second Team in both the shot put and the weight throw (2021-22) and NJAC First Team in the shot put and Honorable Mention in the weight throw in 2019-20.
Hilt also won the ECAC Championships in all three of her events last spring, capturing the hammer, shot put and discus titles. During the 2019-20 indoor season, she was the ECAC champion in the weight throw and the runner-up in the shot put.
Hilt has captured seven honors as the NJAC's Field Athlete of the Week. She is a 16-time honoree as Rutgers-Camden's Raptor of the Week, including May 8, 2023.
Hilt was named Rutgers-Camden's Woman of the Year by the New Jersey Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women on Feb. 3, 2021.
A former track All-American for Rowan College at Gloucester County (RCGC), Hilt is a Childhood Studies major at Rutgers-Camden with minors in Psychology and Philosophy. She has been named NJAC Academic Honorable Mention for the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 scholastic years, with this year's team scheduled to be released in June. A Dean's List student, she is a seven-time member of the Rutgers-Camden Athletic Director's Honor Roll, pending the release of the 2023 spring semester AD Honor Roll later this month.
Marini has earned three outdoor track and field letters with the Scarlet Raptors and would have three indoor letters if the 2020-21 season hadn't been cancelled by the pandemic. She has been among the top throwers in the NJAC since her freshman year, while finally breaking into the top three at this season's outdoor meet to earn her first All-NJAC honor. She finished third of 24 athletes in the hammer throw with a PR of 50.47 meters at the conference outdoor meet May 6. The next day she placed fourth of 22 in the discus (35.78 meters) and 15th of 25 in the shot put (10.34 meters).
Marini's 2023 outdoor season included her first program record when she threw the discus 37.81 meters at the Widener Invitational (April 21). She also won the hammer throw at the Lions Invitational (April 28), at the time setting a PR of 48.16, which she shattered at the NJAC meet.
During the 2022-23 indoor season, Marini finished sixth of 19 athletes in the weight throw at the NJAC meet. She was sixth of 21 in the shot put at the 2022 conference indoor championships. During the 2022 outdoor NJAC Championships, Marini placed fourth of 20 in the hammer throw, seventh of 24 in the discus and ninth of 23 in the shot put. She capped her 2022 outdoor season with an outstanding performance at the ECAC Championships, finishing second in the discus, third in the hammer and fourth in the shot put.
Marini captured four Raptor of the Week honors during the 2022-23 scholastic year, winning on Dec. 12 and Feb. 13 for indoor track and earning back-to-back honors on April 24 and May 1 during outdoor season. She also was named Raptor of the Week during indoor season on Dec. 6, 2021.
A double major in Economics and Philosophy, Marini has established a stellar academic record at Rutgers-Camden, including NJAC Academic Honorable Mention recognition for the 2021-22 scholastic year. She has been a Dean's List student and a member of the Athletic Director's Honor Roll during all five of her complete semesters on campus, with the 2023 spring semester honor roll to be released later this month. During two of those semesters, she posted a 4.0 GPA.
NJAC release, teams
