Rowan junior Ahmir Johnson shattered the school record and meet record in the triple jump Friday at the AARTFC Championships in Rochester.
Johnson leaped 48-11 ½ on his second attempt at Golisano Training Facility on the Nazareth College campus and won the event by 2 ½ feet over Amarian Hughes, a freshman at SUNY Cortland (N.Y.). He reached 46-3 on his third attempt.
Johnson broke his own record of 48-8 ¼ set at the same meet at the same facility in 2020. He broke the 28-year-old meet record of 48-10 ¼ set in 1994 by Geoffrey Rono of Rochester’s Roberts Wesleyan at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., and broke his own facility record of 48-8 ¼. AARTFC stands for All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference, a collection of Division 3 conferences in the Northeast.
Johnson, a graduate of Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pa., has a lifetime best of 49-7 when he won the NCAA Division 3 national title at North Carolina A&T this past spring in Greensboro, N.C.
The 48-11 ½ moved Johnson into the No. 3 spot in NCAA Division 3 this year, behind Jonathan Wilburn of Wisconsin-Oshkosh [49-8 ½ last weekend in Platteville, Wisc.] and Will Ross of Illinois College [49-1 ½] in January at Davenport, Iowa.
Johnson got off five legal jumps Friday and all five were good enough to win the meet.
He opened with a 46-10 ¼ and then the 48-11 ½ winner, following up with jumps of 47-6 ½, 47-11 ¼ and 47-7 ¾ before a foul on his final attempt.
His five legal jumps averaged 47-9 ¼, well beyond his best previous triple jump this year, a 46-10 ¼ in a meet last month at Ithaca.
Johnson is a transfer from Gwynned-Mercy , where he jumped 46-8 ¼ during the 2019 indoor season. At Wissahickon, he set a Suburban One-American triple jump record of 48-5 ¾ in a meet at Glen Mills.
Johnson has also long jumped 23-2 ¼ this year, No. 26 in NCAA Division 3.
He’ll compete in the triple jump at NCAA Division 3 nationals next weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 