Some monster long jumping this weekend by the Rowan tandem of freshman Nana Agyemang and junior Ahmir Johnson.
Competing at the ARTFC Championships, Agyemang jumped 24-0 3/4 and Johnson 23-9 1/2 to take the top two spots at the Golisano Training Center on the Nazareth College campus in Rochester.
Agyemang and Johnson are ranked No. 5 and No. 12 in NCAA Division 3 and will compete this weekend at Division 3 National Championships at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C. The official entry list is here.
Agyemang’s mark is an indoor PR. He jumped 24-2 1/2 at an outdoor meet in Glassboro this past May.
Johnson’s mark broke his indoor PR of 23-2 1/2 from two weeks earlier at the NJAC Championships at Ocean Breeze. His outdoor PR is 22-11 from last year’s NJAC Championships in Mahwah.
Agyemang and Johnson both had bigger jumps that were wind-aided at the 2021 Fast Times Before Finals meet in Glassboro, Agyemang with 24-9 aided by a 2.8 meters-per-second wind and Johnson with a 24-6 1/2 aided by a 3.3 wind.
Agyemang missed Rowan’s 40-year-old indoor school record by one-quarter of an inch.
Paulsboro’s Robert Beaman jumped 24-1 as part of a pentathlon at the New Jersey Collegiate Championships at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym on Jan. 16, 1982. The mark is incorrectly listed as being from 1981 on Rowan’s web site.
Johnson is also the No. 3 seed at D-3 nationals in the triple jump with his school-record 48-11 1/2, and Agyemang is on Rowan’s top-seeded (3:15.89) 4-by-400 team, which also includes Charlie Serrano, Sterling’s Jah’mere Beasley and freshman Amara Conte. Johnson is also Rowan’s outdoor school record holder in the triple jump at 48-8 1/4 from his win at NCAA Division 3 nationals in Greensboro, N.C., in the spring of 2020.
Beasley also qualified in the 200 (21.99), Conte in the 400 (48.82), Washington Township’s Jake Kolodziej in the 800 (1:54.28) and Marquise Young in the 60-meter hurdles (8.18).
Agyemang attended Paramus Catholic and Parsippany and had a PR of 23-5 1/2 when he won the North 2 Group 2 sectional title in May of 2019 at Middletown North.
Johnson competed for Wissahickon High in Ambler, Pa., and had PRs of 23-4 3/4 and 48-5 3/4, both at Lehigh’s Rauch Fieldhouse. He also cleared 6-4 in the high jump
Johnson spent the 2019 indoor season competing for Gwynedd-Mercy, jumping 21-4 3/4 and 46-8 1/4.
NCAA Division 3 nationals, cancelled the last two years, begins at 10 a.m. Friday. The men’s high jump is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday. For the full order of events, click here.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 