In the first outdoor 400 of her collegiate career, Eastern graduate Jewel Ash broke the Charleston Southern school record Friday afternoon.
Ash ran 54.04 at the Raleigh Relays, breaking the school record of 54.39 set by Dionne Gibson at the 2008 Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta.
It’s Ash’s second school record at Charleston Southern. She ran 59.50 in the intermediates last spring in the prelims at the Big South Conference Championships in High Point, N.C.
Ash broke her 400 PR of 55.37, which she ran this past indoor season at the Big South Conference Indoor Championships at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C., where she placed 2nd to North Carolina A&T’s Delecia McDuffie.
Ash ran her 54.04 in the 10th of 12 sections, and her time held up for 2nd overall even after the two “fast” sections. McDuffie was the only quarter-miler to bump Ash with her 53.46 in the final race.
Ash’s time is No. 15 in NCAA Division 1 so far this spring.
Ash is also No. 6 in school history in the 100 hurdles at 14.14 and No. 2 in the indoor 400 with her 55.37. She’s run 14.14 twice, including into a 1.2 meters-per-second wind last weekend in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
The women’s 400-meter hurdles is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday. The official meet timing site does not yet have a start list for the event, but based on her flat 400 time you would think Ash’s 400IH PR is in jeopardy in good conditions.
In the same event Friday, Cherry Hill East graduate Maya Drayton, a Georgetown junior, ran 56.70. Drayton and Ash were briefly teammates at Cherry Hill East in 2017.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 