Woodrow Wilson graduate Dennisha Page shattered the Rutgers 60-meter dash record Friday in her first try at the distance this year.
Page, a Rutgers junior, ran a blistering 7.33 to win the 60 at the Wagner Invitational at Ocean Breeze ahead of teammate Sydney Hawkins of Phillipsburg, who ran a PR of her own at 7.45.
Page broke the school record of 7.34 by 1-100th of a second. The previous mark was set in February 2016 by Williamstown’s Gabrielle Farquharson at the Big Ten Indoor Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
In the trials, Page led all qualifiers with a 7.41, destroying her personal best of 7.50, which she set in her first collegiate meet as a Syracuse freshman, the Greg Page Relays at Barton Hall in Ithaca, N.Y.
She lowered that to 7.33 in the final. That’s No. 8 in the world early on in the 2023 indoor season and No. 5 among U.S. women.
It’s also No. 4 among U.S. collegians so far this winter and tied for No. 1 in the Big Ten with Amira Young of Minnesota, who ran 7.33 at the IceBreaker Open in Minneapolis last month.
Page also ran an indoor PR 56.56 to place second in the 400 behind post-collegiate Leah Anderson, who ran 53.88. Anderson won five Big Ten 400 titles at St. John’s.
It was Page’s first collegiate 400 at either Syracuse or Rutgers. Her indoor PR was a 59.46 at Wilson to win the 2019 indoor Group 2 sectionals at the Bubble. She ran 54.41 that spring to win outdoor Group 3 sectionals at Delsea.
At the 2019 Meet of Champions at Northern Burlington, Page won the 100 in 11.86 and the 200 in 23.66 and was 3rd in the 400 in 55.41.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 