With Kingsway’s Evan Corcoran leading off and Sterling’s Jah’mere Beasley anchoring, Rowan on Saturday afternoon ran the 2nd-fastest 800-meter relay in the world this year and the fastest in NCAA Division 3 history.
Corcoran, Amare Conte of Snyder High in Jersey City, Nana Agyemang of Parsippany and Beasley ran 1:25.86 at the Armory, breaking the Division 3 record of 1:26.33 set in 2006 by a New Jersey City College team that included Winslow’s Anthony Miles.
From all available resources, it appears to be the No. 15 time in U.S. history and makes Rowan the No. 11 performer all-time.
This is the second Division 3 record Rowan has set this year. Agyemang, Beasley, Sterling’s Marquise Young and Conte ran 3:10.09 last month to break the 1,600-meter relay record set in 2004 by Lincoln.
On Saturday, at the AARTFC Championships, Corcoran and Conte got the baton around the track in 42.85 – the official splits don’t break up the first two legs – and Agyemang split 21.70 to set up Beasley, who anchored in 21.31.
Rowan led four schools under 1:29 in a very fast race, with SUNY Geneseo 2nd in 1:28.59.
Rowan broke the meet record of 1:27.45 that they set last year with the lineup of Robert McKinney, Ageymang, Conte and Beasley.
Rowan is now responsible for five of the six all-time sub-1:28 times in NCAA Division 3 history, including that 1:27.45 last year and the 1:25.86 and 1:26.43 this year.
According to the World Athletics rankings, Rowan’s time is 2nd this year in the world only to LG Stadtwerke München, a German team that ran 1:25.43 at Helmut-Körnig-Halle in Dortmund last month.
Rowan’s 1:25.86 would rank 8th in NCAA Division 1 history, behind only performances by Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Charleston Southern and South Carolina. It’s faster than the Division 2 record of 1:25.98 set in 1985 by Abiline Christian.
Only one D-3 school has run faster outdoors – Dubuque of Iowa ran 1:25.74 this past April in the Drake Relays.
Rowan’s time is also fastest by any college 4-by-2 in any division since Mississippi State ran 1:25.20 at the Armory in 2016 and the fastest by any U.S. 4-by-4 since the Bullis School – a private high school in Potomac, Md. – set the national high school record of 1:25.60 at the Virginia Showcase in Lynchburg in 2019.
Here’s my best effort at an all-time U.S. list. Unfortunately, nobody keeps U.S. indoor records because USATF is a joke!
1:22.71 … National Team, March 3, 1991
1:23.79 …… National Team, Feb. 13, 1993
1:24.31 …… National Team, Feb. 13, 1994
1:24.91 … Pitt, University Park, Nov. 11, 2014
1:25.05 … Rutgers, Jan 13, 2007
1:25.18 … Arkansas,. Feb. 2, 1985
1:25.20 … Mississippi State, New York, Feb. 6, 2016
1:25.24 …… Pitt, Feb. 8, 2014
1:25.47 … Charleston Southern, Feb. 6, 2010
1:25.52 … Penn State, University Park, Jan. 5, 2013
1:25.56 …… National Team, New York, Feb. 4, 2017
1:25.60 … Bullis School, Lynchburg, Va., Jan. 19, 2019
1:25.67 … St. Augustine’s, University Park, Jan. 25, 2013
1:25.81 … South Carolina, New York, Feb. 2, 2013
1:25.86 … Rowan, New York, March 6, 2023
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 