From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Nobody ever pulls off this double because nobody ever tries this double.

Palmyra junior Abdulazeez Iyiola at Northern Burlington on Saturday became only the second boy in meet history to win both the 400-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles at the same Burlington County Open.

Iyioa won the 400 in a PR 49.85 out of an unseeded heat and then just 15 minutes later won the intermediate hurdles in 57.01.

The only other boy in meet history to win both one-lap races in the same meet was Mike Williams of Lenape, who won the 400 in 49.15 and the intermediates in 56.62 at the 2013 meet at Maple Shade.

Iyiola is Palmyra’s first double winner since Will Brown doubled the hurdles in both 2005 [14.28, 55.77] and 2006 [14.19, 54.61].

Palmyra’s only other double winners in the last 50 years are Dan Cooper in the 100 and 200 in 1968 and 1969, Glenn Cooper in the 100 and 200 in 1973, Butch Birkhead in the 100 and 200 in 1980, Bob Howard in the hurdles in 1981, Chris Eberly in the javelin and intermediates in 1994 and Will Allison in the long and triple jumps in 2004.

Thanks to Iyiola’s two wins, senior Kwinten Ives’ long jump win and senior Joe Russell’s 5th-place in the high jump, Palmyra scored 32 points and placed 7th, its best finish since the 2004 team took 6th.

Iyiola is the first Palmyra runner to win the 400 at a County Open since Rodney Coon in 1986 and the first to win the intermediates since Brown in 2006.

In the 400, Iyiola won the 4th of five sections in 49.85, then watched as Rancocas Valley freshman Julian Coppage-Seepersaud won the seeded section in 50.20, a Burlington County freshman record.

It was Iyiola’s first open 400 this spring, although he ran 51.82 indoors and took 3rd in the state Group 1 meet.

Iyiola had never broken a minute in the intermediates before the Moorestown Invitational last month, but he ran 57.59 at Moorestown and a PR 56.45 last weekend at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea before easily winning Saturday by 15 meters over Seneca junior Ethan Cutts, who was 2nd in 59.45.

State-wide, Iyiola is No. 4 in Group 1 in the 400 and No. 2 in the intermediates.