Bridgeton’s Shamar Love, Sterling’s Jah’mere Beasley, Parsippany’s Nana Agyemang and Kingsway’s Evan Corcoran destroyed the school record and meet record and moved Rowan into the all-time NCAA Division 3 top-10 in the 400-meter relay Wednesday.
Love, Beasley, Agyemang and Corcoran won the 400-meter relay at the AARTFC Championships at Doug Arthur Stadium at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa., in 40.37.
Their time is No. 2 in NCAA Division 3 this year, behind Wisconsin-LaCrosse, which ran 40.07 last month at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
The only NCAA Division 3 schools that have run faster than Rowan are New Jersey City (2005, 2006), Wesley (2016), LaCrosse (2002, 2015, 2021, 2023), Benedictine (2022), Wisconsin Oshkosh (2022), Lincoln (2000, 2002), East Texas Baptist (2022), Mount Union (2006) and McMurry (2012).
Including multiple performances by those schools, Rowan’s time is 20th-fastest ever record by an NCAA Division 3 school.
Rowan shattered the school record of 40.71 set last weekend by the same quartet in a meet at Widener. Before that, the record was 40.82 run by Ed Fortune from Queens, N.Y., Millville’s Matt Davis, Highland’s Jorge Santiago and Camden’s Tyree Jackson at the 2003 NCAA Division 3 Championships in Canton, N.Y.
So both school-record teams were 75 percent South Jersey.
Rowan broke the meet record of 41.24 set by the Profs at the 2018 meet in Brockport, N.Y., with Julian Pratt of Camden, Kingsway’s Steven Jones, West Deptford’s Shai Mumford and Jonathan Ramirez of Memorial of West New York (N.J.), and broke the stadium record of 41.74 set by a Bucknell team that included Egg Harbor Township’s Alex Dessoye at the 2018 Jim Taylor Invitational.
The performance locks Rowan into a spot at the NCAA Division 3 National Championships, scheduled for May 25-27 at Polisseni Track and Field Complex on the St. John Fisher campus in Rochester, N.Y.
In the same race, Stockton – with Bordentown graduate Carson Latham, Barnegat’s Ryan Fisher, Oakcrest’s Dontay Turner and Lower Cape May’s Anthony Gentile – placed 5th with a school-record 41.85. The previous school record was 41.99 set last year by Latham, Pennsauken’s Devante Greene, Clearview’s Aidan Burns and Fisher.
Corcoran (10.63), Beasley (10.75), Latham (10.78) and Love (10.83) all came back a few minutes later and qualified for tomorrow’s 100 final
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 