It was wind-aided, but it’s still very fast.
Wilson graduate Dennisha Page, a Rutgers junior, recorded the 6th-fastest qualifying time of the NCAA Eastern Prelims Thursday evening and one of the fastest times ever recorded by a New Jersey native.
Page ran 22.88 in the NCAA Championships first round, easily advancing her to Friday’s quarterfinals. The race was assisted by a tailwind of 3.1 meters per second – above the 2.0 that’s allowed for record-setting purposes.
According to the wind correction calculator, a 22.88 with a 3.1 assisting tailwind equals a 23.06 with no wind or a 22.92 with a legal 2.0 wind.
So it’s very fast.
The only New Jersey women who’ve run faster in any conditions are Montclair’s Me’Lisa Barber [22.37 in 2005], Union Catholic graduater and world 400IH record holder Sydney McLaughlin [22.39 in 2018], Eastern’s Olympic gold medalist English Gardner [22.62 in 2013], Trenton’s Wenda Vereen [22.63 in 1993] and Montclair’s Mikele Barber [22.73 in 2007].
Page ran a wind-legal PR of 23.08 earlier this month in the prelims of the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind. This is her first NCAA meet. Page began her academic career at Syracuse but has blossomed at Rutgers, where she set the school record of 11.30 at Big Ten’s and is 1-100th of a second off the school record in the 200, a 23.07 by Williamstown’s Gabrielle Farquharson at the 2016 Big Ten Championships in Lincoln, Neb.
All six qualifying races were wind-aided to varying degrees.
The 200 quarterfinal races are scheduled for 7:50 p.m. Saturday. The top three in each of three heats plus the next three-fastest times advance to the NCAA Championships next month in Austin.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 