Rowan cruised through the 1,600-meter trials at the NCAA Championships in Rochester, N.Y., Thursday and goes into the final as the No. 5 seed although they ran the 4th-fastest time.
The final closes the meet at St. John Fisher University at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Sterling’s Marquise Young got the Profs safely out the hole, and Nana Agyemang, a Parsippany graduate, ran the second leg. Jah’mere Beasley, who ran on Rowan’s 400-meter relay team that advanced to the final and also advanced in the 200, then split 46.66 and Amara Conte from Ferris High in Jersey City anchored in 46.61.
It was a very fast race for a preliminary, with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps [3:09.26], Wisconsin-La Crosse [3:09.38] and Rowan all running sub-3:11 in the first heat and Mount Union [3:09.38] and SUNY Geneseo [3:10.22] doing it in the second heat.
The 3:10.70 is the fastest Rowan has ever run in a preliminary race and their 5th-fastest time ever. They ran 3:10.06 when they placed 2nd at nationals last year (with John Owens, Agyemang, Beasley and Conte), 3:10.07 with Young, Agyemang, Beasley and Conte last month in Columbia, S.C., and 3:10.56 to win the 2012 NCAA Division 3 nationals with Jayce Maxwell of Monsignor Donovan, Taylor Purdue of Highland Lakes, Ali Ejaz from Glassboro and Demetrius Rooks of Absegami.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 