Marquise Young, a junior from Sterling, came within a fraction of a second of Rowan’s school record for the 60-meter hurdles Friday in his 2023-24 season-opening race.
Young won the event in 8.02 at the FastTrack National Invitational at Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island, N.Y.
http://milesplit.live/meets/583096/events/2/results/F/M
That’s 3rd-fastest in Rowan history, behind two former Division 1 transfers – David Benjamin ran 7.98 when he won the 2017 NCAA Division 3 title in Naperville, Ill. (after a 7.99 in the trials) and Bobby Cooks ran 8.01 at the 2018 All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships in Ithaca, N.Y. (after another 8.01 in the trials).
Young’s 8.02 makes him tied for the No. 24 performer in NCAA Division 3 history, according to the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches of America all-time performance list.
Young, a seven-time NCAA Division 3 All-America, lowered his PR from 8.11, which he ran when he won the New Jersey Athletic Conference title this past February, also at Ocean Breeze.
In the trials, Young ran a near-PR of 8.12, and Rowan soph Kwaku Nkrumah from Teaneck ran 8.21 in a separate race for the 2nd-fastest qualifying time. In the final, New Haven junior Jordany Dely placed 2nd in 8.08 and Nkrumah, an All-America in the 110 highs last spring, PR’d at 8.14.
Benjamin, Cooks and Young are now the three-fastest indoor hurdlers in NJAC history. Only 17 Division 3 hurdlers have ever run sub-8, and Young is now 3-100ths of a second from becoming the 18th.
Young already holds one school record. He ran on Rowan’s 4-by-4 that ran an NCAA Division 3 indoor record 3:10.09 last February in Boston.
Willingboro graduate Anaias Hughes, a sophomore at Rowan, placed 5th in 8.34. That’s a big PR for Hughes, who ran 8.53 last year when he placed 6th as a freshman in the 60 highs at the NJAC Championships and then again at the AARTFC Championships at the Armory.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 