Paulsboro’s Jamile Gantt, needing to clear a season-best 6-9 ½ to have a chance at All-America status, got over the bar on his 2nd attempt and finished 7th at the NCAA Division 3 Championships Friday in Myrtle Beach.
Gantt, a true freshman, had a collegiate best of 6-7 ½ until he cleared 6-9 last week at the AARTFC Championships in Cortland, N.Y. That qualified him for NCAAs as the No 16 seed.
Gantt was sitting in 7th place out of nine remaining competitors as the bar went from 6-9 ½ to 6-11, and the only way at that point that he could fail to earn All-America honors was if the two jumpers behind him – Jackson McDowell of St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., and Eli Mackowski of Nebraska Wesleyan in Lincoln – both cleared 6-11 and Gantt didn’t.
As it turned out, all three went out at 6-11, and Gantt had himself NCAA Division 3 All-America honors in his first NCAA meet.
Gantt’s finish was 2nd-best among freshmen behind only MIT’s Anthony Meng, who also cleared 6-9 ½ but did it on his 1st attempt.
With the metric progression of 1.95 / 2.00 / 2.05 / 2.08 / 2.11 / 2.14 etc., opening height was 6-4 ¾, and Gantt was clean over both 6-4 ¾ and 6-6 ¾. He cleared 6-8 ¾ on his 3rd and final attempt and 6-9 ¾ on his 2nd. He missed three tries at what would have been a lifetime-best 6-11
Gantt’s lifetime best is a 6-10 at the South Jersey Elite at Delsea last May. He was the state Group 1 champion and Meet of Champions runner-up last spring. He placed 2nd in the indoor NJAC meet at Ocean Breeze with a 6-7 ½ clearance and was 2nd earlier this month at the outdoor conference meet as well.
The last Paulsboro High male to earn All-America honors for Rowan or Glassboro State was hurdler Robert Abdullah, who was 2nd in the hurdles in 1982 and won in 1984. Paulsboro’s Euridee McCormick was a five-time All-America for the Rowan women’s team in the 100-meter hurdles in 1988, 1989 and 1990 and the hurdles and 4-by-1 in 1991.
Gantt is Rowan’s first high jump All-America since Harrison Escoffery from Hackensack placed 3rd in 2018 with a 6-10 ¼ clearance. The last South Jersey jumper to earn All-America honors for Rowan was Delsea graduate Jeffrey Jon Tucker, who was 4th in 2016 at 6-9 ½ and set the Rowan record of 7-2 ¼ at a meet at The College of New Jersey in Ewing in 2018.
Other Rowan high jump All-Americas are Audubon graduate Mark Kelly, the 1978 Division 3 champ at 6-11 ¾; Princeton’s Pete Sharpless who was 5th at 6-10 ¼ in 1983 and and tied for 5th at 6-11 in 1984; and Tim Bowser form Millville, who tied for 4th at 6-9 in 2005.
Jackson Biley of MIT won the event with a 7-0 1/4 clearance.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 