Rowan sophomores Kwaku Nkrumah and Jason Agyemang turned in a historic 1-2 finish in the 110-meter hurdles Saturday evening at the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Myrtle Beach.
Nkrumah ran 13.77 and Agyemang 13.80 – with a legal 1.2 meters-per-second tailwind. Their times are 2nd- and 4th-fastest in meet history and overall NCAA Division 3 history and the two-fastest times in Rowan and NJAC history.
Another Rowan hurdler, Sterling graduate Marquise Young, placed 5th in 14.21.
Nkrumah, who ran a slightly wind-aided 13.73 in Friday’s trials, missed the meet record of 13.72 – set in 2021 by Taylor Rooney of Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minn. – by 5-100ths of a second. His previous wind-legal PR was
Agyemang’s previous PR was 14.12 just last week at the AARTFC Championships in Cortland, N.Y.
Nkrumah, a graduate of Teaneck High in Bergen County, broke the 42-year-old Rowan school record of 13.90 set in the qualifying heats at the 1982 NCAA Division 3 Nationals in Naperville, Ill., by Overbrook graduate Gary Moore.
The race was delayed 2 ½ hours because of thunderstorms in the Myrtle Beach area.
With the 22 points in one event, Rowan moved into a tie for the lead with Wisconsin-Oshkosh with 38 points each with six events remaining.
Agyemang, from North Plainfield High in Somerset County, is now the 2nd-fastest sophomore in NCAA Division 3 history and on his own team.
The last time a school went 1-2 in the 110-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division 3 Nationals was Lincoln of Chester County, Pa., in 1999, and the last school with three hurdlers in the top eight at an NCAA Division 3 meet in 34 years, since Lincoln went 1-5-8 in the 1980 meet in Naperville. The last school with three finishers in the top five was Lincoln in 1986.
And the last school to go 1-2 and also have a 3rd medalist was Glassboro State in Naperville in 1982 with Moore 1st in 13.99, Paulsboro’s Robert Beaman 2nd in 14.22 and Anthony Abicca of Butler High in Morris County.
Nkrumah is Rowan’s first hurdles national champion since Beaman won in 1984 in 14.40 in Northfield, Minn.
Nkrumah and Young are now three-time All-Americas and Agyemang is a two-time All-America. Agyemang and Nkrumah placed 4th and 6th in the NCAA Division 3 indoor meet meet in Virginia Beach.
Other Glassboro State / Rowan national champs in the 110 highs are Leon Devero of Linden [14.42 in 1980], Moore [13.96 in 1981 in addition to 1982] and Overbrook’s Stanley Moore [14.01 in 1983].
Rowan has now had 29 individual national champs. Only Wisconsin-La Crosse [62], Lincoln [57], North Central [39] and Mount Union [36] have had more.
All-TIme Rowan NCAA Division 3 Hurdles Medalists
1980: Leon Devero, 1st, 14.42
1980: Clayton Davis, 6th, 14.90
1981: Garry Moore, 1st, 13.96
1981: Leon Devero, 4th, 14.22
1981: Clayton Davis, 5th, 14.40
1982: Garry Moore, 1st, 13.99
1982: Robert Beamon, 2nd, 14.22
1983: Stanley Moore, 1st, 14.01
1983: Anthony Abicca, 3rd, 14.69
1984: Robert (Beamon) Abdullah, 1st, 14.40
1985: Jason Mouring, 3rd, 14.39
1986: Jason Mouring, 6th, 14.68
1987: Jason Mouring, 3rd, 14.54
1996: Linval Lewis, 5th, 14.64
2015: Dave Benjamin, 3rd, 14.00w
2017: Dave Benjamin, 2nd, 14.19
2018: Bobby Cooks, 3rd, 14.24
2019: Tyrone Garland, 3rd, 14.40
2023: Nkrumah Kwaku, 4th, 14.25
2024: Nkrumah Kwaku, 1st, 13.77
2024: Jason Agyemang, 2nd, 13.80
2024: Marquise Young, 5th, 14.21
Here’s the updated all-time Rowan performance list:
13.77 … Nkrumah Kawaku, 2024
13.80 … Jason Agyemang, 2024
13.90 … Garry Moore, 1982
14.01 … Marquise Young, 2024
14.01 … Stanley Moore, 1983
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 