After running the 7th-fastest hurdles time in NCAA Division 3 history in his first college race, Riverside grad Jamir Brown destroyed the NCAA Division 3 record in his first collegiate final.
Racing at the FastTrack Season Opener at Ocean Breeze in Staten Island, Brown raced away from teammate and NCAA Division 3 outdoor national champion Kwaku Nkrumah with a mind-blowing time of 7.72 in the 60-meter hurdles.
This was Brown’s first final ever over the 42-inch hurdles.
Brown broke the NCAA Division 3 record of 7.75 set at the 2014 NCAA Division 3 Championships at the Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb., by Luke Campbell of Salisbury (Md.) University. In the trials, Brown ran 7.86, the fastest ever by a New Jersey Athletic Conference hurdler.
Brown’s time is tied for 3rd-fastest ever by a South Jersey hurdler at any level. Camden’s Anwar Moore – who was ranked No. 1 in the world in 2007 outdoors – ran 7.50 in Boston in the trials of the USATF Championships in February 2008 and Olympic bronze medalist Jack Pierce ran 7.52 in Fairfax, Va., in February of 1995. Willingboro’s Isaac Williams ran 7.72 in Houston in 2015.
Only 27 hurdlers in NCAA Division 1 ran as fast as 7.72 last year, including only three freshmen. World Athletics does not maintain an all-time men’s Under-20 performance list, but going through results from the last 15 years it would likely be somewhere inside the top 20. I’ll keep working on that.
Rowan junior Kwaku Nkrumah, the NCAA outdoor champion over the 110-meter highs last spring, placed 2nd in a personal-best 7.92. His previous PR was a 7.93 when he won the NJAC Championships at Ocean Breeze this past February.
That makes him the No. 9 performer in NCAA Division 3 history with the 20th-fastest time ever recorded. Nkrumah is a graduate of Teaneck High School, also the alma mater of your From the Backstretch scribe.
Brown’s time is 8th-fastest all-time by a New Jersey hurdler over the 60-meter highs. Here’s a look at that list:
7.46 … Jeff Porter [Franklin Twp.], Feb. 1, 2014, Mondeville, France
7.50 … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], March 10, 1989, Madrid, Spain
7.50 … Anwar Moore [Camden], Feb. 24, 2008, Boston
7.52 … Jack Pierce [Woodbury], Feb. 25, 1995, Fairfax, Va.
7.55 … Devon Hill [Trenton], March 10, 2012, Nampa, Idaho
7.66 … Cory Poole [East Orange], Feb. 14, 2020, Clemson, S.C.
7.69 … Guy Rose [Wayne Hills], Feb. 24, 2001, State College, Pa.
7.72 … Isaac Williams [Willingboro], Jan. 9, 2015, Houston
7.72 … Jamir Brown [Riverside], Dec. 6, 2024, Staten Island
7.73 … Todd Matthews [Notre Dame], Feb. 17, 2001, Blacksburg, Va.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 