Kingsway’s Damon Dukes Jr. ran the 7th-fastest 100 in school history and a huge PR Saturday in his first outdoor race since transferring to the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Dukes won the 100 at the Towson (Md.) Invitational at Johnny Unitas Stadium in 10.62. His previous PR was a 10.89 this past May in the prelims of the America East Championships at UMBC – as a freshman at New Jersey Institute of Technology.
So his NJIT PR was run at UMBC and his UMBC PR was run at Towson.
Either way, that’s a huge drop of more than a quarter of a second, which you just don’t see.
That 10.62 ties Negasi Gerima for 6th-fastest in school history. Gerima ran 10.62 in 2000. Couldn’t find the meet. Disappointed in myself for that.
Anyway, Dukes’ high school PR at Kingsway was 10.92 at Cherokee in May of 2023 as a Kingsway senior. He went on to place 3rd at Group 4 states in Somerset in 10.94.
Dukes actually PR’d with a 10.80 in the trials. He also ran 21.97 in the 200. He PR’d at 21.70 as a NJIT freshman in the America East prelims in Boston in February of 2024. His high school PR was 22.20 at the 2023 Gloucester County Championships at Deptford, where he was 2nd to Washington Township’s Ajani Dwyer.
Indoors, Dukes ran 6.91 and 21.82, 10th on the UMBC indoor all-time performance list. His 6.91 is 3-100ths of a second off the top-10.
Dukes set the NJIT record over 60 meters with a 6.89 in the prelims of the 2024 America Eat meet in Boston last February.
In the 100 at Towson, Lindenwold graduate Fitzgerald Asher, a freshman at Camden County College, ran a PR 11.04 in the prelims and 11.07 in the final. Asher’s high school PR was 11.17 at 2003 South Jersey Group 2 sectionals at Delsea.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 