Rowan’s all-South Jersey 4-by-2 team destroyed the NCAA Division 3 record in the 800-meter relay Friday afternoon at the Penn Relays.
Sophomore Eli Hendricks of Penns Grove, freshman Julian Conigliaro from Delsea, senior Robert McKinney from Highland and freshman Rajahn Dixon from Eastern ran 1:25.04 in their heat of the Championship race at Franklin Field, destroying the NCAA Division 3 outdoor mark of 1:25.74 set by Dubuque of Iowa at the 2022 Drake Relays.
Rowan broke the school record of 1:25.45 that they ran at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Ott Center across the railroad tracks from Franklin Field in February. That’s the fastest time ever recorded indoors by a Division 3 school. Dixon, Hendricks, Masai Byrd and McKinney ran on that team.
Rowan’s fastest previous oudoor time was a 1:25.2 hand-timed by Rich Forbes from Westfield, Plainfield’s Keith Thomas,. Ronald Moore from Overbrook and Willie Lawson of Plainfield at the 1985 Penn Relays.
Rowan placed 9th in a field of Division 1 schools.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 