Abdulazeez Iyiola, a Mount St. Mary’s freshman from Palmyra, won the 400-meter hurdles and placed 2nd in the 110-meter high hurdles Sunday at the MAAC Championships in Lawrenceville.
First, Iyiola took 2nd in the high hurdles in 14.49, a lifetime best and tied for 5th-fastest in school history. It’s 2nd-fastest by a Mount hurdler in the last 23 years, behind only school record holder Richard Gilchrist, who ran 13.89 in Fairfax in May of 2023. (Mount St. Mary’s all-time list shows Gilchrist with a 13.76 in a meet at High Point, N.C., a few weeks earlier, but that was wind aided at 3.2). Wind was 0.7 for Iyiola’s race.
Iyiola was 3rd-fastest qualifier with a then-PR 14.51 in Saturday’s trials. Before this weekend, his fastest time over the 42-inch highs was a 14.75 in Harrisonburg, Va., in April, but that was wind-aided. Every other race he ran this spring wasa wind aided, so he technically did not have a PR until Saturday’s trials.
In the intermediates, Iyiola ran away from the field in 54.12, winning by two meters over Connor Ziolkowski of St. Peter’s, who was 2nd in 54.41.
Iyiola’s college 400 hurdles PR is a 53.39 from last month in High Point, No. 5 in school history. He ran 54.38 in Saturday’s trials. At Palmyra he ran 53.15 when he placed 3rd at last year’s Meet of Champions at Pennsauken.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 