Malachi James turned in the fastest 100 time by a Syracuse sprinter in at least 16 years on Friday.
James, a freshman from Burlington City, ran 10.32 into a 0.6 meters-per-second headwind at the ACC Championbships in Winston-Salem, N.C., and qualified for Saturday’s final.
James set the New Jersey state record at 10.28 last year at the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken but also had a 10.18 at South Jersey Group 1 sectionals that was negated because there was no wind gauge at Pennsauken.
After playing football for Syracuse as a true freshman, he sat out the indoor season and didn’t race outdoors until a meet in Tampa in late March. He ran a wind-aided 10.29 in Albany last month, but his race Friday was a collegiate PR and only 4-100ths of a second off his wind-legal PR of 10.28.
I’d love to tell you where James’ performance ranks in Syracuse history, but Syracuse’s track web site is one of a very few NCAA Division 1 programs that does not have an all-time top-10 performance list. So the best I can do is look back through the TFRRS year by year and that shows nobody running as fast as 10.28 as far back as it goes, which is 2010.
The final is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday back at Kentner Stadium on the Wake Forest campus.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 