Washington Township’s Ajani Dwyer, a freshman at Penn State, raced into the 100-meter dash finals at the Big Ten Championships Saturday with the fastest wind-legal time of his life.
Dwyer ran 10.16 with a legal 0.5 meters-per-second tailwind at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., to lead all qualifiers for the final on Sunday. His previous legal PR was 10.19 in Gainesville last month. He ran a windy 10.05 [+3.9] in Charlottesville last month. He had a PR of 10.21 in high school with a 10.32 legal PR.
His time is No. 25 on the 2025 U.S. list, No. 3 on the U.S. Under-20 list and No. 6 on the World Athletics world Under-20 list.
Dwyer fell 1-100th of a second short of the Penn State record of 10.15 set last May by Olympian Cheickna Traore in Lexington, Ky. Traore graduated from Innovation High School in Jersey City.
On Sunday, Dwyer is scheduled to race in the 100 final at 4:45 p.m. and the 200 final at 5:26 p.m.
Dwyer’s time is 5th-fastest all-time by a New Jersey high school graduate:
9.86 … Carl Lewis [Willingboro], Aug. 25, 1991, Tokyo, Japan [+1.2]
9.91 … Dennis Mitchell [Edgewood], Sept. 7, 1996, Milan, Italy [+1.2]
10.12 … Mario Heslop [Franklin Twp.], April 9, 2022, Atlanta [-1.3]
10.15 … Cheickna Traore [Snyder], May 24, 2024, Lexington, Ky. [+0.7]
10.16 … Ajani Dwyer [Washington Twp.], May 17, 2025, Eugene, Ore. [+0.5]
10.19 … Michael Garvin [Don Bosco], April 4, 2009, Austin, Texas [+1.6]
10.21 … Nadále Buntin [J.P. Stevens], May 13, 2023, Bloomington, Ind. [+1.0]
10.23 … Ashhad Agyapong [Trenton], June 7, 2008, Holmdel, N.J. [+0.0]
10.24 … Renaldo Nehemiah [Scotch Plains-Fanwood], June 26, 1979, Västerås, Sweden [+1.0]
10.27 … Barry Douglas [Willingboro], May 4, 1996, Fairfax [+1.3]
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 