Top-10 seeds freshman Jamir Brown from Riverside, senior Izzy Deal of Washington Township and freshman Nyla Jones of Timber Creek lead the large Rowan contingent at the NCAA Division 3 Championships, which begin Thursday in Geneva, Ohio.
The Rowan men, ranked 6th in the latest USTCCCA NCAA Division 3 poll, are seeking their 5th consecutive top-5 finish. The Profs were 4th in 2021, 5th in 2022 and tied for 3rd in 2023 and 2024.
The Rowan women, ranked 20th in the USTCCCA poll, last scored at nationals in 2019. Their best finish ever was 10th in 1994.
Brown leads the Rowan men to Northeaster Ohio on the heels of his NCAA Division 3-record 13.60 in the 110-meter hurdles in the prelims of the NJAC Championships in Ewing. He slightly tweaked his hip in that race and hasn’t competed since. Brown is the top seed, and he’s bidding to become Rowan’s first national hurdles champ since Gary Moore won in 1981 and 1982 and Stanley Moore won in 1983.
Junior Jason Agyemang of North Plainfield is the No. 2 seed at 13.74, junior Kwaku Nkrumah from Teaneck, the indoor national champ, is No. 5 seed at 13.91 and junior Anaias Hughes from Willingboro is No. 20 at 14.29. Nkrumah is defending champ after running 13.77 last year in Myrtle Beach. Brown, Agyemang and Nkrumah are No. 1, 3 and 4 in NCAA Division 3 history.
Agyemang is also the No. 18 seed in the intermediates at 52.69. Brown ran 52.83 in what will wind up being his only lifetime intermediate hurdles race for Rowan and sophomore Samuel Agbessi from Sterling ran 52.82 last week at Widener. The qualifying cutoff was 52.74, and Brown and Agbessi were the two-fastest non-qualifiers.
The Profs do have three qualifiers in the high jump, with sophomore Jamile Gantt from Paulsboro as well as junior Noah Wampole from Radnor, Pa., and sophomore Arrington Rhym from Hamilton West all sharing the No. 12 seed with 6-9. Gantt earned All-America honors as a freshman last spring when he placed 7th at 6-9 ¾. He PR’d with a 6-10 ¼ indoors at Ocean Breeze.
Three South Jersey sprinters qualified for nationals. Sophomore Eli Hendricks from Penns Grove is the No. 18 seed in the 200 at 21.21, freshman Rajahn Dixon from Eastern is No. 19 at 21.22 and senior Shamar Love from Bridgeton is No. 20 seed in the 100 at 10.46.
Love, McKinney, Hendricks and junior Evan Corcoran from Kingsway will run the 4-by-1 for Rowan, seeded 3rd at 40.03, the 11th-fastest time in NCAA Division 3 history.
Rowan is seeded 14th in the 4-by-4 with senior James Coleman from Audubon, senior Nana Agyemang from Parsippany and freshmen Lorentzky Ambroise of Toms River North and Luke Halbruner of Ocean City the likely lineup.
In the field, sophomore Damitrius Hester from Mahwah is the No. 6 seed in the javelin at 217-1, and Agyemang is the No. 16 seed with his 23-11 at the conference meet.
Also competing in Geneva will be MIT sophomore Jacob Cobb from West Deptford and Stockton sophomore Ahmad Fogg from Egg Harbor Township.
Cobb is the No. 10 seed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with his PR 8:53.62 from last week, which elevated him out of the field into the top 10. Fogg is the No. 12 seed in the long jump with his 14-1 at the NJAC meet.
For the Rowan women, Jones is the No. 4 seed in the 400 hurdles with her meet-record 1:00.42 at the NJAC championships. She missed the field in the 100-meter highs by 2-100ths of a second after running 14.27 in Daytona Beach in April. Woodstown’s Molly Lodge, a Rowan senior, will also race in the 400 hurdles with her 1:01.29, also in Daytona Beach. She’s the No. 13 seed.
Washington Township’s Izzy Deal, a Rowan senior, is the No. 9 seed in the shot put at 46-4 and the No. 17 seed in the javelin at 135-5.
Rowan also qualified its 4-by-4 team, which is expected to include Jones, Lodge, freshman Ava Reilly of Toms River East and senior Nevaeh Lorjuste from Triton. They’re the No. 6 seed at 3:44.72. Lorjuste ran 55.44 this year and missed qualifying for the individual 400 by 3-100ths of a second.
Also from Stockton, junior Kayla Kass from Bayonne is the No. 5 seed in the 800 with her 2:07.13, and Emma Petrolia is the No. 9 seed in the 400-meter hurdles at 1:01.32.
Live results will be posted here. Here’s when everyone will compete:
Thursday
2:30 p.m.: Nana Agyemang, Ahmad Fogg, Long Jump final
3:30 p.m.: Izzy Deal, Javelin final
5:15 p.m.: Rowan, Men’s 400-Meter Relay trials
5:45 p.m.: Dametrius Hester, Javelin final
6:10 p.m.: Jason Agyemang, 400-Meter Hurdles trials
6:25 p.m.: Nyla Jones, Molly Lodge, 400-Meter Hurdles trials
6:40 p.m.: Eli Hendricks, Rajahn Dixon, 200-Meter Dash trials
7:10 p.m.: Jacob Cobb, 3,000-Meter Steeplechase trials
8 p.m.: Rowan, Men’s 1,600-Meter Relay trials
8:15 p.m.: Rowan, Women’s 1,600-Meter trials
Friday
2 p.m.: Jamile Gantt, Noah Wampole, Arrington Rhym, High Jump final
2 p.m.: Izzy Deal, Shot Put final
2:10 p.m.: Jamir Brown, Jason Agyemang, Kwaku Nkrumah, Anaias Hughes, 110 Hurdles trials
3:30 p.m.: Shamar Love, 100-Meter Dash trials
4:15 p.m.: Kayla Kass, 800-Meter Run trials
4:40 p.m.: Jacob Cobb, 3,000-Meter Steeplechase trials
Saturday
1:05 p.m.: Rowan, Men’s 400-Meter Relay final
1:50 p.m.: Men’s 110-Meter Hurdles final
2:30 p.m.: Men’s 100-Meter Dash final
3 p.m.: Women’s 800-Meter Run final
3:15 p.m.: Men’s 400-Meter Hurdles final
3:25 p.m.: Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles final
3:40 p.m.: Men’s 200-Meter Dash final
4:50 p.m.: Men’s 1,600-Meter Relay final
5 p.m.: Women’s 1,600-Meter Relay final
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 