From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Paulsboro’s Jamile Gantt, a sophomore at Rowan, earned All-America honors for the second straight year Friday with a 3^rd-place finish and personal best in the high jump at the NCAA Division 3 National Championships in Geneva, Ohio.

Gantt came into the meet with a PR of 6-9 ¾ from last year’s NCAA D-3 Championships in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He tied that on his first attempt Friday before clearing 6-11 on his 3^rd and final try.

He’s now 3^rd in school history, behind only Eastern’s Jeffrey Jon Tucker, who cleared 7-2 ¼ at the 2018 Penn Relays, and Kelly with his 6-11 ¾.

Gantt is the first Rowan high jumper to earn All-America honors in consecutive years since Princeton High graduate Peter Sharpless, who was 5^th in 1983 at 6-10 ¼ and 5^th again in 1984 at 6-11.

Gantt was clean at 6-4 ¾, 6-6 ¾, 6-8 ¾ and 6-9 ¾ before his successful clearance at 6-11.

Gantt’s finish matches the best by a Rowan or Glassboro State high jumper at nationals in 47 years, since Mark Kelly, a graduate of Audubon who won the 1978 Division 3 title at 6-11 ¾ Two other Rowan jumpers have placed 3^rd at nationals – Tucker in 2016 and Harrison Escoffery from Hackensack in 2018.

Rowan freshman Noah Wampole cleared 6-8 3/4 and finished in a four-way tie for 6th place for 1 1/2 team points for the Profs. His PR is 6-9 from a meet in Glassboro last month. Wampole, from Radnor High in Delaware County, had a high school PR of 6-6.

This is the first time Rowan / Glassboro has had two All-America high jumpers the same year.

Another Rowan jumper, sophomore Arrington Rhys from Hamilton West, cleared 6-6 3/4 and tied for 13th. He just PR’d at 6-9 last weekend in Baltimore.

Top-seeded Jackson Biley, an MIT junior, cleared 7-0 ¼ on his 2^nd attempt to tie his PR and win the national title, and senior Christian Pfeiffer of Baldwin-Wallace cleared 7-0 ¼ on his 2^nd attempt to set a PR and place 2^nd.  Both missed three tries at 7-1 1/2. Biley won based on fewer misses at 6-11.

Gantt’s 6-11 is 2^nd-best ever by a Gloucester County alum, behind only Williamstown’s Devin Bradham, who cleared 7-1 ½ in 2019.