It was a mixed bag for Hurdle U in the 110-meter hurdles semifinals Friday at the NCAA Division 3 Championships in Geneva, Ohio.
Junior Jason Agyemang and freshman Jamir Brown won their heats and advanced to the final as the two-fastest qualifiers, but junior Kwaku Nkrumah, the defending champion, didn’t finish the race and won’t advance to the final.
Brown, Agyemang and Nkrumah are ranked 1st, 3rd and 4th on the all-time NCAA Division 3 performance list at 13.60, 13.74 and 13.77.
Agyemang ran 13.93 in the first heat and Brown – the Division 3 record holder at 13.60 – ran 14.00 to win the 2nd heat. They were the two-fastest in the trials.
Another Rowan hurdler, junior Anaias Hughes from Willingboro, ran 14.34 in the 1st heat and advanced to the final as the No. 7 seed. That’s only 5-100ths of a second off his PR of 14.29.
So Rowan has three of the top-seven seeds in the final without the defending national champion.
The final is scheduled for 1:50 p.m. Saturday at SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 