Fresno State senior Jewel Ash advanced to the quarterfinals of the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Championships Thursday night with a 2nd-place finish in her heat at the NCAA West Prelims.
She advanced to the national quarterfinals, scheduled for 7:25 p.m. Saturday back in College Station, Texas. The top 12 from those three races – the top three from each heat and the next three-fastest – advance to the NCAA semifinals at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.,
Ash ran 57.46 – her fastest time in three years – and placed 2nd in the 5th of six heats, advancing automatically with a top-three finish.
Overall, her time was 13th-fastest in the field of 48 intermediate hurdlers. Everyone who ran 58.66 or faster advanced.
Ash ran her PR 57.16 at the 2022 Big South Conference Championships in High Point, N.C., as a sophomore at Charleston Southern. She re-surfaced at Fresno State in January and ran a flat 400 PR of 53.95 indoors in Albuquerque. She won the Mountain West 400 hurdles in 57.63 two weeks ago, and that was her fastest time as a Fresno State Bulldog until Thursday evening.
Fresno State has the worst athletics web site I’ve ever seen and I had no luck finding an all-time top-10 list or even a list of school records.
But from TFRRS we can say that Ash’s 57.46 is the fastest time by a Fresno State intermediate hurdler since at least 2009, or as far back as the TFRRS data base goes. And I’m willing to say there’s a very good chance that is the school record. But there’s no way to know for sure.
Earlier in the day, Duke’s Aliya Garozzo from Paul VI and Howard’s Arianna Smith from Pennsville advanced to the 400-meter hurdles quarterfinals at the NCAA East Prelims Thursday in Jacksonville.
With Garozzo running 56.16, Smith 57.11 and Ash 57.46, all three not only advanced to their respective quarterfinals, they all ran their 2nd-fastest time ever.
Garozzo, Smith and Ash posted the 4th-, 14th- and 26th-fastest times of the combined NCAA East and West Prelims.
Garozzo, Smith and Ash are now No. 1, 3 and 6 in South Jersey history. Here’s a look at the all-time South Jersey 400-meter hurdles all-time top-10:
55.77 … Aliya Garozzo [Paul VI], April 12, 2025, Durham, N.C.
55.78 … Tonya Lee [Rancocas Valley], April 21, 1996, Walnut, Calif.
56.11 … Arianna Smith [Pennsville], May 17, 2025, Norfolk, Va.
56.21 … Krystal Cantey [Winslow Twp.], May 26, 2007, Gainesville, Fla.
56.87 … Evann Thompson [Lenape], May 30, 2014, Jacksonville, Fla.
57.16 … Jewel Ash [Eastern], May 9, 2022, High Point, N.C.
57.31 … Danielle Myricks [Willingboro], May 19, 2002, Columbia, Mo.
57.31 … Eusheka Bartley [Highland], May 29, 1996, Atlanta
57.84 … Arianna Smith [Pennsville], May 6, 2023, Philadelphia
58.28 … Nylah Perry [Winslow], May 27, 2023, Sacramento, Calif.
58.32 … Natalie Dumas [Eastern], June 14, Philadelphia
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 