Rowan freshman David Brown bumped teammate Jamile Gantt out of the top spot on the NCAA Division 3 high jump list Saturday when he cleared 6-11 at the Armory.
Brown cleared 6-5, 6-7 and 6-9 on his 1st attempts before getting over the bar at 6-11 on his 3rd attempt. He took three jumps at 7-1 as well.
Gantt, a Paulsboro graduate, had been Division 3 No. 1 with his 6-10 ¾ at Ocean Breeze last month.
Rowan now goes 1-2-T5-7 in D-3 with Brown, Gantt, Arrington Rhym from Hamilton West at 6-8 ¾ and Noah Wampole from Radnor at 6-8 ¼. Highland graduate Jayden Deleon, a Rutgers-Camden freshman, is tied with Rhym at No. 5 with a 6-8 ¾ of his own.
Scoring at nationals goes 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, so if Rowan finished with their current places in the national rankings, they would scored 23 ½ points in the high jump.
Pleasantville’s Isaiah Davenpoert, a Rowan junior, cleared 6-7 Saturday and is No. 14 in D-3. Another Rowan jumper, Damarion Potts from South Brunswick, cleared 6-8 ¼ last year. He cleared 6-5 on Saturday at the Armory. So six current Rowan jumpers have cleared at least 6-7.
Brown, from Edison High, had a high school PR of 6-10 from last year’s indoor state Group 4 meet at the Bubble.
He’s now 3rd on the all-time Rowan indoor list, behind only Jeffrey Jon Tucker of Eastern [7-0 ½ in2015] and Harrison Escoffery from Ewing [7-0 ¼ in 2018]. Gantt is 4th on that list but cleared 6-11 outdoors when he placed 3rd last May at D-3 Nationals in Geneva, Ohio, his 2ndAll-America performance.
Also Monmouth junior David Godbolt from Rancocas Valley placed 4th with a lifetime-best 6-9 clearance. That’s tied for 5th in Monmouth history with Keven Kevelier of Collingswood.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 