A 200 PR for Washington Township’s Ajani Dwyer Thursday in the prelims at the Big Ten Championships.
Dwyer qualified with a 20.51 at Fall Creek Pavilion in Indianapolis, lowering his indoor PR from 20.52, which he ran at the Ott Center last month. Dwyer matched his lifetime-best 20.51 from last year’s outdoor Big Ten Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
Dwyer qualified 2nd, behind only USC’s Garrett Kaalund, the NCAA outdoor runner-up at 200 meters last year and world leader this winter at 20.12. Kaalund is No. 12 in college history with a 19.85 in College Station last spring. He ran 20.30 Thursday.
Dwyer is now No. 7 in the world at 200 meters. He goes into Friday’s 60 trials No. 8 in the world at 6.52.
That 20.51 is No. 62 all-time among U.S. men and 2nd-fastest indoors by a New Jersey sprinter. In Penn State indoor track history, he trails only Olympian Cheickna Traore from Snyder High in Jersey City, who ran 20.30 when he placed 2nd at 2024 NCAA Championships in Boston. Traore, who now represents the Ivory Coast, is also the only New Jersey sprinter who’s run faster than Dwyer.
Dwyer has the 60 trials at 5 p.m. Friday. The 60 final is at 2:50 p.m. Saturday, with the 200 final at 4:10 p.m. Saturday. Dwyer shares the No. 1 seed in the 60 with Iowa’s Darwin Jimenez, who ran 6.52 in Albuquerque earlier this month.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 