Soon after winning the 800 in 2:14..85 at the Olympic Conference Championships in Mount Holly, Eastern senior Natalie Dumas smashed a 29-year-old meet reord in the 400-meter hurdles.
Dumas, the record-setting triple national champ last spring in the 400, 800 and intermediates, won the hurdles in 59.35, breaking the meet record of 60.6 hand-timed set by Shawnee’s Mandie Dulin in 1997 at Overbrook.
The 59.35 is a season best for Dumas, who ran 55.99 in June at Franklin Field along with a 51.14 and 2:00.11.
It’s fastest in the U.S. this year, according to the MileSplit database, bumping Rebecca Okebe of Dorman High in Spartanburg, S.C., who ran 59.38 yesterday in Spartanburg.
It’s No. 22 on the world Under-20 list and No. 4 among U.S. women in the Under-20 division.
Dumas won the intermediates as a freshman in 2023 in 1:05.01 and in 2024 in 1:01.40. Only the meet getting rained out last year prevented her from being a four-time winner.
Winslow junior Cinniya Robinson placed 2nd in 1:01.41, not far off her PR of 1:01.01 from her win in May at the state Group 3 meet in South Plainfield.
In the 800, Dumas won for the second time following a win in 2023 by her older sister, Kadence. Dumas is scheduled to run the 400 on Thursday.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 