During this past indoor season, Scotch Plains-Fanwood coach Rich McGriff had to find two guys to fill out his shuttle hurdle lineup.
Junior Ameen Zubair, brand new to the sport this year, and sophomore Justice Larkin stepped up and emerged as the two missing pieces that McGriff needed to go with All-American Nate Rayan and Ian Hopkins.
As with any new hurdlers, it took some time for Larkin and Zubair to fine tune their technique and get their steps down, but just a few months after clearing a hurdle for the first time in their lives, Larkin and Zubair ran their best races when it mattered most to help ignite SPF to a magical, improbable and historic performance on Saturday when the Raiders produced a stunning victory in the shuttle hurdles at the New Balance National Championships at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
Hopkins, a junior, started things off for the Raiders, and gutted out a 15.5 leadoff leg after hurting his hamstring midway into the race. Larkin then ran a PR of 15.3, and Zubair split a PR of 15.2. Rayan, who won the 110 HH at the Meet of Champions in 13.42 (No. 2 in NJ history), then closed it out by burning a 13.7 to stop the clock at 59.78. SPF's previous best time this season was the 1:01.29 it ran to finish first at the Union County Relays.
The 59.78 by SPF is the fastest time by a NJ team this season, a new school record, and the victory marks the first national title in the history of the program. The previous school record was set in 1998 when Adam Bowser, Nate Jones, Blair Woodward, and Karl Jennings ran 1:00.9 at the East Coast Relays in Morristown.
After winning its heat (the 8th of 10), SPF had to wait to see if any teams in the last two heats beat their time. Trenton gave the Raiders a scare by running 59.99 in the ninth heat to finish second overall. Toms River North, who ran in the same heat as Scotch Plains-Fanwood, made it a 1-2-3 NJ sweep by placing third in 1:00.38.
The Clemson-bound Rayan had a busy day on Saturday.
Sandwiched in between his anchor in the shuttle hurdles, Rayan qualified for Sunday's 110-meter hurdle final. He went 13.62 to win his first round heat on Saturday morning, and then ran a meet record 13.43 into a +2.4 headwind in the semifinals in the afternoon. The finals are scheduled for Sunday at 10:44 a.m.