WEEK of: MAY 5-18, 2008
New Jersey City University
junior
MARCUS LEE (Vineland, NJ/Vineland) is the NJCU Men's Athlete of the Week for the second time since March and the first time in his outdoor career for the Gothic Knights and was also named the
New Jersey Athletic Conference Men’s Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week for the second time this season after winning the 400-meter hurdles and earning All-ECAC accolades in four events at the 2008 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Lee previously received the honor in week six on April 28. Moreover, it is the fifth time in nine weeks this year that an NJCU men’s athlete has earned the conference award.
Lee, who helped NJCU finish sixth overall among 53 schools at the ECAC Championship on May 16-17 at Springfield College’s Blake Track, defeated a field of 33 hurdlers in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 53.54 seconds, to easily qualify provisionally for the NCAA Championship in the event; the NCAA standard is 54.50. The time was 69/100th of a second faster than his previous career best of 54.23 on April 25 at the Penn Relays. It is the fastest automated time in the event in NJCU history, breaking the mark of 53.65 by Johnnie Taylor on May 16, 2005. Joe Stewart had a hand-timed mark of 51.6 during the 1970s.
Lee was also a standout in the 400-meter dash, finishing fourth in a field of 35 sprinters in a career-best 49.03 seconds—the fastest time by an NJCU runner this season.
For the first time this year, Lee served as anchor of the 4x100-meter relay team, which timed 41.87 seconds to finish second among 30 schools in the event. It was better than the NCAA provisional time of 42.00 seconds and he will run for the NCAA Championship in both the relay and the 400 hurdles.
Lee concluded his performance at the ECAC Championships by anchoring the 4x400-meter relay which listed sixth of 23 teams in a mark of 3:20.37.
Lee will seek his first career All-America honors when he runs in the 400 hurdles and 4x100-meter relay at the 2008 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships from Thursday-Saturday, May 22-24 in Oshkosh, WI.
