New Jersey City University Athletics

 

BLOOMINGTON, IL…Six weeks ago, freshman ANTHONY MILES (Sicklerville, NJ/Winslow Township), a six-time high school national champion, made his debut for New Jersey City University. Saturday, Miles won his first collegiate national championship. The 5-foot-11 sprinter sped across the finish of the 55-meter dash in a Division III season’s best 6.35 seconds, to become the first NCAA men’s individual national champion in NJCU history, at the 2005 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Shirk Athletic Center.

 

“I just wanted to come out and do my best,” Miles said after winning the title. “I knew I could do it, and it feels pretty good. At the beginning of the season, I had a hamstring injury, which slowed me, but I knew once I healed I had a good shot of winning the 55. I think this will build confidence heading into the outdoor season. More than anything I want to win a team national championship.”

 

Miles dedicated his championship to his former high school coach, Tim Robinson, who passed away suddenly from a heart attack on March 7.

 

Miles, who on Friday, earned All-America honors in the long jump, becomes the second two-time indoor All-American in program history, and the first to accomplish the feat in one meet. Sophomore HYRON GRIFFITH (Jersey City, NJ/Combermere Secondary, Barbados), who also earned All-America honors in the long jump on Friday, is the other two-time winner.

 

Miles’ championship is the fifth individual title in any sport in University history, when combined with the four the women’s indoor program has won, including junior ANDREA HERBERT (Paterson, NJ/Passaic County Tech), who captured the triple jump national championship earlier on Saturday.

Miles also brings home the fourth 55-meter dash national championship in school history. On the women’s side, DIANA LAWSON (Union, NJ/Queen of Peace) was a three-time champion in the in the 55-meter dash in 2001, 2002, and 2004.

 

After running a season’s best 6.41 seconds in Friday’s preliminary round, placing second overall, Miles sprinted to the finish in the finals in 6.35 seconds. It is the fastest time run by a NJCU sprinter since Khaliem Jamar-Morgan timed 6.27 seconds on January 3, 1981.

 

Miles was 4/100^th of a second faster than Cortland State’s Nick Wetherby, a sophomore who finished second in 6.39 seconds. Lincoln University’s Augustine Schmader was third in 6.41, Montclair State University’s Tony Williams was fourth (6.42), and Nebraska Wesleyan University senior Bret Blake, who had won the 2003 and 2004 national title in the 55 dash, was dethroned by Miles, and ended fifth (6.44).

 

“The difference was staying down in his drive phase, so he had more speed at the end,” described first-year head coach STEVEN ROYSTER. “He beat everyone out of the blocks.”