YSU recruit Zallow wins national title

Published June 21, 2015 at 11:53 a.m.
Updated June 21, 2015 at 11:53 a.m.

Chad Zallow entered Saturday’s New Balance outdoor national meet hoping to race against his fastest rival. He ended up racing against the clock instead.

Safe to say, he did pretty well.

Zallow, who recently graduated from Warren JFK High and is headed to Youngstown State, won a national title in the 110-meter hurdles with a wind-aided time of 13.19 at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, N.C.

The mark would have easily broken the meet record of 14.05 set by Stephen Lewis of Freemansburg, Pa., in 2009 and would have been just off the national record of 13.09, set by Wayne Davis of Raleigh, N.C., in 2009.

The wind assistance was measured at 3.8 meters per second. The allowable mark is 2.0.

“There was too much wind, but I’ll take it,” Zallow said by phone on Saturday night. “It was a crazy fast time.”

Daniel Roberts of Hampton (Ga.) High was second in 13.40. Grassfield (Va.) junior Grant Holloway, who edged Zallow by four-thousandths of a second in the 60 hurdles at March’s New Balance Indoor Nationals, was disqualified after a false start before Saturday’s final.

“I personally wanted to race him again, so I was bummed about that,” Zallow said. “But this [national title] was my biggest goal going into my senior year. I just missed in indoors, but I trained harder and was ready for this day. I’m just so happy. No words can describe it.”

Zallow won three Division III state titles earlier this month — in the 110 hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the 100 dash — to help the Eagles win their first state team title. He will compete in the 110 hurdles at the USATF Junior Nationals next weekend in Eugene, Ore.