Dwayne Morgan earns second in county 55-meter hurdles, aims for states

Riverhead track star Dwayne Morgan is reaching new heights. The senior hurdler set his personal best in the 55-meter hurdles, finishing in second place on Sunday at the Section XI Boys Large School County Championships at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood. 

In the League I championships on Jan. 16, Morgan ran a time of 7.89 to finish first in his heat. In the finals, he improved that time to 7.83 but barely lost to Longwood’s Kaden Reid, who posted a time of 7.82. That final was Morgan’s best of his career.

“I was definitely disappointed losing in the league championships, but making it into 7.8’s was a major accomplishment for me,” Morgan said. “To think I’d be running a time like that is shocking to say the least, but it shows that my hard work is paying off.”

Flash forward two weeks later to the Suffolk County championships, Morgan surpassed that and got revenge on Reid, all in the same event. In the first heat of the day, Reid was lined up alongside Morgan, and it was Morgan who crossed the line first with a PR time of 7.74, winning with ease. Reid’s 7.91 was good enough to make it to the final, so the two would face off again.

“This whole season I’ve been running like 8.1 or 8.0,” Morgan said. “But once I made it to 7.9 this season, I wanted to keep pushing myself. I knew I could continue to tweak little things to get my time further down.”

Morgan posted a best time of 7.87 last year, and he spent all of this season trying to regain that form. He not only regained it, but he surpassed it. In the finals, Morgan came up just short and finished second place in all of Suffolk County with a time of 7.75. Devin Woodard of Connetquot took the crown with a time of 7.65. Reid finished third with a time of 7.78.

“I like to take little victories in every event,” Morgan said. “Beating Reid twice felt amazing. I try not to think about what my competitors are doing and focus on myself, but losing in the league championships by .01 really didn’t sit well with me.”

Now Morgan’s focus is on qualifying for states. He’s earned the standard qualifying time, but he will still have to finish top three in the state qualifiers to earn a bid to states. He’s never made it to states in his high school career yet.

“It takes a lot to be one of the top hurdlers on Long Island, which I think he is right now,” Riverhead track coach Tyler Lobenhofer said. “The kid just works his butt off in practice every week. I think when he made a commitment to the cross country team this season and committed to running all year round made all the difference. If he can race like he did this Sunday at the state qualifiers, he should absolutely be in the conversation.”