Jake Rose opened up his senior season in a big way this past weekend down south.
The Southern Columbia Area hurdler and recent University of Pennsylvania commit clocked state-leading times in the 55m hurdles and the 60m hurdles, moving to PA No. 1 in both events. Rose ran 7.38 for 55m hurdles and 7.95 for the 60m hurdles to roll to the state lead.
Rose went 7.46 for 55m hurdles to start things off on Friday in the preliminary round to qualify through to the final as the top seed. The distance increased by five meters for the finals, making it a 60m hurdle race. In the final, Jason Holmes-Williamson got the better of Rose. The two were neck-and-neck through much of the race and Holmes-Williamson moved ahead slightly over the last hurdle to take the win in 7.90.
Rose clocked his 7.95 for the 60m hurdles and split a 7.38 for the 55m hurdles en route in that final. Rose is currently US No. 2 for 55m hurdles and US. No 7 for 60m hurdles.
It's a good start to the indoor season for Rose, who broke through last spring, winning the PIAA Class AA state titles in the 110m hurdles and 300m hurdles, as well as helping SC to gold in the 4x100m relay. He joins a rather exclusive list of PA boys to go sub 8 seconds in the 60m hurdles and sits at PA No. 14 all-time in the event, per the MileSplit database. After this weekend's performance, it's a good bet that Rose can make some moves up that list as the season progresses.
Watch both of Rose's prelim and final in the hurdles from this past weekend's VA Showcase below.
