BARRY MCCLAIN
- mercertrackhall
- Sep 20, 2025
- 1 min read
Updated: Sep 26, 2025
Trenton Central -- Hurdles
Mercer County boys’ scholastic track has been blessed with a bevy of spectacular performers in the high and intermediate hurdles, but in the early 1980’s, none was better than Trenton High’s amazing Barry McClain.
In the 1980-81 seasons, McClain had a run for the ages, culminated by a tie for the national championship in the 110-meter high hurdles. McClain’s 13.62-second effort set school and county marks and earned All-State recognition.
Before that astounding feat, McClain won the Group IV indoor and Meet of Champions indoor titles in the 55 hurdles. Appropriately, he anchored Trenton’s Group IV state shuttle hurdles championship team and went on to win the Eastern States Championship in the same event.
In the spring, McClain dominated the Mercer County track scene by taking the 110 hurdles and 400 hurdles plus running legs on Trenton’s winning 4x400 and 4x800. He dropped to second at the Group IV meet in the 110 hurdles, but gained his revenge by taking the Meet of Champions crown in the event, while also taking second in the 400 hurdles in Mercer County record time.
At Seton Hall University, McClain stayed true to his success level, earning All Big East and All IC4A honors in the hurdles. McClain competed in the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival in 1983 and the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1984, and got to compete against two of the greatest hurdlers of all-time (Renaldo Nehemiah in the 110 hurdles and Edwin Moses in the 400 hurdles), an appropriate distinction for a Mercer County legend.
