The Rowan men’s track and field team hadn’t competed in a team-scored meet since March 18, but they showed no rust when they took on the Hopkins/Loyola Invitational on April 14.
The brown and gold comfortably placed first out of 15 teams with 200 points. Johns Hopkins was a distant second at 115 points.
“We felt like it was a good overall meet tuning up for bigger meets we have coming up,” said head coach Dustin Dimit. “We had some guys move up on the national list, and we won the meet.”
On their way to securing first overall as a team, the Profs also had multiple individual first-place finishes.
The brown and gold won three field events: the javelin, discus and hammer throw. They also took first in the 4×400 relay, 110 hurdles, 800 meters and 400-meter hurdles.
Dimit said that even though the scoring was different, the team’s approach did not change. In fact, he doesn’t pay attention to how the meets are scored at all; he only pays attention to the outcome of a few meets.
“I don’t care if we win any meet or lose any meet until we get to conferences or nationals,” Dimit said. “Those are the only ones we care about.”
On Friday, Rowan will have two meets—one in Baltimore and one in Princeton, New Jersey.
The experience is familiar for Dimit, but he said things will be handled differently.
“Usually I go to one and then the other the next day, but this one our assistant coach will be with the distance guys at Princeton and I’ll be at Morgan State,” Dimit said. “The next day starts at 9:30 a.m., so we don’t want to leave at 6 a.m. after they did five events the day before.”
The Morgan State Invitational in Baltimore takes place on April 21 and 22 in Baltimore. Dimit said that it should be a big meet for the sprinters and that they’re trying to get some national qualifiers.
“We’re resting some guys or just letting them run in one event or relays to focus on the things we need to get done,” he said. “We’re pretty lucky we already have some guys that are safe on the national list. We’re making sure they stay sharp and not overwork them.”
After this weekend, the brown and gold will turn their focus to the historic Penn Relays.
Dimit said for that meet, the team is focusing on the 4×100 relay, specifically bringing the time down and getting one that will qualify them for nationals.
“We run those relays every week, but not always with everyone in them,” Dimit said. “The next weeks will have that and we should be good to go.”
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