With the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Championships creeping around the corner, you’d think that a team would feel some kind of pressure.
The Rowan men’s track and field team feels otherwise.
“It’s something that’s kind of expected of our team,” said head coach Dustin Dimit. “Guys come in to expect to win a conference title because that’s what we’ve been doing. So there’s no pressure on them, it’s treated like another meet and [we] know that the training is going to get them to the point where we can win because, as a team we’re strong enough to do that.”
But they still have to take things one day at a time just like every other sport.
Up first, before the big meet next week, was this past weekend’s travels to Staten Island, New York, on Friday and Boston, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
And it was a weekend full of season-best times.
During the Fastrack National Invitational on Friday, sophomore Vincent Delle recorded a 49.94 in the 400 meters. Freshman Spencer Jarrett crossed with a time of 22.31 in the 200 meters and junior Dylan Tyrrell’s 4:21.44 in the mile was a season-best as well. Sophomore Frankie Richard leaped a distance of 22′ 2.25″.
“Vince has been close to having that breakout performance for a couple weeks,” Dimit said. “So it was good to see him breakthrough and be a guy we feel can score significant points at the conference meet.”
In Boston for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, freshman Josh Munoz ran for a season-best time of 1:56.70 in the 800 meters. Fellow first-year members Jeff Stewart and Kevin Lauer both had bests in the mile run.
“We knew Josh was on the verge of a breakout like that because his was a significant drop from the week before,” Dimit said. “We’d seen it in workouts and he was a guy who came in mid-season, so we didn’t have him in the fall. That training has really taken affect and we’re seeing the results.”
Now it’s time to gear up and prepare to capture a conference title.
It would be their fifth in a row.
“We’ve set up our whole training schedule for the whole year to start peaking at this championship time,” Dimit said. “That’s how our practices are set up. To be able to run fast next Monday and try to defend that title.”
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