The Rowan women’s indoor track and field team competed last Friday, Feb. 3, at the Metropolitan Championships in Staten Island, New York, and finished fifth out of 14 other teams at the event.

Throughout the day there were some performances that showed growth, like senior Kat Pedersen’s. She finished in fourth place for the 400m race and set a new personal record with a time of 58.47.

“I felt pretty good about it,” Pedersen said. “I felt kind of surprised about it. I did not think I had that in me, especially this early in the season. But I felt good about it.”

Head Coach Derick “Ringo” Adamson explained what he did to help the mindset of Pedersen going into the race.

“You could spend a lot of time speaking to someone and only talking to their negative side. All you are going to get back is negative,” Ringo said. ”But what I try to do is speak to the positive consciousness of their good side. What they are going to give back is positive. I think that really spoke to Kat [Pedersen]. You have to believe in that positive side of yourself, and that is why Kat did so well. She believed in herself. That is my job to get her to believe in herself.”

Pederson has improved greatly over time with the team, not just as a runner but as a leader as well.

“She is very quiet,” Ringo said. “I view her as another Molly Lodge. They are both great academic students. You do not need to be boisterous to be a great leader. She lets her actions speak for herself. You do not have to be a captain to be a leader.”

Pedersen also competed in the 4×400 race with her teammates Lodge, Jasmine Broadway and Nevaeh Lorjuste. The team finished with their best time of the season at 3:57.39 and finished in ninth place. 

“It is really important to trust one another,” Pedersen said. “Everyone has to pull their own weight in their own way. If you are starting off, you have to start strong, and if you are finishing, you have to finish off strong. So it is really important to have trust in everyone. And I do, they are all really good at what they do.”

Ringo has seen a lot from the 4×400 team this season, he has enough confidence to send them to compete in Boston this Friday, Feb. 10, at the Valentine invitational.

“I am bringing the 4×400 team with me up to Boston University,” Ringo said. “It is one of the fastest tracks in the world. Their job up there is to run themselves to the National Championships. I would not sacrifice that amount of time to drive that far if I did not believe in them. Now they just gotta go deliver.”

With the 4×400 team going up to Boston, the rest of the team is heading to compete again on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Alvernia Plex Shootout.

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