Over the weekend, the Rowan women’s track and field team participated in two meets, the Larry Ellis Invitational and MiddleSex Invitational.
At the Larry Ellis Invitational, Emily Galvin broke her school record for the fourth consecutive time and once again impressed her head coach, Derick “Ringo” Adamson.
“It is like having a nice piece of pie but not wanting to eat it all at once,” Ringo said. “You have a little bit at the beginning and just keep getting more and more. She is about to finish the pie. She is probably gonna continue down in South Carolina to improve. It is gonna be so hype down there. We are probably going to be the only Division III school down there. I think this performance just shows how good she is. I mean this is why she is ranked number three in the country. Great things are still to come for her.”
Another person who had a great performance was Olivia Shafer, who hit her personal record in the 1500 meter race.
“It felt really good,” Shafer said. “It was a really nice day out. I was just happy to hit my PR, I hope that I keep improving.”
Ringo feels as if this has been a long time coming from Shafer. He has had to coach her through some hard times and always made sure she came out of it with a positive attitude.
“The way I look at it is, I keep encouraging the positive vibes,” Ringo said. “I am dead serious when I tell them to take all the good things that happen as a blessing. You never know what tomorrow may bring. You use that to give yourself energy and keep moving forward. She is a good example of having positive vibes. I just continue to drive the bus and continue the positive vibes.”
Ringo’s message of keeping a positive mindset resonated with Shafer, and as a result, she changed up a few things about herself to get where she is today.
“It was just having to take care of myself,” Shafer said. “I had an injury at the time so I really had to keep a positive mindset. It was a long and hard journey. I just had to get a better diet and be more active.”
The team was also supposed to compete in more events at the Larry Ellis Invitational but unfortunately, the rain was too much and Ringo did not think there was any point in participating in it.
“During the meet we just gather around and wait it out. I start telling stories because I am notorious for telling stories to keep their minds off of what is going on,” Ringo said. “We sat there and I could tell the morale dropped. I knew they were not gonna be up to run in that weather. I was better off just pulling the plug.”
The team is hoping the weather will be better this weekend when they participate in the Widener Invitational and the USC Open.
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