Rowan men’s indoor track and field secured a team title in the Metropolitan Championships held at the Ocean Breeze Complex in Staten Island on Friday, Feb. 2. Even with Division I competition in the meet, the Profs dominated, putting up almost 60 more points than the second-place Fordham.
As they have done all season, the Profs’ 60-meter hurdle group controlled the ranks, taking home each of the top five spots in the finals event.
“I mean the hurdlers going one through five was pretty spectacular,” Head Coach Dustin Dimit said. “To dominate, especially when it was mainly DI competition, and have so many high scores in, that was great.”
Leading the flock for the Profs in the 60m hurdle was Kwaku Nkrumah, as he tied his personal best with 8.12 seconds.
“I thought it was great,” Dimit said. “We’re starting to see a real consistency for him, which is important for us heading into more serious meets in championship season. Especially nationals, because you have to be able to perform like that in the prelims to make the finals. The fact that him and Marquise and a lot of these guys are starting to be able to replicate those times is definitely a step in the right direction for what we want to do at the end of the year.”
Kwaku’s stellar performance at Ocean Breeze gained him the status of New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Track & Field Athlete of the Week. He is competing very well now, but he has his eyes set down the road in the season towards nationals.
“It doesn’t really mean nothing,” Nkrumah said. “It’s nothing new, it’s all about hard work, getting better every day, and setting a PR. Winning nationals is my goal for this year.”
Winning NJAC awards is nice, but Kwaku has the winning mindset not to get distracted by high praise. He is not comfortable with just performing well, he looks ahead to the big prize that gets nearer through hard work every day.
Outside of the hurdlers, Shane Vostenak took home first in the 5000-meter run with a personal best time of 14:58.70. Jacob Riley won the 3000-meter run, and Damarion Potts placed first in the High Jump. Jason Agyemang also set two personal records in the 400-meter dash at 50.01 seconds and in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.27 seconds.
“It was great just how many guys that weren’t supposed to win events that did,” Dimit said. “Winning the 5k, the 3k and the high jump. Some of those we’re starting to expect, because these guys are doing it every week. Really just how the team came together and made where it really wasn’t even close. We were comfortably ahead going into the relays, and then they went out and ran well in those as well.”
This Saturday, the Profs will be competing in the Valentine Invitational at Boston University. It is the same place where last season, Rowan broke the national record in the 4×400 meter relay, which was a record that had been standing since 2004.
“We’re really excited to see what everyone can do up there,” Dimit said. “I definitely think we’ll get some season bests, and hopefully some lifetime bests. We’ll see if we can approach that record, I know there are other teams that are trying to break it. The team that broke the outdoor record, I think, returns all four guys and they’re coming this year, so it should definitely be a great race for our guys. We should get pushed, and the big thing is making sure we run fast enough to get into nationals, but if we can get some of these extra things like records and personal bests that would be great too.”
For comments/questions about this story DM us on Instagram @TheWhitSports or email @the.whit.sport@gmail.com
