Rowan men’s track and field’s historical season persisted over the weekend, setting personal records and top New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) times at the Paul Donohue Invitational at Widener University and the Michael Johnson Invitational at Baylor University.
At Baylor, Evan Corcoran (21.59) set a PR in the 200m, and Scott Hubbard (3:57.29) set a PR in the 1500m. Masai Byrd, Shamar Love, Nana Agyemang, and Evan Corcoran placed sixth in the 4×100 relay. Demetrius Hester threw javelin over 60m again, placing third, two spots ahead of teammate Thomas Flanagan, who threw 59.82m, which was also a PR.
“We had some unfortunate weather at Baylor,” head coach Dustin Dimit said. “I think the times were fine, we obviously wanted more, can’t do anything about cold and rain. They canceled the 4×4 and that’s one of the reasons we went down there. Didn’t get a chance to run that, but still a couple people with PRs down there.”
The distance group at Widener ran very well, as Giancarlo Vega (14:41.02) set the fastest time for the 5k in the NJAC this season. Vega, Shane Vostenak, and Colin Patterson all finished below 14:50, setting PRs for each.
“We’re just really happy with how he’s doing and the other distance guys,” Dimit said. “We had that many guys under 15 minutes which is the most we’ve ever had in a year here. I think there’s already eight guys that have run sub-15 and a lot under 14:50. That really sets them up this year going into NJACs and regionals, but also really sets them up as we start thinking about cross country.”
Injuries can prevent the best results for an athlete if they linger around, but Vega is feeling 100% after dealing with a slight injury the last couple of weeks.
“Hitting my stride in practice,” Vega said. “Workouts are going really well, I was dealing with some IT band issues, but in the past week or two thanks to the trainers it’s been clearing up. Ten days before the race had a really good workout, so that gave me some good optimism going into the race on Friday.”
The distance group is looking great, performing their best towards the end of the year. On top of the dominance, some of the other groups have shown this season, distance has been bringing it all together and showing there are no weaknesses for the Profs.
“I’m feeling absolutely great,” Vega said. “Plan is to taper my training going NJACs and regionals. Ready to run some fast times. The team is obviously odds-on favorite to win NJACs but it’s about by how much. Our distance team, this is the best distance team at Rowan since probably like the mid-80s. We’ve put in a lot of hard work for that, and I believe we have top times in the NJAC in literally every event. I think we have three times in both the 5k, 10k, and steeple I think the 1500 as well, so we’re running the table. Now it’s just about how much we run the table at NJACs.”
Coming up for the Profs are the Penn Relays and the TCNJ Invitational this weekend. After those events, it’s just the NJAC Championship, NCAA Regional Championship, and NCAA Division III Championship remaining.
“I think we’ll go out have a good experience at Penn Relays and get some good competition,” Dimit said. “We’ll have the 4x running and some hurdlers and D high jumping so we’re excited to see that but then championship season you know that’s what we train all year for. It should be our tenth year in a row winning NJAC and we should win the ARTFC meet again and then head into nationals and you know try to be top four and really contend to finally bring home first.”
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