Rowan comes together to take the big stage at the Penn Relays: ‘It’s a special thing’
Delaware County Community college also competed in the Penn Relays for the first time in school history.
While the Penn Relays are known for showcasing elite track and field talent, smaller college programs wore their colors proudly Friday.
Rowan University, which competes at the Division III level, finished ninth in the college men’s 4x200 championship of America, clocking in at 1:25.04 in the 20-team field. Senior Robert McKinney, a Blackwood native who graduated from Highland, said the team felt like the underdog going against top-tier Division I programs, like South Florida, who took home first place at 1:21.06.
“We had big expectations,” McKinney added. “We knew it was going to be good competition. We just wanted to come out and execute.”
The Profs are coming off an indoor season where their 4x200 men’s relay team notched the sixth-fastest time in college track history and the top time in Division III history after they ran 1:24.45 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships on Feb. 22. Three of those four runners — McKinney, Eli Hendricks, and Rajahn Dixon — also ran it in the outdoor event with freshman Julian Conigliaro.
Heading into the race, they wanted to “dominate.” Hendricks, a sophomore, set the pace on the first leg: “We had TCNJ on our right side and I don’t like them. We don’t like them. So I wanted to catch up to them immediately.”
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Dixon, a former standout at Eastern Regional, ran the anchor. While he said he didn’t have his best performance, the freshman believes his full potential has yet to be reached. Individually, he set a school and championship meet record in the 200 meters this season, running 21.34 seconds at the NJAC indoor championship.
The 4x200 relay isn’t a standard event in the NCAA, so the team doesn’t get the chance to run it much in competitive meets. However, Rowan’s men’s track and field coach Dustin Dimit said each runner is individually talented in the 200 meters, which gives the Profs a chance “to show off their best event in a relay.”
“They try to push each other every day to be the best guy on our team,” Dimit said. “We had two guys make it to indoor nationals [in the 200 meters], and we’re hoping to get three or four in the outdoor NCAA championship in that event. But it’s nice to see them come together, instead of being rivals. It’s a special thing.”
‘Iron sharpens iron’
Meanwhile, on Friday, Delaware County Community College made its first appearance in the Penn Relays.
The men’s 4x100 relay team was the school’s lone representation in the Eastern heat, and while they finished in 17th place and clocked in at 43.30 seconds, they looked at this 21-team competition as a learning opportunity.
“Iron sharpens iron,” said sophomore (Tre) Fred McCray, a graduate of Upper Darby. “It’s only going to make us better. We’re a young track team, we’re building this team up to compete against these guys and to compete at a higher level. It’s only going to make us better and it’s only going to make the program better.”
McCray, whose father, Fred, coaches track and field at Central High School, ran the program’s first sub-11.00 in the 100-meter dash, with a time of 10.94 seconds at the Millersville Invite on April 19.
McCray qualified for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Outdoor meet (May 8-10) alongside sophomore Aidan Heppard (Ridley alum), freshman Daniel McLaughlin (Strath Haven), and freshman Jimmy Love (Ridley).
The program doesn’t have a track at the school. The team wakes up at 6 a.m. for practice at Interboro High School, and it is forced to train at other facilities when Interboro isn’t available, including basketball courts or soccer fields.
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“For a small school to be able to put up these times and improve this much,” Heppard said, “it’s really big. It shows that it doesn’t matter how big or small of a program you are, all it takes is heart and you can accomplish whatever you want.”
Head track and field coach Cara Fordenbacher added: “This is the first time our athletes have competed on such a big stage, and as a coach, it is all I can ask of my athletes to go out and show their DCCC Phantoms pride. This is significant for our program, and I know this is only the beginning for DCCC track and field.”