By Jim Hague
It’s perhaps fitting that the top female sprinter on the Rutgers-Newark track and field team would have a fast name.
She’s sophomore Korvette Hinton and she’s full throttle every time she steps on the track. The only difference between her and the sleek Chevrolet sports car is that Hinton spells her name with a “K.”
“I hear so much stuff about my name almost every day,” Hinton said. “I guess that’s why I should run fast, because I have that name. Honestly, I don’t mind when people talk about my name. I think it’s just perfect.”
Even Scarlet Raider track coach Juan Edney believes Hinton has a first name that totally befits her.
“Oh, yeah, she’s fast,” Edney said of Hinton. “She can be one of the very fastest runners around if she wanted to be. But sometimes, that gets her into trouble.”
Edney is trying his best to push Hinton, but that motivation sometimes leads to difficulty.
“It’s all about whether she wants it, whether she stays motivated,” Edney said. “She’s the prototypical 200 and 400-meter runner. She has the height, the size, the speed. It’s all up to her how good she can be.”
Hinton would be the first one to tell you that she wasn’t prepared for Edney’s coaching style.
“At first, I thought he had a very nice personality,” Hinton said. “But he’s been on me pretty hard. I had to realize that he was doing it because he wanted me to get better. I just wasn’t used to it.”
Hinton arrived at Rutgers-Newark from neighboring Orange High School, where she competed in track and field, but obviously in a more relaxed setting than the one Edney has installed at R-N.
“I ran track my junior and senior year and I really liked it,” said Hinton, who enrolled at Rutgers-Newark last year, even though the school did not offer track as a varsity sport at the time. “I really was going to transfer to another school to run track, but then I got a call that Coach Edney was hired to start the program, so I stayed and joined the team. I wanted to run. I really missed it. Once I knew that they were having a track team, I decided to stay.”
However, it didn’t take long for the love/hate relationship with Edney to begin.
“He wanted me to run cross country, so I could get in shape for the indoor season,” Hinton said. “I told him that I wasn’t a distance runner, but he didn’t care. He still wanted me to run. It was hard for me to realize that it was all for my benefit. I didn’t like it and I complained.”
“I knew that she had great potential, if she just put her mind to it,” Edney said. “Sometimes, she’s not focused and not there. She has to put her mind to it. If she’s not pushed, she’s not working hard. I know that in their eyes, I’m like a drill sergeant, but I know that it’s the only way she’s going to get the job done.”
Hinton will be the first to admit that she needs her fair share of pushing and prodding.
“He says I can be lazy and you know what? I’m very lazy,” Hinton admitted. “I know what I am. He said I was being disrespectful, but I respect Coach Edney with the utmost respect. I just wasn’t used to it. It was a little difficult because it was different in high school.”
After a while, Edney’s tough love approach hit home.
“I told her she had the ability to become an All-American,” said Edney, who was coaching on the collegiate level for 16 years prior to his arrival at R-N last July. “Whether she wants that or not, that’s up to her. But she has the ability to do so.”
Despite competing with a sore knee, Hinton has shown flashes of what she is as fast as the car she’s named after. She was fourth in the New Jersey Athletic Conference in the 55-meter dash and her time in the 400-meter run (62 seconds) has enabled her to qualify for the ECAC Eastern Regional meet in Boston next week.
“I’m kind of nervous about that meet,” Hinton said. “My knee is feeling better and I hope I’ve recovered by then. I’m a little surprised that I’ve done so well, but I knew I could do it. I’m practicing harder now and I hope I can get ready full-time for the outdoor season.”
Hinton’s best work may come in the outdoor season, when she’s running more conventional distances like the 200 and 400-meters on a regular basis.
“If she stays healthy, she can accomplish anything,” Edney said. “She was a little reluctant at first. She ran what I call ‘recreational track.’ But she had to dig down and find the necessary things from within to beat the elite runners. She was stubborn at first and didn’t want to do it. But now, she’s coming around and she’s on the right path. She’s dropped her times despite running with the bad knee.”
And Edney knows that Hinton is just scratching the surface.
“I tell her all the time that the sky’s the limit,” Edney said. “She just has to keep working.”
Just like a Corvette has to go full throttle, well the Scarlet Raiders’ version of the Korvette has to be a fine-tuned machine.
“She definitely has the name to fit the bill,” Edney said.
Ironically, Hinton ran for a track program that competed against girls named Porsche and Mercedes.
“All we need now is a BMW,” Edney said.
“That’s the stuff I hear all the time,” said Hinton, who is majoring in social work at R-N and hopes to some day work with children. “I love my coaches and my teammates. Everyone’s so supportive.”
Because everyone at Rutgers-Newark wants to see this Korvette operate at high octane.
