By Jim Hague
Rutgers-Newark head track and field coach Juan Edney said that he liked Dana Duffield as a recruit because “she was tough and aggressive.”
“I thought I could work wonders with her,” Edney said of sprinter Duffield.
“I definitely liked the family environment there,” Duffield said of Rutgers-Newark. “I really liked the size of the classes. I really loved the team. I knew it was where I wanted to go as soon as I visited.”
But the Mount Laurel, N.J. native and Lenape High School graduate struggled through her first year at R-N.
“She was a bit of a disappointment,” Edney said. “She didn’t have a good year at all. In fact, she wanted to quit.”
Duffield will be the first one to admit that she didn’t take college life seriously at first.
“I think I got caught up with the pressures of being a college freshman,” Duffield said. “I think it all just took its toll on me. I don’t know if I was ready for it. I needed to change my mind set. I thought I was prepared for it.”
Duffield said that she was always a sprinter going back to her days competing with the Mount Laurel Striders.
“It was something that came pretty easily to me,” Duffield said. “I’d been a sprinter since I was about six years old, so I knew it was something that I always just had to do.”
However, there wasn’t exactly instant success in Newark. And Duffield’s father had seen enough.
“He said that if she wanted to quit, then they were going to pack up her things and head home,” Edney said of Duffield’s father. “So that’s what they did.”
Duffield never officially withdrew from school and maintained her status on the track team.
“She just wasn’t focused,” Edney said. “But she ended up coming back. She apologized to everyone. It was no big deal. I just told her that she had to want to be here.”
“I just realized I was in too good of a position to just let it all go,” Duffield said. “Track was a big piece of my life. To think I wasn’t going to run for a team again really hurt. I had been doing it for so long. It was really important to me.”
So last August, when Edney started to put together his cross country team for the fall, Duffield had to run the necessary distances in order to be a standing member of Edney’s team.
“It was definitely not fun,” Duffield said. “Running cross country has its ups and downs.” Literally.
“But physically for a sprinter, it was tough,” Duffield said. “I knew that was what I needed to take things more seriously and get into better shape.”
By the beginning of the indoor track season, Duffield felt like she was coming back.
“I could see the progress,” Duffield said. “I found it to be a lot of fun again. Just like Coach Edney said it was going to be.”
“She was a lot more focused,” Edney said. “She didn’t believe she could run fast again.”
But at the recent New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) championships, Duffield made it to the finals in the 400-meter dash, running a time of 59.36 seconds that was just a few ticks off the school record.
“I was very surprised, but I was very happy for her,” Edney said. “I knew she had it in her. I feel like she hasn’t tapped into her potential. She has to be more diligent in the weight room and put the work in. She lacks a little bit of that strength you need, but eventually, I think she can do it. Who knows? Time will tell. But she could become very good.”
The improvement from last year to this has been dramatic.
“It’s like night and day from last year,” Edney said. “The only thing she lacks now is confidence.”
One thing is for certain: Edney likes Duffield a lot.
“She’s a nice, sweet girl.” Edney said. “I’m just glad she turned things around.”
Duffield is buying in. Big time.
“I can see with the progress I’ve made from last year to this year that the more confidence I get, the better I can become,” Duffield said. “It was definitely a tough time for a while, but I feel like it was all well worth it.”
