Rutgers-Newark Athletics

By Jim Hague
When Oscar Medina was a high school student at Bogota High School in Bergen County, N.J., he had one athletic focus.

He was a wrestler.

“I was an average wrestler,” said Medina in an understatement, considering he competed in both the NJSIAA District and Region tournaments during his wrestling days at Bogota as a 140-pounder.

However, when Medina decided to attend Rutgers-Newark, there was one slight problem. The school does not offer wrestling as a varsity sport.

So when Medina came to R-N, he decided to give track a chance.

“I felt like I would like it,” Medina said. “I just wanted to try it in college. I ran a little bit of track in high school, but that’s it. There’s so much running in wrestling that I thought I could do it.”

Rutgers-Newark cross country and track head coach Juan Edney was happy to welcome Medina to the fray.

“He never ran before,” Edney said. “You could see that right away. He was as stiff as a board.”

But Medina was there every day at practice, trying to improve.

“I liked it,” Medina said. “I found it to be fun.”

Running long distances is fun for someone who never did it before? Now, there’s a novel approach.

“It wasn’t such a big shock,” Medina said. “I just had to get over it and get used to it.”

Medina didn’t have instant success, except for one area – his mind.

“I felt so excited after my first race,” Medina said. “I didn’t care about time or anything. I felt good. Coach Edney then got me into good shape as the weeks went by.”

“We threw him in a meet to see what he could do,” Edney said. “He ran something like 35 (minutes). By the end of the year, he was running 31 and became our No. 2 guy.”

Medina remained with the program during indoor and outdoor season and continually showed improvement.

However, there was one obstacle – Medina’s health.

“He started to develop shin and ankle problems,” Edney said. “He spent a lot of time during the indoor season in therapy, trying to get better.”

“There was nothing I could do,” Medina said. “I couldn’t run. I just rode the (stationary) bike.”
Since Medina couldn’t run, Edney decided to take a different approach – putting Medina in the swimming pool.

“We decided that if he would swim more, it would take him off the road, yet keep him in a shape,” Edney said. “It helped that he’s a lifeguard in the pool.”

“At first, I couldn’t swim that much,” Medina said. “But then I got so good, that it made sense for me to become a lifeguard. I was there all the time.”

Medina came into the current cross country season with a sense of confidence and a clean bill of health.

“I felt good,” Medina said. “I did a lot more work running over the summer, so I should be a better runner.”

“He put in all the work, like 100 miles a week,” Edney said. “My assistant Rolland (Ying) did a lot of work with Oscar, teaching him how to stay healthy. But he’s worked hard. He’s coming close to 30 minutes this year.”

Medina has entrenched himself as the Scarlet Raiders’ No. 3 runner.

Edney likes Medina’s attitude.

“He’s a pretty laid back kid,” Edney said. “He’s very subdued. You wouldn’t think he was tough. But he has so much mental toughness. He just has that knack about him that he’s a mentally tough kid.”

Medina is a computer science major at Rutgers-Newark. He doesn’t know where that course of study will lead him.

“I just find it interesting,” Medina said of computer science. “I just will go wherever the wind takes me.”

Right now, the wind has led Medina to the R-N cross country team.

“I am really happy I’m running,” Medina said. “I never expected this. But I like running. I’m having fun. It’s pretty good.”

Edney is happy with Medina’s performance with the Scarlet Raiders.

“I’m really pleased with his progress,” Edney said. “He’s come a long way. If he stays healthy, he can do a lot of good things. I always felt that the third year in the program is the best year. He’ll have no holds barred and he can go for it.”