From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

The Rowan men’s track team is No. 3 in the country in the initial NCAA Division 3 ranking, largely because of its javelin throwers.

The team rankings are determined on a weekly basis using a point system based on event-by-event rankings. So the more athletes a program has ranked near the top of the D-3 performance list, the higher that program will be ranked.

And Rowan? The Profs currently have the top throwers in the country, four of the top eight and five of the top 17.

Sophomore Greg Poloso of Wayne Valley and junior Dan McAleavey of Howell both surpassed 220 feet in Rowan’s season-opener, the Oscar Moore Invitational in Glassboro last weekend. Poloso won the event with a huge PR throw of 222-9 and McAleavey threw 220-2.

Both surpassed the Rowan new-jav record of 219-4 set in 1992 by Burlington City High graduate Mike Boone.

Rowan’s old-jav record is the legendary 273-2 by Hopatcong High graduate Mike Juskus at the NCAA Division 1 Championships at LSU in Baton Rouge in 1981. Juskus was a baseball player in high school (as well as football, wrestling and bowling) and never touched a javelin until he arrived at Rowan as a freshman. He wound up winning three NCAA Division 3 titles and two NCAA Division 1 titles (back when D-3 winners were invited to the D-1 meet).

Freshman Lane Owens from Ocean City ranks 6th nationally with his 198-3 at the Washington & Lee Carnival in Lexington, Va., last month, and junior Edgar Rosa from Paulsboro is 8th with a 193-11, also in Lexington. Sophomore Julio Lebron of Memorial of West New York threw 184-4 at the Oscar Moore Invite for 17th so far in D-3.

Poloso is a transfer from Rider, where he threw 204-8 as a freshman in the spring of 2019 – the No. 2 mark in school history (behind Anthony Ragusa, who threw 212-5 in 2019). He competed in one meet for Rider last spring and didn’t get a legal mark.

McAleavey’s previous PR was a 206-6 when he placed second at last year’s NCAA Division 3 National Championships in Greensboro, N.C.

Owens’ 198-3 came in his first college meet and marked a more than 10-foot PR. His best throw in high school was 187-6 at the 2019 South Jersey Invitational at Delsea.

Rosa was a JUCO All-America in the hammer, javelin and discus in the spring of 2019 and won the NJCCA Division 3 national title in the javelin at 182-2 at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, N.Y. His PR is 197-4 from the Fast Times Before Finals at Rowan last May.

And Lebron has a PR of 194-1 from a meet at Central Florida in Orland from the spring of 2019. He threw 193-7 last year and was also 2nd in the NJAC decathlon last spring with 5,038 points.