Rowan athletes enter "March Madness" playoffs bound

"March Madness" came in with a roar this spring as women's basketball landed a first-round berth in the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. Competing in Amherst, Mass., the team bested the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 72-68 March 6 before dropping from the competition one day later with a 60-40 loss to Amherst College. The team, led by first-year coach Demetrius Poles, closed out the year with a 25-4 win-loss record and Rowan’s 11th appearance in NCAA postseason play, the first since 2016.

Rowan’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams also earned the titles of “champions”, as did the men’s track and field team. The men’s swimming team captured its fourth Metropolitan Championship in the last five years under coach Brad Bowser and will send seven student-athletes to the NCAA Championships in Greensboro, N.C., March 18-21.

The women’s team, led by first-year head coach Elise Blaschke, kept its streak alive when it won its third consecutive Metropolitan Championship and will be represented by one student-athlete in the NCAA meet.

Dustin Dimit, the NJAC Coach of the Year, led the men’s track & field team to its sixth straight conference title, while the women’s team, under coach Ringo Adamson, finished second in the NJAC meet. Selected student-athletes from both squads will participate in the NCAA Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. on March 13-14.