After running what seemed like an innumerable amount of times around a red polyurethane oval, it was not until sophomore year that senior Owen Davitt realized he loved running track.

Davitt always knew he liked running track, but he never realized his natural ability to run until the Bergen County Relays when he was just one of two sophomore boys at the meet.

“My coaches and the upperclassmen on varsity had great faith in Jeff [Mate] and me to run in Counties, that’s when I realized I was pretty fast and had a knack for track,” Davitt said.

It was not just Davitt’s current coaches who saw his potential, it was also the coaches at the University of Rhode Island who realized Davitt’s full potential.

Recently, Davitt committed to continue his athletic and academic careers at the University of Rhode Island.

The University of Rhode Island has an extremely competitive Track & Field program and placed well at the Atlantic-10 Track & Field Championship in Virginia last week.

“I chose URI for several reasons,” Davitt said. “They have an outstanding mid-distance program and I just clicked with all of the guys on the team when I took an official visit up there.”

Davitt competes in four different races, the 1600m, 800m, 400m, and 4x400m. His best times rank among the state leaders.

His 1600m personal best is 4:28 seconds, 800m is 1:54.5, 400m is 50.4, and 4×400 is 49.8.

“My personal best times were similar to my future teammates at Rhode Island and, hopefully, I will improve just like they did and become a top tier runner at the Division I level,” Davitt said.

Recently, Seattle Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson gave a commencement speech at the University of Wisconsin and said, “Potential just means you haven’t done it yet. Already in my career, I’ve seen that lots of people have potential, but not everyone does it.”

“Besides running at school, I don’t run on my own because it happens so often that people who train on their own, get burnt out easily from overusing their bodies,” Davitt said. “Hopefully I will get stronger over the course of my running career and I will achieve everything that I aspire to be as an athlete.”

The State Meet of Champions is the last state regulated meet of the year and Davitt qualified for those races last year as a junior, he described that moment as his “proudest moment while running track.”

Davitt and three other teammates recently qualified to run the Sprint Medley Relay at the New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina.

This will likely be the last race of Davitt’s High school career and he said, “I want to go out with a bang. Qualifying is nice, but winning a national event, that’s something I can tell my kids and my grandkids for the rest of my life.”