Raptor Roundup 2/24

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^{Image from Rutgers University-Camden website}

By Kendall Lafferty and Sadie Fiore

2/14/24: The Rutgers–Camden men’s basketball team fell short of a playoff spot, falling 84-78 to New Jersey City University at home in Camden. Sophomore Raptor Cameron Downs led the team in points with 18, followed by juniors Eric Benjamin and Jordany Pierre with 12 and 11 points, respectively. This loss comes after a winning season, in which the team put up a total of 1,819 points, while their opponents put up a combined 1,828 points. Rather notably, the Rutgers–Camden Men’s Basketball program has never made the playoffs (with exception for the Covid seasons of 2020-21 and 2021-22 when every team in the conference was granted a playoff berth) in its 40+ year history, so even coming this close is exciting, and it is easy to be optimistic about their next season.

The Rutgers–Camden women’s basketball team also ended their season on February 14, with a 100-50 loss to New Jersey City University. They too fell short of a playoff spot, putting up a total of 1,259 points on the season with their opponents putting up a total of 1,923. However, several players lived up to their scoring potential, with senior Razirah Blocker reaching 1,114 points, with 438 of those coming from this season, making her tied for 13th most points in RUC women’s basketball history, and two other Raptors, Taja Brown and Jania Pitts, each cracking 200+ points.

On February 3rd, sophomore Walter Pierce finished 9th of 16 in the men’s pentathlon, and in the process, set a program record with 2,435 points while competing at the Frank Colden Invitational at Ursinus College. This record was previously broken exactly five years ago at the same meet. On February 19th, the Raptors competed in the NJAC Championships, finishing seventh in a field of nine programs. Alexis Marini produced six points by finishing third out of 17, and added another four points finishing fifth out of 19 in shot put. For the men, Oluwamayowakun Ojutalayo produced six points, three from finishing sixth of eight in the finals of the 60-meter dash and hitting a new personal record of 7.02. Ojutalayo obtained three more points for the Raptors, by finishing 6th in the 200-meter dash. Ojutalayo was joined by sophomore Nadir Paige, and freshmen Robert Bayard and Hector Diaz who scored a combined five points to finish fourth out of eight teams in the men’s 4×200. Sophomore Maurice Obanor picked up two points by coming in seventh of 14 in the high jump, while also reaching a personal record of 1.78 meters.

Looking ahead: Softball and baseball season is upon us! The Rutgers–Camden baseball team is projected to finish 8th in the conference according to a poll done by the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Coaches Conference and will be taking on Division III baseball programs from around the Tri-State area in an attempt to have their second consecutive winning season.

The softball team is also projected to finish 8th, but has potential to place higher thanks to a combination of pitching depth and fresh roster players. Their first game of the season takes place on March 9th, in Florida.

Raptor tennis will also begin in March as both the mens and womens teams take on Wilkes University away on March 2nd.