One of the most versatile and talented members of the Rutgers-Camden track program, Rob O’Brien captured his third indoor letter over the winter, when he set six personal bests, set a program mark in the 300-meter dash, tied the program record in the 55-meter dash, briefly held the school 60-meter dash mark and qualified for the ECAC Championships. O’Brien, who also competed with the cross country team in 2013 and 2014, is back for his second straight season with the outdoor track program.
Indoor Track 2014-15: Competed in nine meets in the 55-, 60-, 200-, 300- and 400-meter dashes, as well as the 4x200 and the distance medley relay… Opened the season at the Bow Tie Classic (Dec. 6), finishing 16th of 63 at 60 meters (7.32) and eighth of 49 at 400 meters (53.24)…Also anchored the 4x200 team (1:38.99), which finished 14th of 20…Set a program mark of 37.14 while finishing 11th of 23 in the 300-meter dash at the MAC Classic (Dec. 14), while also placing 10th of 17 at 60 meters (7.28)…At the St. Joseph’s Invitational (Jan. 17), finished fifth of 41 in the 60-meter preliminaries (7.26), sixth of six in the 60-meter finals (7.27), ninth of 37 in the 200-meter dash (23.88) and third of 13 as the second leg of the 4x200 (1:37.50)…Was 20th of 70 in the 60-meter dash (7.38) and ran the second leg of the distance medley relay (11:31.71, fifth of seven) at the Collegeville Classic (Jan. 23)…Competed at the Ramapo Indoor Select Meet (Feb. 7), finishing 12th of 38 in the 400-meter dash (51.33) and 24th of 38 in the 60-meter dash (7.33)…At the Albright Invitational (Feb. 14), finished first of 25 in the 55-meter dash preliminaries (6.80) and then won the 12-man final, tying the Rutgers-Camden program record of 6.73 set in 2013 by Tyrie Webb…Also finished second of 19 in the 200-meter dash (24.78)…The performance helped him earn Rutgers-Camden’s Raptor of the Week award on Feb. 16…One of only two Scarlet Raptors to compete in the all-division Princeton Invitational (Feb. 22), where he finished third of 13 in the 200-meter dash (22.94) and 12th of 21 in the 60-meter dash (7.26)…At the New Jersey Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championship on Feb. 26, finished first of 25 in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash, briefly setting a Rutgers-Camden program record with a 7.06 mark, which was broken in the finals by teammate Trey Gilliard…Also finished fourth of 29 in the 200-meter dash (22.57) and ran the second leg to help the Raptors’ 4x200 team place fourth of nine (1:34.09)…Closed his season at the ECAC Championships (March 6), finishing 17th of 32 in the 60-meter dash (7.11).
Cross Country 2014: Ran in one invitational while preparing for indoor track season…Finished eighth on the team and 39th of 42 overall at the season-opening Bryn Mawr Invite (Aug. 29), recording a time of 23:50.44 on the 5K course.
Outdoor Track 2014: Competed in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, as well as running on the record-breaking 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams over nine invitationals…Also competed once in the discus and the 400-meter dash…Ran the second leg as the Raptors set a program mark of 3:19.68 in the 4x400 at the Larry Ellis Invitational (April 19), finishing ninth of 20…Nearly a month later, at the Swarthmore Final Qualifier (May 12), Rutgers-Camden broke that 4x400 record in a time of 3:16.55, finishing second of nine, aided by O’Brien’s strong performance again on the second leg…Ran the second leg on the record-setting 4x100 relay team (43.20) at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship (May 4), helping the Raptors finish fourth of nine teams…Helped Raptors win the 4x100 (43.97) and also finished fourth of 14 individually in the 100-meter dash (12.02) at the WCU Open (April 25)…Notched personal best times in the 100-meter dash finals (11.24) and the 200-meter dash (22.64) at the NJAC Championship (May 4), finishing sixth in both events in fields of eight and 25 runners, respectively…Qualified for the NJAC 100-meter dash finals on May 3, finishing sixth of 21 in a clocking of 11.27…In his lone individual 400-meter dash, posted a time of 53.10 to finish 25th of 78 athletes at the Danny Curran Invitational (March 29)…His lone discus competition (26.44 meters) came at the Osprey Open (April 5), where he finished 21st of 26.
Indoor Track 2013-14: Earned NJAC First Team honors in the 4x200 and NJAC Second Team honors in the 4x400 during his stellar sophomore indoor season…Named the Most Dedicated athlete on the indoor men’s track team…Helped set a program record of 1:29.43 in the 4x200 while running the second leg at the NJAC Championship (March 1) as the team placed second of nine…Individually, finished 13th of 26 athletes in the 200-meter dash (23.33) at the conference championships…Earned ECAC qualifiers at 50 meters and with both the 4x200 and 4x400 teams…Established six personal indoor bests during the season at 60 meters (6.97), 200 meters (23.33), shot put (8.09 meters), long jump (4.56 meters), 4x200 (1:29.43) and 4x400 (3.23.57)…Finished eight of 39 and eighth of 25 in back-to-back meets at 60 meters in the LVC Invitational (Jan. 25 with a 6.97 clocking) and the Monmouth Winter Invitational (Feb. 8, 7.40), respectively.
Cross Country 2013: Ran in two invitationals for the Raptors, finishing seventh on the team in both outings…Opened the season at the 5K Bryn Mawr Invite (Sept. 7), where he posted a time of 25:35 to finish 46th of 48 runners…Placed 92nd of 100 runners at the 8K Osprey Open (Sept. 21) in a time of 43:38.86.
Indoor Track 2012-13: Competed in four meets, running four individual events and four relays…At the season-opening Bow-Tie Classic (Dec. 1), finished 11th of 29 at 400 meters (54.26) and ninth of 10 with the 4x400 team (3:48.85), running the first leg…Anchored the 4x400 team to a short-lived 3:24.15 program record (broken by another team later in the season), while finishing 13th of 35 at the Gotham Cup (Jan. 11)…Also was 66th of 72 at 500 meters (1:15.10) at the Gotham Cup…Finished 26th of 43 in the 60-meter dash (7.59) and sixth of nine as the 4x200 anchor (1:39.75) at the Collegeville Cup (Jan. 18)…Ran the 55-meter dash (7.33) and finished 21st of 34 at the LVC Invitational (Jan. 26), while also anchoring the co-ed 4x400 team (4:22.70) to a sixth-place finish out of 13 clubs.
High School: Earned two varsity track letters as a junior and a senior at Bishop Eustace Prep School for Coach Chris Threston…Captured First and Second Team All-Olympic Conference honors…Won the Coaches Award…Honor Roll student all four years.
Personal: Born March 27, 1994…Nicknamed “Bulletbert”…Superstition is to listen to “Eye of the Tiger” before every race…Dual Finance and Accounting major at Rutgers-Camden… Earned NJAC Academic Honorable Mention for the 2013-14 scholastic year…Dean’s List student every semester…Robert is the son of Bob and Thelma O’Brien of Cherry Hill.
