The University of Massachusetts Boston’s track and field program never ceases their production of tremendous athletes. The program produced athletes like former three-time All-American high jumper Carl Joseph, as well as current senior sprinter, eight-time All-American, 2016 Indoor National Champion Hulerie McGuffie.

Now, sophomore sprinter Dom Nda breaks the program’s 100-meter dash record, set last year in 2015’s outdoor season, then again this 2016 outdoor season.

The previous record for the 100-meter dash was set by Fritz Gustave who ran a time of 11.10 seconds. Nda broke the record as a freshman in his outdoor season in 2015 with a time of 10.88 seconds. On April 16, he broke the program record again—which was set by him a year earlier—with a time of 10.74 seconds.

“When I broke the record the first time, I felt special. I didn’t think I would, at least not as a freshman. After I broke it last year, I had more confidence this year and was pretty much racing against myself. The weather has been a huge factor in my success as well,” said Nda.

He claimed his outdoor season wasn’t going so well until Boston finally saw some mild weather. The day Nda broke the program record for the second time, he wasn’t expecting to do so: “It wasn’t my intent to beat the record again. I was just going to race. I didn’t think I was going to run a 10.74, but I realized that the more relaxed I am on race days, the better I do. I tend to overanalyze and overthink everything and that’s when I end up doing badly,” said the criminal justice major.

Nda’s daily routine before every meet is an oatmeal breakfast, followed by listening to “Her Way” by PartyNextDoor. After that song ends, the rest of his playlist can go on. A typical practice day involves two warm-up laps, joint and mobility stretches, block starts, then the sprint workout Coach Cassandra Walker plans for the day, finishing with a full recovery.

Nda’s biggest challenge and favorite thing to work on are block starts. “I had a better turnover in the last 20 meters of the 100-meter race when I broke the record, but I need to improve my push off on the block starts,” he said.

Nda fell short of the indoor season nationals, needing to finish in the top 15 to qualify but finishing 18th. His goal this outdoor season is to make an appearance at nationals, but his overall goal before he graduates is to attain an All-American title. Nda is well on his way to achieving his goals with the path he’s headed on, as well as becoming a role model for the freshmen and incoming track athletes.

“I didn’t realize it until this year that I was becoming a role model to the other track members. My coach pulled me aside and told me that the freshmen look up to me and that whether I like it or not, I am a role model to the team,” he said.

Coach Walker motivates the team by giving speeches and talks as well as pushing her athletes hard during practice. Nda mentioned how extremely involved Walker is in practice. Her presence forces team members to be extremely focused.

Nda hopes to leave a big enough contribution to the program so that it can continue to gain a bigger name for itself.
“Good athletes attract better athletes, so I hope that my impact will bring in more talent just as the talent before me drew me into the program. Being told by the upperclassmen that the athletes in my class have improved the culture of the program means everything, and I only hope to continue to uphold the expectation needed to build a successful and winning track and field program,” said Nda.