A Fresh Start: Mount St. Mary’s Hurdler Abdulazeez Iyiola

A freshman at Mount St. Mary’s University, Abdulazeez Iyiola has begun his pre-season in preparation for the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.

“I chose Mount St. Mary's because it’s a great school.” “When I came for the visit I met a lot of the athletes. I talked to the coaches, it just felt like the right school for me. It had everything I needed.”

A premier New Jersey state qualifier in indoor and outdoor track across multiple seasons, Abdul has run 53.92 seconds in the 400 meter hurdles and 14.76 seconds in the 110 meter hurdles. This combined with a 50.37 second 400 meter personal makes Iyiola a versatile competitor for Mount St. Mary’s.

“My event for the indoor season will mainly be the 60 meter hurdles and the 400. My goal is 48 for the 400. I feel like I’m in really good shape. For 60 meters I don’t really know what my goal is because I don’t run very often and need to get used to it,” said Iyiola. “Right now I’m just focused on the 400. My main event is in outdoor, so indoor is about getting in shape for outdoor track.”

Having only been a part of the team for a couple months, Abdul has already formed connections with the team and begun to be inducted into the fold. The team is a tightly knit unit that works well together, including the new freshman recruits.

“The best part has been team bonding. The team bonding is really good here. I think in the time I’ve been here I’ve met pretty much everyone on the team,” said Iyiola. There’s always meetings where we bond and talk to each other and talk to the coaches. It’s really like a family…I love the team bonding and how I already know everyone. I talk to the coaches a lot and they take the time to really get to know everyone. It’s a good school to connect with everyone.”

In preparation for the opening indoor meets in December, the team has been putting in the hours with plenty of large group practices. The team’s preseason focuses on working together and getting athletes from different events to work together as much as possible.

“Lately we’ve been doing circuits. We do continuous 200s. We do a bunch of different types of circuits. We also run 400 circuits where we run a 400 with exercises in between. There will be more hard work coming after fall break,” said Iyiola.

Combining both elements of being a student and an athlete, Abdul has enrolled into Mount St. Mary’s as a business major. With a slew of classes related to the major, it can be a lot to manage for a new college student athlete.

“I am a business major and it’s one of the main reasons I chose Mount St. Mary’s because they have a good business program. They have a building just for business majors. It helps me a lot. The classes I’m taking are mainly in my major,” said Iyiola.

With a variety of concentrations in the major as well as a variety of internship opportunities, Mount St. Mary’s offers the best of both worlds for both students and athletes.

You can follow along here with Abdul’s performances as he begins his future in NCAA track and field.