Form follows function.
Joey Gant’s old racing form brought him a ton of wins, to say the least. In 2022, he won the PIAA 100-meter and 200-meter championships to cap an outstanding career at Pennridge.
With his freshman year at Princeton in the books, Gant’s transition to collegiate running can be officially stamped a success.
“In both indoor and outdoors, he made an immense contribution in every event he has been in,” said Princeton head coach Fred Samara. “In indoors, he was outstanding in the 200 and 4x4 relay for us. With the number of injuries we had, which was significant unfortunately, he really filled the gap in the 4x4. He ran some great legs for us. Outdoors, he has really come on, particularly in the 100 meter. It’s remarkable how much speed he has shown.”
Princeton won its eighth straight Ivy League indoor championship this February at Dartmouth. The Tigers had a slim lead over Harvard with one event left: the 4x400 relay team. Harvard won the battle but lost the war as Gant and his teammates secured a second-place finish (3:12.39) and enough points to keep the Ancient Eight title in Princeton. Individually at Dartmouth, Gant’s 21.58 was fourth in the 200 meter.
This still doesn’t mean that Gant is satisfied. “It’s a process and we’re taking it one step at a time but we’re basically working on a complete overhaul of my form,” Gant shared. “My form was leading to a lot of hamstring injuries. It caused me to overuse my hamstrings and not put enough emphasis on my quads. I’m still not perfect but we’re getting there.”
Gant, traditionally a closer who “loves to chase,” has also spent a lot of effort improving his start.
“Track is not linear,” Gant reminded. “The faster you get, the margin of decrease is definitely a lot smaller. Our upperclassmen are great teachers who have helped me out a lot. And there was a bigger emphasis on the weight room. I felt like I got stronger and had a lot more power, especially in my starts. I was able to get out quicker because I was putting more force into the ground.”
“I think he’s benefited from being in our program,” Samara echoed. “We’ve done very well and he has guys to train with. We have an outstanding strength coach and system. He had some nagging hamstring injuries during the year that didn’t stop him from running but it stopped him from running the 200 times that I thought he should run. The mission we sent him on when he got home was to work on his flexibility and strength in his hips and hamstrings to enable him to drop his times even more.”
Princeton placed second at the Ivy League outdoor championships on May 6-7. Gant and Princeton’s 4x100 team finished third with a 40.42, just .07 behind first-place Harvard. Gant came in fifth in the 100-meter final and fourth in the 200-meter final, despite setting personal records. Both times were a quarter of a second faster than his state title times.
“The Ivy championships were a humbling experience for me,” admitted Gant, whose 10.43 100-meter qualifier was just .04 behind the winning time. “I never thought I would PR in both of my events and come in fifth in the 100 and fourth in the 200. But as upset as I was in the moment, I am happy to be around that level of competition because it’s going to motivate me to be better next season.
“I wasn’t used to getting out of the blocks and 50 meters in there are people ahead,” Gant shared. “Or in the 200, I would come around the corner and everyone is in a line right next to me. It’s been an adjustment where I need to stay relaxed and not stressed.”
Like any freshman jumping to elite Division I, Gant had to adapt to the increase in competition. ”At the same time, it pushes you as well,” he concluded. “If I am in this race with them, then I belong here.”
Stopwatches don’t lie, and the watch shows that Gant more than belongs. Interestingly, he was a distance runner growing up.
“I loved running 5Ks with my dad,” he remembered.
He pursued the mile in his first tryouts with Pennridge North Middle School. But a funny thing happened when the track coach lined everyone up for a 100-meter race, “just to see what was what,” Gant explained.
Gant dusted everyone. And continued to do so. “I took off and could not believe by how much I won that trial by,” he remembered. “I thought ‘maybe I’ll start doing this now.’ Why would I run a mile, when I can run 100 meters? I started focusing on sprinting.”
He had an excellent freshman season at Pennridge. The pandemic canceled his sophomore outdoor season.
“My sophomore year, I took running a lot more seriously,” Gant explained. “COVID hit and that was demoralizing. But I knew it would end eventually and I thought ‘When it ends, I have to be ready.’ People would slack and not train during the season because they didn’t want to. I came back my junior year having trained really hard.”
When Princeton came calling, Gant saw the decision as a no-brainer. “I talked to some other schools but deep down I really wanted to go there,” he said. He committed early, in August just before his senior year.
Samara, for one, is glad Gant made that call. “He has a lot of heart and he tries hard,” the coach concluded. “It’s a great benefit to have a kid with his attitude. He really adds a lot to the program.”
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