Niles alum Clinkscale setting track records at Dayton | News, Sports, Jobs

Submitted photo/Atlantic 10 Conference. Niles alum and current Dayton sprinter Chante Clinkscale crosses the finish line during the 2022 A-10 Conference Indoor Championships Feb. 26-27.

Chante Clinkscale was always first-and-foremost, a basketball player.

But she had started running when she was about 7 or 8-years old. As she went through middle school and into high school, she started competing in more-and-more track meets, while continuing to play basketball.

However, Clinkscale eventually realized that her future was in track as a sprinter. So her sophomore year at Niles, she stopped playing basketball in order to focus full time on track.

“That was the main focus of doing what I needed to do, especially trying to hit the times to compete at the (NCAA) Division I level,” Clinkscale said. “I had to train differently, train more and just focus on track.”

She proceeded to rack up the accolades with the Red Dragons — she was a two-time All-American, six-time All-Ohio honoree and a five-time state champion, and owned school records in three events upon her graduation.

Now, in just her first season at the University of Dayton, Clinkscale is already blowing past the competition.

At the Atlantic 10 Indoor Track and Field Championships Feb. 26-27, she set a new meet record in both the preliminaries and finals of the 60m race, winning the event overall with a new school record time of 7.33. Clinkscale then also went on to win the prelims and finals of the 200m race with a time of 24.27. For her success, she was honored as the Most Outstanding Rookie Performer of the meet, as Dayton took third as a team during the meet.

“It felt amazing — being able to do that as a freshman is phenomenal, it’s crazy,” Clinkscale said. “There’s not been a lot of freshmen to do that (at Dayton) in years. But with the path I’ve been on from high school to (Dayton), I knew that transition would have been possible.”

In her transition from high school to college track, Clinkscale said she’s noticed the biggest difference between the two is the competitiveness.

“Every meet in college, you’re running with somebody to your left and right — in college everyone’s fast,” she said. “In high school, it felt like you’re able to go out there and do what you need to do, but in college it’s a timing process. You’re not going out there to PR right away — it’s going to take time.”

The A-10 Indoor Championships marked the end of the college indoor track season for Clinkscale, but now as spring comes along, the outdoor season is fast approaching and is set to begin later this month when Dayton goes to Miami (Ohio) for the Blizzard Buster meet and then follows that with the Raleigh Relays at NC State.

Clinkscale said she’s preparing for the outdoor season by focusing on the mental side, while also doing more technical work.

“Being a sprinter, there’s a lot of quick stuff,” Clinkscale said. “You want to get your feet to react fast, especially during the 100 and the 200. So, you do a lot of technical stuff when it comes to quickness and explosiveness, which helps a lot in the 100-meter. In the 200-meter, you’re going to do more endurance-type to get you ready to run more than a 200, so that when you’re actually running a 200, it feels like nothing. But the quick stuff and explosiveness stuff is more crucial to get your speed to where it needs to be.”

Being just a freshman, Clinkscale still has a lot of running and competitions left in front of her, and has set some lofty goals, including her dream to one day run for Team USA in the Olympics.

“I want to leave Dayton as one of the all-time greats,” Clinkscale said. “I have to keep my mind and everything sharp, especially if I want my eyes to be on that prize and that goal is to be able to make it to (NCAAs) and a couple years from that, making it to the Olympics.”

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