Catching Up With D'yan Robinson '22

7/22/2024

D’yan Robinson is a golfer and a talented one, at that.

In fact, the 2022 Collegiate alumna was talented enough to compete for the high-flying Cougars boys team and made quite a name for herself on the tournament circuit as well.

Among her myriad accomplishments was winning the 2019 Richmond Golf Association girls junior championship a year after she placed second in the consolation round of the Richmond Women’s Golf Association championship event. Her best-ever round was a 73, which she shot in a tournament at the Williamsburg National Golf Club in 2023.

One of her longtime goals was to play college golf. She earned that opportunity at Christopher Newport University, and during her three seasons (two fall, one spring), she was a regular top-five performer for the Captains.

Robinson, a rising junior, also enjoys track and field.

Her Collegiate résumé included seven seasons of the sport: six winter plus her senior spring when she ran a leg of the League of Independent Schools and VISAA championship 4x100 relay. She so enjoyed the experience, the competition, and the connections with her teammates that when she graduated, her instincts told her that she still had more to give.

This past winter, Robinson made the difficult decision to switch sports. In her first spring track season, she played a role in CNU’s championship performance in the Coast to Coast Athletic Conference meet contested at Salisbury State.

She earned valuable team points in the 100 (13.66, sixth place) and triple jump (personal best 33-7.25, fifth place) and ran the third leg (following Ashley Eley and Ellie Nuckols and passing to Sydney Trussell) to place second and earn all-conference honors in the 4x100 (51.24).

One recent afternoon, she took a break from her workout in the Kathy Watkinson Ivins Sports Performance Center on the Robins Campus to speak about her journey.

Golf was always part of your athletic identity. Speak about your transition to college track and field.

Golf has been part of my life since I was a kid. Yes, it was part of my identity. Moving on to track was a little bit like an out-of-body experience. I’d been very competitive in college [golf]. The training I’ve had since I was a kid came to fruition. Going into college, I’d just finished up my senior track season, and I didn’t want to give it up. [At CNU], I worked out on my own to keep my cardio up. I played intramural basketball and flag football. I went to the gym on my own outside of the lifts we had for golf.

So your Sports Performance training at Collegiate taught you how to train independently?

Yes. The first day we had lifts was the exact same thing I’d had at Collegiate, so nothing was new to me. Having that Collegiate fundamental background in academics and athletics really prepared me for college.

Speak about your experience with CNU golf.

When I played in my first tournament in Florida, I didn’t have the outcome I wanted, so I pushed myself and went out and practiced and lifted pretty much every day. Did everything I was supposed to do. In our next tournament, I was able to see some of my scores come down.

Sounds like you were motivated to be the best you could be.

Everything was going well. Going into college, I wanted to do both golf and track, but that was difficult with my major (cellular, molecular, and physiological biology). Plus, I’m doing orchestra (violin) there. Two sports would have been a lot to juggle.

When did you realize you had to make a choice?

It was during my sophomore year. I knew I wanted to do two years of golf and two years of track. I felt like it was the right time to [change sports]. I had a productive meeting with [golf coach Jonathan Howard]. There was no bad blood. He’s excited to see where I go after college with my golf career. I reached out to the track coach (Daulton Teaford) and told him I was interested in running track.

How hard was the decision?

It was a hard decision. There was a period [between seasons] when I wasn’t playing golf and wasn’t running track yet. There were no sports. This didn’t feel right to me. It was a hard decision because I really valued the golf team and being recruited there. Part of the decision was the fact that even if I don’t play college golf, I can still play in tournaments. I’m glad I got to experience playing college golf and having the grit to go out there and do well for my team because it’s not just you. Your score is reflected in the team score.

Speak about the transition to track.

Coach Teaford allowed me to walk at the end of the indoor season. Everybody was pre-conditioned from the fall. I was coming off of golf, which isn’t as cardio-intensive as track is. He said I needed to do two weeks of cardio, and he’d see how I reacted to the workouts. I did all of that. When I went back to my meeting with him, he said, “Do you want to join the team?” I said, “Oh, sure.”

Was there any second guessing?

No. The minute I walked on the team, everybody was really welcoming and helped me understand the warmups and the workouts. Coach Teaford took his time with me and got me up to speed with mechanics. I actually started doing triple and long jump. The jumps coach, Coach (Michael) Hanks, took his time with me as well.

Speak about earning all-conference honors in the 4x1.

That was a moment. Leading up to it, we were doing well with handoffs. There was extra pressure because it was conference, and it was my first conference [championship meet], and I was running third leg. I ran third here at Collegiate, and I was comfortable with it. There was a moment in time where I thought, I’ve just got to get this baton to my anchor. When I finished [my leg], I just watched and thought, Oh, my gosh…just go! That was a really exciting moment for our team.

What have you enjoyed most about track?

The coaching and the people. I qualified for the triple jump in the conference. In the spring, I was jumping nine-something (meaning distance in meters). It was just little technique things I needed to improve. During conference, I was sitting in sixth place. I was thinking, I have to get points for the team. Then, things clicked. I ended up jumping 10-something. My entire team that was watching around the pit was ecstatic. Coach Hanks was, Oh, my gosh! That’s how you do it! It was an experience.

So, you’re all in. Right? And you’re already training for this coming year?

Yes. We have a packet [of workouts] that our coaches gave us to do. I come in here pretty much every day and do the running and lifting. I know how important it is for your body to be at its maximum.

~Weldon Bradshaw

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