Pinkney getting back on track

WHITEMARSH » Josh Pinkney was just happy about getting a chance to run the 200 meters once again.

“It felt good, It felt good,” he said. “Still got stuff to work on but eventually once I get my endurance up and stuff, I think I can improve my time better.”

The recent Pennridge graduate was back on the Carey Stadium track Tuesday night at the Germantown Academy All-Comers Track and Field Meet, sprinting around the curve then down the straightaway to finish second in his heat with a time of 23.02.

“It’s been a while since I’ve ran competitively cause my season ended first way of May, second week of May cause of my hamstring. It’s kind of devastating, ending my senior season that way,” said Pinkney, who last fall was third in rushing for a Pennridge football team that went 11-3 and reached the District 1-6A semifinals. “I knew about the Ambler Olympic Club, decided to join them, build my strength up, my speed, correct form and this is my first 200 in almost two months.”

Tuesday’s meet gave Pinkney a chance to refine things but also get a shot to race against some new faces, with All-Comers meet open to athletes of all ages and ability.

“This is my third time coming to this meet. I came here when I was a freshman, came in unattached. Kind of run for Pennridge but come in unattached. And it was fun,” he said. “This is

always just a fun place to come to, any age can run, It’s new people every time, it’s not the same people like in school so you get different competition.”

As a junior in 2017, Pinkney excelled in the 200, taking second in the event at the Suburban One League Continental Championships (22.63), six at District 1-AAA (22.43) and qualified for the PIAA Championships — reaching the 200 3A final at states and finishing 11th at 22.48.

But his senior track senior was derailed April 7 at the Kiwanis Invitational at Council Rock North when he injured his hamstring during the sprint medley relay.

“I was running the 200 leg and 100 meters going it was going good and about 110, something just popped,” he said. “I finished the race — finished, handed off to my anchor. But it was just tragic.”

Pinkney competed at Pennridge’s Helman Invitational, finishing fifth in the 100 meters with a time of 10.81 and also ran in the 100 at SOL Continentals, posting an 11.70 in the preliminaries. Pinkney, however, is looking to make sure that’s not the capper to his track career as he’s looking to earn a spot on the Penn State men’s track and field team.

“I’m hoping cause my 100 was a good walk-on time — 10.8 — so I’m hoping that does something,” he said. “I’ve been trying to keep in contact with the coach, he’s been talking to me. I’ll see how that goes.”

Pinkney said he was still unsure of his athletic future during his senior year at Pennridge, but it became clearer to him it was going be on the track. Academically, Pinkney is looking at majoring in computer science.

“I didn’t really know what I was going to do honestly. It was up to this year,” he said. “I did football, I was going to go to Widener or Albright but I realized after a while track was probably my think so I was going to stick with track.”

TRACK FOR ALL » The meet was the last in a three-week series. The All-Comers Meet is now in its seventh year and Tuesday had athletes from an array of age groups participate — track starting with hurdles and ending with the 3200 meters while field events went throughout the night.

“I can’t think of anything else in this country where instead of watching fireworks or something, people of totally different ages, backgrounds, genders, race, religion, whatever, all just come out on a summer evening and compete and run around,” said meet director Tom Taft. “But the timing is totally FAT (Fully Automated Timing), it’s the same thing used in the Olympics so we’ve had people before the 2016 Olympics using these meets to qualify cause they’re USATF sanctioned, so they’re totally official meets. These are all the same officials that will work in regional or national meets.

“There no awards, there no prizes, there’s no standings, there’s just come out, have a good time, have fun and enjoy yourself.”