Stefon Coleman returns for his third season with the outdoor track program after competing at three meets over the winter and earning All-New Jersey Athletic Conference First Team honors as part of the Scarlet Raptors’ championship distance medley team.

        Coleman ran the second leg on Rutgers-Camden’s NJAC-winning distance medley team at the conference meet Feb. 25. That squad posted a time of 10:34.24. He also anchored the seventh-place 4x400 team the same day.

        Perhaps Coleman’s finest performance during the winter season came at the Frank Colden Invitational Feb. 2 when he ran the leadoff leg on the Scarlet Raptors’ 4x200 relay team, which set a program record a 1:39.19. That team finished 10th at the Frank Colden Invitational. Coleman also ran the third leg on the 4x400 team that day, helping his squad finish first in a time of 3:31.72.

        Coleman competed in a pair of meets for the Rutgers-Camden men’s cross country team during the 2007 fall campaign. He posted a 33:10.43 clocking in the 8K race at the Cabrini Invitational (Oct. 13) to finish 93rd of 142 runners, and he also ran the Mixed 6K Run at the NJAC Championships Oct. 27, finishing 16th of 36 runners in a time of 24:01.25.

        Coleman had a triumphant return to Rutgers-Camden athletics during the 2006-07 school year. Following service in the armed forces, he resumed his Scarlet Raptor career with the 2006 cross country program. He ran in all eight cross country meets during the season, posting his top 8K time of 32:17.20 at the NJAC Championships (Oct. 28). Coleman finished seventh among the Raptors’ talented pack of runners on five occasions, while he was sixth on the team during three races, including the NCAA Atlantic Regionals (Nov. 18).

        Coleman, who had previously run track and cross country at the school prior to his military service, continued his busy school year in the winter on the Raptors’ 2006-07 indoor track team. He earned All-NJAC First Team honors as part of the Scarlet Raptors’ distance medley team, which won the NJAC Indoor Championship (Feb. 19, 2007). A couple of weeks later, he was on the Raptors’ distance medley team which set the old program record (10:32.93) while finishing eighth at the ECAC Championships (March 2).

        Coleman, who is nicknamed “The Panther,” also was on the old record-setting Raptor relay teams in the 4x200 (1:42.7 at Lebanon Valley College, Jan. 27) and in the 4x400 (3:27.30 at the NYU FastTrack Invitational, Feb. 23). In addition, he held the former Rutgers-Camden indoor mark in the 200-meter dash (24.23), a time he ran at the Frank Colden Invitational (Feb. 3).

        Overall, Coleman participated in seven indoor meets last winter, competing in the 200, 400 and 500-meter dashes and the 4x200, 4x400 and distance medley relays.

        During the outdoor track season, Coleman competed in the 200- and 400-meter dashes, the 800 sprint medley and the 4x400 and 4x800 relays. He joined teammates Patrick Eigbe, Akeem Lloyd and Jonathan Salamon to set a program record in the 800 sprint medley (1:37.69) at the season-opening Richard Stockton Invitational (March 24). At the Duke Invitational (April 7), Coleman teamed with Lloyd, Mike Fox and Salamon on the record-setting 4x800 team (8:02.85).

        Most of Coleman’s spring meets involved competition on the 4x400 relay team. That squad, which included Fox, Lloyd and anchor Salamon, set a program mark of 3:24.54 at the New Jersey Invitational (April 14), then lowered that mark to 3:22.31 with a 12th-place finish at the ECAC Championships (May 18).

        Coleman was a member of the 2004 Scarlet Raptors track team, where he competed in the 200- and 400-meter dashes and ran a leg on the 4x100 and 4x800 relay teams. He helped the Raptors set the old school record of 9:31.29 in the 4x800 meters at Messiah College (April 17). He also was on the record-setting 4x100 meter relay team (43.71) at the NJAC Championships (May 1), a mark that still stands.

        During the 2004 cross country season, Coleman competed in six of the Raptors’ eight meets, finishing second on the team in each invitational. He saved his best 8K time for last, running a 32:58.7 at the NCAA Atlantic Regionals (Nov. 13).

        Coleman earned five varsity letters (four in track and one in cross country) at Penns Grove High School, where he served as the track team captain and was the team MVP in both his junior and senior seasons.

        A Sociology and Nursing major who is a Deans List student at Rutgers-Camden, Stefon is the son of Tammie and Lindsey Coleman of Penns Grove.