Marcus Gillespie Reacts To Brown Reinstating Track Program


Following a few weeks of uncertainty relating to the future of his college track career, Marcus Gillespie can now move forward, stress-free, with his preparations for a successful freshman year at Brown University after the school announced on Tuesday that they'll be reinstating their men's program. 



This reversal of fortune follows an announcement made on May 28th that Brown would be downgrading 11 varsity sports (including men's track and field) to the club status as part of their "Excellence in Athletics Initiative." 

Subsequent to the announcement, in-coming recruits, current team members and alumni of the program rallied together in hopes to reverse the decision. Among other ventures, an online petition, which gained north of 50,000 signatures, was part of the reinstatement efforts. 

FloTrack's Lincoln Shryack and MileSplit National's Cory Mull published articles on Tuesday evening, which further examined the reasoning behind why the decision was reversed. 



Our latest encounter with Gillespie, who joined us on the MileSplit Ohio podcast when the program was initially cut, took place under far more positive circumstances. 

Here's what he had to say about Brown reinstating track and field - 

"We had a scheduled meeting with the president and the athletic director and were told prior that there was going to be good news shared about the men's track and field team, so we had hope."

"These hopes were answered when President Paxson announced to all the men present on the call that the track and field program would be fully reinstated." 

"It was so hard for everyone to hold back their smiles, as we tried to keep a professional presentation of ourselves. What made the meeting even better was that we were given time to make suggestions and voice our concerns with the goal of making the program better in the coming years." 

"I'm so glad that Brown is back to being the full package it was when I accepted months ago." 

-- Marcus Gillespie