“If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.”
This is something Division II athlete Dylan Breen from Georgian Court University models his game off. The quote by nine-time Olympic gold medalist in Track & Field Carl Lewis is someone Breen tries to emulate.
“He is the most consistent long jumpers ever,” Breen said. “Carl Lewis is the greatest… I want to model myself after the greatest.”
Consistency and greatness are something you will find in New Jersey native Dylan Breen, with eight years of Track & Field experience and still going, Breen is a three-time record holder at GCU and has been a part of six championship wins.
But for Breen, there is still more to prove, a gold medal in the long jump.
Where it all began
Breen entered his hometown high school the Lacey Lions with a plan to play soccer.
“Soccer was my main sport for most of my life,” Breen said.
Competing in multiple travel leagues up through to high school.
Breen began competing in Track & Field during the spring season of his freshman year, but only with the intent to stay in shape for soccer.
During his first season, Breen learned from Coach Jonathan Moore, helping
“spark a passion that’s lasted eight years and still going.” Breen said.
Soon Track would become Breen’s primary sport during his junior year. Breen was the team’s backup goalkeeper and Breen watched himself deteriorate because of it.
“The problem with that is you get no touches; you get no reps when you are the backup goalkeeper…” Breen said.
Since then, Breen collected 30 medals in his high school career, he holds both the Triple Jump (41-06.50 feet) and the Long Jump (23-00.50 feet) record for spring track at Lacey.
Breen also holds a spot on the top 10 list for his high school with the 4 X 400 meters, the high jump (outdoor), along with top 10’s in the 200M, 400M, and the high jump during the indoor season.
Breen even finished tenth in NJ for the long jump during his senior year.
Yet, Breen’s biggest high school accomplishment had nothing to do with his performances at all.
In 2018, the two-time MVP received the Golden Paw award. Receiving this award meant Breen was not only a good performer, but a great teammate on and off the field, helping his squad anywhere he could.
Success at a different “Lion Country”
The former Lacey Lion took his talents to the Division II Georgian Court Lions, where Breen would yet again break records.
Breen signed at GCU the first day he could and originally wanted to be a teacher, he is now striving for a master’s in Business Administration.
Even though he has since graduated from GCU, with his potential continuation of his master’s degree, he has one more indoor and two outdoor seasons of eligibility left due to COVID-19.
During his freshman year at GCU, the Lions won both the East Coast Conference Indoor Championship (ECC) and the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championship Meet (CACC).
“I was so excited to actually win something,” Breen said.
From then on Breen helped the Lions win four more championships, six in total, in four years. With back-to-back championships in the CACC, where the Lions compiled 240 points in 2022 and 262 points in 2021 outscoring their closest opponent by 106 and 150 points respectively.
In five out of the six championships for long jump, Breen brought home the silver medal.
“It’s the most infuriating and frustrating thing to get silver every time,” Breen said.
The 6″1 long jumper says he is happy to win, but now he expects his team to win.
When asked how he keeps his mindset in check with such high expectations, “I can only control what I can do… I want that gold medal in the long jump.” Breen said.
He also contrasts track to basketball, saying one bad night and you lose, but in track one bad night might still mean first place for you or the rest of your teammates.
Breen keeps his belief in his teammates and focuses on his goals of helping the Lions progress back to the championship.
His focus and attitude have helped him thus far, as he holds the GCU record for the indoor and outdoor long jump with a 7.23m and 7.04m mark respectively.
The GCU Lion was also top-30 in Division II for the long jump his sophomore year making him a national qualifier.
“It was a good feeling to be on that list, with that little plus next to my name… it was an awesome feeling to know that I’m top-30 in the country in Division II.”
“Then it’s, let’s see if I could push for more and go to nationals,” Breen said.
Breen was even first-team all-regional and helped break the team record for the 4X100m relay with a top finish of 42.55 seconds.
“That race was awesome,” Breen said. “We got the baton at almost the same time…he was a step ahead of me and I took three steps, and he (his opponent) was done for… that felt really good, I’ve never run so fast in my whole life.”
Jump like me again
While the team did win the ECC again during Breen’s sophomore season in 2020, it was derailed by COVID-19.
Breen reached his personal best of 7.04M for the long jump and has been trying to leap his sophomore performance ever since.
Breen talked about his mental game and how it progressed a lot during the time of COVID.
“I’m definitely smarter as far as long jump goes.”
Like so many others, while on lockdown, Breen kept practicing his skills the best he could.
“As you want to train… that’s a setback and then you have to come back and start all over again… and then you are getting closer and closer to the season and that foundation is gone,” Breen said.
“Can I change COVID?… If I could make covid not happen… it put a giant gap between where I wanted to be… and since then I have been trying to get back to that.” Breen said.
The GCU Track & Field athlete talked about how COVID stifled his performance growth yet left him with one positive.
That positive was a maturity growth and helped him make a lot of personal and mental gains to himself and his game.
Injury also stopped his performance growth this past September when Breen threw his back out. “Throwing out your back is no joke like you can’t even roll over in bed right,” Breen said.
Breen jokingly said due to the lack of flexibility in his back he should be doing more yoga, but with help from his trainer Donny, the GCU athlete was able to get back before the start of the season.
For his upcoming season, the GCU Lion had said he wants to get gold for both the indoor and outdoor season and surpass where he was his sophomore year.
“My biggest goal is to jump like me again…I want to be me again…be great again.”
