Bobby Martinez – Sports Writer
NEW HAVEN — It wasn’t until his junior year in high school where he decided to give track a chance. Junior shot put thrower, Tresley Upton, said it was his sister who influenced him to give track a try and ever since then, he enjoyed the sport.
“I went to a small school in Rhode Island,” said Dupont, “and my sister went to a another school in Massachusetts. And I went to one of her track meets my softball year and ever since I fell in love with it. My dad as a big track guy in college and I made the decision to transfer schools to do track and I ended up being good at it.”
During his time in high school, Dupont graduated as the Indoor and outdoor Division I state champion. He also finished second in New England’s in 2011, and he also played football where he was teams MVP and served as a team captain his senior year.
Immediately, Upton started to dominate the shot put in his new school B.M.C. Durfee in Mass. Dupont broke a school record he said in his first year where he then went to Bristol Community College where Southern then wanted Dupont on their team.
“I then managed to transfer schools just for track,” said Dupont, “and I ended up being pretty good at it. While I was at B.M.C High School, I was throwing pretty far with my shot. My best was 55 feet and nine inches and that was a school record. Then I went to a community college for one year then I got picked up by Southern Connecticut State University.”
Southern wasn’t the only school who wanted Dupont’s services, in fact, there was a total of three schools besides Southern said Dupont.
“The biggest school I was looking at was Northern Arizona Univeristy, UMass-Lowell,” said Dupont, “and Stonehill College were the teams I was looking into.”
In his first year at Southern, he was All-Region selection in the shot put, weight throw and hammer throw. Dupont was Northeast-10 Conference Champion in the weight throw. Heading into his junior year, Dupont said he had to work better on his game so during his off time, the weight room was his best friend.
“I just lifted like crazy,” said Dupont, “and live in that weight room like crazy.”
As part of this year’s track team where Nick Lebron captured another National Title, Dupont said the team to him is like a family and that’s one of the best parts of being on the team.
“The whole track team in general,” said Dupont, “ is like a big family and its really fun.”
Despite all Dupont has done till this day, there was one thing that he is mostly proud of he said and that’s continuing his education.
“My greatest accomplishment in life so far,” said Dupont, “is getting accepted into college is the greatest acceptance so far.”
As a marketing major, his main focus is working hard enough where track can become his full time job. But his talent is not only in sports, Dupont has a passion for drawing he said.
“I am kind of hoping that track can take me somewhere,” said Dupont, “but I am a really good drawer and would like to create commercials for businesses and put them up there and be more like advertising marketing.”
When Dupont isn’t training, he enjoys the beach when the weather is warm enough where he can soak up some sun and watch eaves clash together.
“I’m a big beach guy,” said Dupont. “I like skin boarding and surfing and stuff like that. I also love playing back yard football with my friends.”
But asides all the accomplishments, Dupont wants to win and said this summer he will train not only on the physical part of his game but also his mental part as well.
“I am really going to focus a lot on my throwing,” said Dupont, “My coaches are also going to train me really well on focusing on my mental aspect of my game because I know if I get my mental aspect of my game down it will take me further than just training itself. As long as I get my training down and mental game down, I know I can go much further.”
