The most accomplished athlete competing for Rutgers right now practices on a hole-covered field at the edge of the university's track complex, and on most days, he does so completely alone.
Rudy Winkler heaves a 35-pound ball attached to a long chain, watches it fly about 70 meters through the air, then walks to the spot where it lands with a thud to retrieve it. Then he does it again.
And again.
And again.
"You've got to want to do this, that's for sure," Barry Ostrowsky said as he watched from outside the fence last week, and if there is one person associated with Rutgers who understands the dedication it takes to participate in what is perhaps track and field's most obscure sport, it is him.