Huntington North High School senior Dane Blackburn made his college choice official on Friday afternoon, committing to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in a signing ceremony to continue his academic and cross country and track careers.
While Blackburn is excited to continue his running career, he is especially looking forward to getting started at Rose-Hulman since it is one of the nation’s premier colleges for engineering. For Blackburn, that was a deciding factor for his college choice, giving Rose-Hulman the edge over Purdue University.
“It’s just a really great engineering school,” Blackburn said. “It has a lot of hands-on work and the class sizes are a lot smaller.”
A member of Huntington North’s cross country and track and field teams throughout high school, Blackburn made his presence felt in both programs due to his work ethic and drive, something Huntington North boys cross country coach Tim Schultz pointed out as Blackburn’s biggest strength as a runner.
“Dane is a hard worker and very dedicated to getting better and being the best runner he can be,” Schultz said.
Blackburn’s personal record time on the cross country course as a Viking was 17:53.8, coming at the Wildcat Invite during his sophomore season. On the track, Blackburn set his personal record times as a junior, as he opted to not run track with the Vikes as a senior. Blackburn’s best marks on the track were a 4:57.7 in the 1,600 meter run and a 10:28.16 in the 3,200 meter run.
However, Blackburn did not only focus his efforts on his running career throughout high school, as he excelled in the classroom more than any other Huntington North senior, earning the No. 1 rank in his graduating class of 2022.
With as much academic drive as Blackburn has, it should come as no surprise he has an impressive road map planned for his time at Rose-Hulman. Blackburn plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with minors in electrical engineering and possibly entrepreneurial studies as well. He also plans to enroll in the school’s R Squared program to pursue an MBA degree during his four years. Blackburn would also like to spend a semester abroad in a Spanish-speaking country at some point during college.