After three NCAA Division 3 track titles, seven All-America honors and several indoor and outdoor records at Ramapo College in New Jersey, standout from Ivory Coast has made an immediate impact as graduate student-athlete for Penn State, producing multiple program all-time marks

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Photos courtesy of Penn State's Matt Rudisill and Scottland Dean

Cheickna Traore (pronounced SHECK-nuh TRAY-ore) remembers his first official race.

It was the fall of 2015 and he was a freshman at Innovation High in Jersey City, N.J., testing out the sport of cross country for the first time.

“I remember they took all the freshman girls and guys and put them in a race together, and I kid you not, I was the last person to finish,” Traore says with a laugh.

Despite the finish, Traore stuck with running and eventually found his niche – sprinting.

Now, nearly a decade later, he’s gone from last to first – winning three NCAA Division 3 national championships and earning seven NCAA All-America honors at Ramapo College.

He’s now in his final collegiate season at Penn State as a graduate student-athlete, and has developed into one of the country’s fastest runners with a goal of competing this summer at the Paris Olympics.

“I feel like high school for me was like rock bottom, not really being too good,” Traore said. “(But) I just had to keep working, that’s all I really know, because at the end of the day, I wasn’t always good at the sport, I wasn’t always fast, and I just had to keep working, that’s all I know is work, work, work.”

Traore is from the Ivory Coast, located in West Africa. The youngest of six children, his life was uprooted when he was 5 years old, moving thousands of miles across the world to the United States for a life filled with promise and opportunity.

“In Africa, you go there (United States) and you work hard and hopefully be able to help your family back home as well,” Traore said. “That was the idea for that to happen.”

Similar to his beginnings in running, he was the last to America. His mom, Fanta Toure came to the U.S. first, his brothers – Yaya Bamba, Ishmael Traore, Rahim Bamba,

Ousmane “Ouzzy” Traore and Mamadou Traore followed. He remembers his dad putting him on a plane and traveling overseas alone.

“My earliest memory is being at the airport and seeing my mom for the first time in a while,” he said.

While he was the last one to arrive, Traore’s mindset was about making an impact. He said when his parents separated and eventually divorced, he was still living with his mother, who, at the time, was a single mom raising and supporting him and two of his older siblings.

“I knew what my expectations were,” he said. “Being the youngest with my two oldest brothers, it was to go to school, have good grades, and I know that's the expectation to live up to.”

Running slowly became woven into that plan and a vessel for opportunity.

Traore originally joined the cross country and track teams with the idea of beating his older brother Ouzzy, who played soccer but also did track.

By his junior year, his speed was discovered.

He made the switch to shorter distances and started to transform into a good sprinter, running anything from the 55-meter dash to the 400, relays, and 400 hurdles, finding success at the state level and competing at nationals.

His fastest time in the 400 was 50.08 his senior year. Traore explained his mindset was set on attending a Division 1 program, but at the end of the day, it didn’t fit with his plans. Instead, it was the Division 3 program Ramapo College – the last one, of course – that was the right fit. 

“So, the goal was always to try and go to college for free,” he said. “Funny enough, Ramapo was the last school I went to. It was a D-1 mentality or bust, so for me, I pushed the idea of Ramapo away. But weighing my options, at the end of the day, Ramapo was 45 minutes from my hometown, and I think once I saw everything the school had, a tight-knit community with (head coach Justina Cassavell), I could see myself there.”

Traore’s first collegiate race in the 300 meters was a blazing 34.83 seconds, good for a school record and then a Division 3 national indoor all-time mark. A month later, he set the school record in the 500 (1:04.00), No. 4 indoor all-time in Division 3.

Another week passed, and he officially went under 50 seconds in the 400 for the first time, running 49.71.

“The first year he had all the natural ability, he was tall, long strides and he was very coachable; right away we knew he was going to be our best 400 guy,” Ramapo sprint coach Ackeme Brown said. “He had that natural talent and he just separated himself.”

Brown explained due to COVID-19, the first full season working with Traore wasn’t until his junior year. Without an indoor track at Ramapo, Traore said he spent a lot of time on the treadmill, as Brown crafted creative drills to hone his development and mechanics of the sport.

As a junior, Traore took off, literally, lowering his times in the 100, 200, 300 and 400. His 300 indoor time of 33.64 currently ranks No. 2 all-time indoors in Division 3. He ended the outdoor season running 20.56 in the 200 for second place at the NCAA Division 3 Outdoor Championships, the second-fastest time in division history.

“He’s a student of the sport,” Brown said. “He’ll do his homework and it was easy for me to coach him, he understands me without me even saying it. He doesn't settle for anything less than great.”

As a senior, Traore continued his record-breaking career, winning the 200 (20.72) and 400 (46.85) national indoor crowns, along with capturing the 200 outdoor national title (20.25).

Both his 200 times are current Division 3 national records. He also finished second at nationals in the 100 (10.18), which is No. 2 in division history.

“Going to Ramapo, if you told me all what I did there, I would have told you you were on drugs or something, it doesn’t sound real,” Traore said. “Mostly, I think it was just crazy; I think every year I surprised myself.”

Traore's mom, who is back in West Africa, didn’t see her son run in person until his conference meet during his senior year.

“Having her actually there, it meant a lot for me,” Traore said.

With a degree of Information Technology Management in hand, and NCAA eligibility still remaining, Traore said he was originally going to hang up his spikes, but his brother Ouzzy encouraged him to pursue a fifth year. With a connection to Penn State, Traore made the decision to run at the Division 1 level.

Rewind to the 2019-20 indoor season, and Montclair sprinter Brandon Rizzo had just won the New Jersey Athletic Conference 500 title in an impressive time of 1:06.09. He knew though, his time, and reign as one of the best sprinters, was going to be short lived.

“The year before (Traore) came into the conference I was the 500-meter champion and then the next year, his first meet, he runs 34-something in the 300,” Rizzo said. “And I was sitting there like, ‘Wow! Who is this person who just joined the conference?’ And then he ran the 500 and set the D-3 national record.”

From that moment on, Rizzo kept track of Traore’s career, even after he graduated and pursued his Masters degree and went into coaching. In 2022, when he joined the Nittany Lions’ coaching staff, Rizzo knew Traore would be a good fit with the program.

“I kept track of his progress and I just feel like it went full circle,” Rizzo said of their relationship.

Traore’s first race in a Penn State jersey was an NCAA-leading 400 time of 46.50, the third-fastest performance in Penn State history. A PR in the event, he won the Big Ten’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Week honor.

“The 400 that first meet was just an exciting atmosphere,” Traore said. “I went there and did what I had to do. I feel like my training leading up to it was just crazy, I was hitting crazy times, and I was literally in the best shape of my life. I was itching to run.”

Since then, it’s been more of the same winning mentality for the graduate student-athlete. At the Simmons-Harvey Invitational, Traore claimed the 60-meter dash Jan. 20 in a school-record 6.63 and placed second in the 200 (20.42), also a program record, and the No. 5 collegiate indoor effort this season.

“I would say the biggest thing about him is, and I’m going to give the coaching staff at Ramapo credit, he is extremely mechanically driven and very, very talented at the short sprint,” Rizzo said. “So, when he came over, my philosophy, I’m more of a running program and (Ramapo) more mechanical, so it was the best of both worlds to combine how he is now.”

Traore ran one second off his PR in the 60 (6.64) and anchored host Penn State’s 4x400 relay to a victory Feb. 3 at the Sykes and Sabock Challenge in 3:05.87, achieving a 45.16 split.

Traore said the transition to the next level hasn’t changed him, as he’s still maintained the same confidence and believes he can win any race. Described as a humorous and dedicated individual, Rizzo explained you don't really know what you’re going to get out of him day-to-day.

“Which honestly is exciting,” Rizzo said with a laugh. “(But) I think the most impressive thing about Cheickna is his mindset,” Rizzo said. “He doesn’t get frazzled at all, he doesn’t step away from competition, no workout is too hard, he always says everything is too easy, and he’s a leader for us.”

While finishing the indoor season strong, with the motivation to add another national title or two to his resume, Traore’s biggest goal is hitting the Olympic standard of 20.16 in the 200, his bread-and-butter event. And something that once seemed unattainable at the start of his running career, now isn’t so far-fetched.

“You know, he wasn’t always that guy in the 200, he had to work,” Brown said. “Every level of success has come from hard work. I know this kid keeps going up, and the next level is the Olympics. And I feel like you can never put any ceiling on this kid because he can do it.”