The Oswego State men’s and women’s track and field teams competed under beautiful weather conditions and performed well in the Nazareth Roc City Challenge this past weekend.
The women’s team posted strong results for the second weekend in a row. In the field events, freshman Sarah Wellington tied her career best mark of 2.70 meters in pole vault.
Emily Wild finished in a three-way tie for second place in the high jump with a jump of 1.53 meters. Mallory Eckert took third in the javelin throw with a throw of 31.34 meters.
In the sprints, Katie Bott took second in the 400-meter run with a time of 59:29. Bott’s time qualified for ECAC. Kristen Harrigan took sixth in the 400-meter run with a time of 1:00.73.
The women’s 4×800 meter relay team (Katie Laris, Sarah Popovitch, Sylvia Pericles and Bott) had an excellent performance, taking first in the race with a time of 9:51.68.
Marissa Pariseau and Popovitch took fifth and sixth place, respectively, in the women’s 800-meter run.
On the distance side, in the 3000-meter steeplechase Samantha Bielli took eighth place with a time of 13:00.89. In the 5000-meter run, Karlee Duffer finished in 14th place with a time of 20:23.97.
The men’s track and field team also had a number of great performances this past weekend.
In the field events, Christopher Bridgewater finished in third place in the long jump with a jump of 6.73 meters, qualifying him for the ECAC championships.
In the javelin throw, freshman Matthew McDorman finished in fifth place with a throw of 44.73 meters.
Brandon Comden took 10th place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.68. Comden also took fifth place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.33.
In the sprints, freshman Ethan Green finished in eighth place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.59. Andy Baldwin finished in third place in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:57.52.
On the distance side, Damian Archie ran a 4:03.64 in the 1500-meter run, finishing in eighth place. Nick Montesano finished in fourth place in the 5000-meter run with a time of 15:57.51.
Kyle Gilyard finished in fifth place behind Montesano with a time of 16:15.98. In the 400-meter hurdles, Arek Janiga took fourth place with a time of 57:42.
The men’s relay teams also had excellent performances this weekend. The 4×100 meter team, consisting of Adam Crumb, Jacob Zaft, Joseph Shinn and Wendall Williams, just missed first place, finishing in second place with a time of 43:55.
The 4×400 meter team, consisting of Comden, Green, Nicholas Reinsdorf and Andrew Baldwin, finished in first place with a time of 3:25.09.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will also travel to Cortland this weekend for the Cortland Classic.
Head coach of the men’s and women’s track and field teams Derek Rousseau said that he is extremely happy with his teams’ performances so far this season.
“We opened up a week late because of weather issues and I think that got us off our rhythm a little bit, but they responded very nicely,” Rousseau said.
Rousseau said that he’s excited for the rest of the season and both teams look very good this season.
Looking ahead to the Cortland Classic, Rousseau said that there are a few things that they are looking forward to over the weekend, one of which is the format of the event.
The Cortland Classic is set up in an interesting way in that it will be over the course of two days.
“The two-day meet is going to help us out because we can have our athletes do their proper events, but because the events are split up on different days it will actually allow them to recover in between them,” Rousseau said.
One thing Rousseau said the team is looking forward to is setting another school record.
“We are trying to get the women’s 4×100 meter relay team under school record time; that’s a record we have been hunting all year and I think we are going to be in a good position this week to get it,” Rousseau said.
