The College’s men’s and women’s track and field teams had solid performances at the Greyhound Invitational at Moravian College this past weekend.
The men were led by a record-breaking performance from junior Steven D’Aiutolo, who broke the school record in the triple jump (held by himself) by leaping 14.35 meters, good for second place in the event. Junior Andy Gallagher also grabbed a second place finish, his being in the 3000-meter steeplechase, with a time of 9:38.37.
The Lions had several other top ten finishes in the running events. Junior Alex Brown receiving ninth place in the 400-meters with a time of 50.12 Senior Christopher Medina ran a 22.22 in the 200-meters, good for sixth place in the event and a qualification for ECAC’s. Senior Rob Jiggetts was right behind him in seventh at 22.43. Finally, junior Mark Sidebottom paced himself to a admirable fourth place in the 5000-meters at 15:38.15.
The College also had freshman Erik Moutenot compete in the Larry Ellis Invitational held at Princeton University. He completed the 800-meters at a time of 1:56.31.
“I heard back from a couple of teammates minutes after the meet on how everyone did on Saturday,” Moutenot said. “It was great to hear the good news, a lot of people hit season bests that day. Can’t wait to get back and compete with the full team again next weekend.”
For the women, the 5000-meters was their strongest event. Freshman Jillian Manzo, senior Danielle Aran and freshman Tara Nealon finished sixth, eighth and ninth in the event at times of 19:06.00, 19:24.27 and 19:32.46 respectively.
Two duos in three different events were also key to the Lions’ success. In the hurdles, sophomore Katie Knight took fifth in the 100-hurdles at 15.49, while sophomore Emily Kulcyk was sixth in the 400-hurdles, speeding to a 1:04.12 mark. In the 3000-meter steeplechase, junior Erine O’Connor and freshman Alyssa Silver managed to finish in the two fastest times for Division III runners. O’Connor took ninth at 12:14.31 and Silver was 12th at 12:44.49.
“It was my first time ever running the steeple chase and it felt pretty good,” Silver said. “I really enjoyed running it though and I look forward to running it more in the future and improving my time.”
Also, in the 1500-meters, sophomore Julie Jablonski was eighth overall with a mark of 4:51.99.
In the field, junior Mary Chismar placed fifth in the shot put with a heave of 12.14 meters. The throw qualified her for ECAC’s.
“The team did pretty well and fought hard despite the heat,” Silver said. “There was a lot of competition but we definitely proved to be a competitive team.”
The women also had some runners in the Larry Ellis Invitational that resulted in ECAC qualifiers. In the 5000 meters, sophomore Megan Flynn and junior Cathy Goncalves both qualified with times of 17:36.89 and 17:39.58 respectively. In the 1500-meter event, seniors Alyssa Bannon and Katie Nestor raced to qualifying times of 4:38.24 and 4:41.79 respectively.
The Lions managed to compete well as a team, even though their athletes were scattered in the two separate meets.
The College will host the Lion Invitational this coming Friday and Saturday.
