By Matthew Shaffer
Staff Writer
The College’s track and field team competed in the Diplomat Open on Saturday, January 25. They were one of 22 colleges to attend the event located at Schnader Field House at Franklin and Marshall University.
The women’s team had an overall impressive showing in long distance and field events, while still showing up on the sprinting side. In the 60-meter dash, freshman Karla Matos Gomez finished just outside the top 10. Over in the 200 meter, Ashlyn MacLure and Rachel Lanzalotti finished in 11th and 12th, respectively. In the 400-meter, freshman Erin Buquicchio ran at 1:02.46, finishing sixth, yet still three seconds off the lead runner.
In the 800-meter and mile, the leaderboards were dominated by runners Emily Hirsch and Kelsey Kobus, finishing third and fourth, respectively. The lone first-place finish in sprints was sophomore Kassidy Mulryne, who ran 9.17 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, trumping the 39 other runners in that particular race.
The College's women’s team also took first place in the high jump, pole vault and distance medley. Sophomore Nicole Lester cleared 3.35m, marking the top height.
As for the men, they had notable performances in the 60-meter, 800-meter and the mile. The one top-ten finisher for the Lions in the sprinting events was junior Daulton Hopkins, who finished in the top 10 for both the 60-meter and the 200-meter. In both races he was less than a second away from garnering the top spot. Senior Mike Zurzolo and sophomore William Mayhew finished second and third in the mile run, with times of 4:25.3 and 4:27.8, respectively.
The Lions also had a top-5 finisher in the 800-meter, as sophomore Alex Amoia ran a 2:01.2, earning him the fourth best time on the leaderboard. Over in the 3000-meter, senior Evan Bush and freshman Kevin Christensen finished in the top five, each with a time better than nine minutes.
It was a respectable performance for the College’s track and field team, as they will look to continue their success on Friday, Jan. 31 at Stockton University.
