By Eddie Young
Sports Editor
The Lions hosted their annual Lions Invitational this past weekend on April 25 and 26, while additionally sending some athletes to compete in the Penn Relays. The weekend was filled with records and podium finishes during their rare home event.
To start the weekend, the College sent five sprinters to Philadelphia to run in the storied Penn Relays on Friday, April 25. At an event filled with some of the best high school and collegiate runners in North America, the Lions had squads compete in the 4x100-meter and 4x200-meter relays.
Fifth-year Ray Schmitt, freshman Maxim Rychkov, freshman Noah Traverso and sophomore Jack Attali set the tone for the College early, as they started off the day competing in the 4x100-meter relay. They finished tenth in the heats with a time of 41.45 seconds, and they were just one spot out of qualification for the final in the event. Even though they did not advance to the final, they still performed better than some Division I schools, including New Jersey Institute of Technology and Monmouth.
The Lions then competed in the 4x200-meter Championship of America. Traverso, Attali and Rychkov teamed up with freshman Anthony Senatore to run this event. The relay team was able to take down their second school record in two weekends, running a 1:26.56 and breaking the program record set three years ago by almost a full second.
The College's relay teams from this year have now broken the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400-meter relay school records, with Traverso, Attali and Rychkov being involved in all three. Rychkov also has the 100-meter and 200-meter program records, giving him five school records in his freshman year.
The Lions then shifted their focus to the Lions Invitational in Ewing, where they performed very well at home.
Rychkov was once again dominant, as he broke his own program record in the 200-meter dash, winning with a time of 21.27 seconds. The freshman beat out two Division I runners to top the podium.
Attali also performed well, finishing in second place in the 400-meter hurdles. He ran the event in 54.35 seconds and was just two-tenths of a second behind the winner from Rowan.
Sophomore Tyler Kadezabek took home a victory in the field for the College, winning the pole vault. He was one of three athletes to vault over the 4.30-meter mark, but he was the only one to complete the jump first try, giving him the win.
On the women’s side, senior Eliza Bruncaj took third in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing amongst a myriad of Division I runners with a time of 1:02.93. This performance, along with a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles, helped her win the NJAC Track Athlete of the Week for the sixth time in her career.
Senior Kerri McCarthy finished in fourth in the hammer throw, with her furthest throw being 50.93 meters. She took home the NJAC Field Athlete of the Week award for the second time in her career.
Freshman Brenna Omert finished in fourth in the 800-meter race, with a time of 2:17.11. This run helped her win the NJAC Rookie of the Week award.
Seniors Annalise Stephens and Lily Lorio went third and fourth in the javelin throw. They had furthest throws of 38.95 meters and 37.90 meters, respectively.
With this being the final home event of the regular season for the Lions, they honored their seniors after the meet. Twenty-six seniors across the men’s and women’s teams were recognized.
The Lions will now look ahead to the NJAC Championship, which will take place at the College on May 3 and 4.
