MU Captures Six of the Top 10 Spots in the Men’s Shot Put Competition
The Hawks Track and Field opened their spring season with the 18th Annual Monmouth Season Opener. The two-day meet included 20 teams and 1,038 athletes.
“The meet last year got almost too big so we really wanted to see only 20 teams this year,” Head Coach Joe Compagni said. “There’s a few less teams, but those teams are strong teams. Less quantity, more quality.”
Competition began on Friday with the open mile and the hammer throw.
Sophomore runner Khari Bowen placed fourth in the open mile as he crossed the finish line at 4:21.32. Freshman Domenick D’Agostino shortly followed Bowen as he completed the race at 4:23.54.
On the field side of Friday’s events, MU placed fourth, fifth, and sixth in the men’s hammer throw. Junior Errol Jeffrey, senior Ryan Snyder, and sophomore Wulf Sutcliffe tossed a distance of 49.24 meters, 48.86 meters, and 47.73 meters, respectively.
MU placed third, fourth, and fifth in the women’s hammer throw as junior Qiyana Hill threw 50.86 meters, senior Symmone Fisher tossed 50.86 meters, and junior Rachel Aliotta threw 48.08 meters.
Hill also finished second in the discus with a distance of 42.96 later in the competition.
The second day of the meet provided the Hawks with a plethora of victories as the day began at 9:45 a.m. and lasted several hours.
The most MU-dominated event of the meet was the men’s shot put, as the Hawks captured six out of the top ten spots with Jeffrey leading the way at 17.30 meters.
Aliotta and senior Sandra Jean-Romain finished second and fourth, respectively, in the women’s shot put with distances of 13.94 meters and 13.15 meters.
The javelin throwers made sure MU was a threat as freshman McLean Lipschutz came in second with a throw of 61.64 meters. Sophomore Zach Torrell finished in third with a distance of 58.39 meters and teammate sophomore Kevin Gilhuy followed in fourth with a throw of 58 meters.
Freshman Maria Jimenez broke an MU school record as she won the javelin throw with a distance of 46.09 meters.
Junior Mariah Toussaint also won her event, the long jump, as she posted a distance of 5.66 meters. Freshman Jean Udo finished third with a distance of 5.02 meters.
The triple jump was won by MU junior Joey Marini as he finished at 14.44 meters. Senior teammate Nick Waltman came in third at 13.63 meters.
Junior Ed Kramer competed in the men’s high jump where he placed first clearing a height of two meters. Sophomore Erik Anderson finished third in the high jump with a height of 1.90 meters.
The women also did well in the high jump with senior Alison Day finishing second with a height of 1.65 meters and senior Rachel Watkins placing third with the same height.
Freshman Tyler Poland gained MU a second place victory in the men’s pole vault at 3.95 meters while sophomore Lauren McDonald gave the Hawks a first place prize in the women’s pole vault at 3.30 meters.
The runners of MU did just as well as the women placed first in the 4×100 relay with a time of 48.90 seconds and the men placed second in the same event with a time of 42.34.
Even though the men placed second in the 4×100 relay, they were able to secure first in 4×800 relay as the completed their race with a time of 7:30.00.
Senior captain Ford Palmer who anchored the team also won the 800 meter event with a time of 1:53.21. Other members of the 4×800 relay team were sophomore Luis Reyes, sophomore Andrew Langille, and sophomore Alex Leight.
The women’s 4×400 relay finished second with a time of 3:59.79. The team was composed of junior Laura Williams, sophomore Melanie Lewis, freshman Morgan Spann, and Watkins.
Watkins also took home first in the 100 meter hurdles finishing at 14.36 seconds. She also competed in the 400 meter hurdles and placed third for MU as she posted a time of 1:02.14.
Competing on the men’s side of the 400 meter hurdles was senior Chris Rutherford, who finished first with a time of 53.34 in the event. Junior Jalen Walker participated in the 110 meter hurdles where he also placed first with a time of 14.63.
Junior Kelsey Maher ran in one of the final events of the meet, the 5000 meter race, where she placed third with a time of 17:33.86.
Toussaint also competed in the track events for the women’s side. She placed third in both the 100 meter dash and the 200 meter dash with times of 12.35 seconds and 25.81 seconds, respectively.
While the team captured many first, second, and third place victories, Compagni sees room for improvement. “With our training, we kind of take a little break and start back up again. You don’t always open up with your absolute best performance,” Compagni said.
The Hawks will send part of their team to Williamsburg, VA for the Colonial Relays at the College of William and Mary and Princeton University for the Sam Howell Invitational this weekend.
