Despite the challenging weather over the past two weeks, MU’s Indoor Track & Field squads have not floundered and have continued to produce impressive results. On Friday, Jan. 31 and Sunday, Feb. 1, the Hawks competed in a pair of meets: The Bison Open Invitational at Bucknell University and the Columbia Lion’s Invitational. Both meets were not scored on a team basis, however, both the men and the women performed exceptionally well and broke some school records in the process.
At the Bison Invitational, the Hawks focused on jumping events as well as the pentathlon. Sophomore Michaela Read took first place amongst some of the top schools in the region with a score of 3,300 points. Her performance in the pentathlon included a time of 9.34 in the 60 meter hurdles, as well as jumps of 5 ft. ¾ inches and 17 ft. in the high jump and long jump respectively.
She also tossed the shot put to the 33 foot mark, the second furthest of the day. On the men’s side, sophomore Liam Vogt jumped 22 ft. 2 ½ inches, leaping himself to a third place finish overall.
The following day, the Hawks competed in the Columbia Invitational. Freshman Dylan Capwell placed third overall in the 800 meter run with an unbelievable time of 1:50.81. His time counts as the second fastest 800 meter time ran in school history. Capwell competed again later that day, teaming up with juniors Andrew Langille, Alex Leight, and Khari Bowen in the 4×800 meter relay. The four ran a time of 7:36.89, winning the event at the meet, as well as shattering another school record that has been upheld since 2005.
The Hawks came close to breaking one more school record at the meet when sophomore Domenick D’Agostino ran the second fastest time in school history for the 3,000 meter run. He crossed the finish line in 8:22.62. Wrapping up the highlights for the men was senior Errol Jeffrey, who placed second overall with a career best throw in the shot put of 63 ft. 9 ¾ inches.
The women’s side saw freshmen Tionna Garner and Zoya Naumov place third and fourth respectively in the 800 meter run with times of 2:14.8 and 2:15.94. Both times were qualifiers for the ECAC’s. Garner and Naumov teamed up later in the day with fellow freshmen Jessica Ball and Jenna Cupp in the 4×800 meter relay. Their time of 9:08.43 won them the event and created a new MU freshman record.
In the sprints, two women came extremely close to school records as well in the 60 meter hurdles and the 200 meter dash. Graduate student Lachelle Wallace finished just one hundredth of a second off the 60 meter hurdles record, crossing the line in 7.69 seconds, while senior Mariah Toussaint came just six hundredths of a second off the 200 meter dash record, finishing in 24.67.
The Hawks kept the winning streak alive as they competed in the Armory Collegiate Invitational on Friday, Feb. 7. Junior Jalen Walker steered the Hawks to victory as he broke the school record in the 60 meter hurdles. Sophomore teammate Geordan Ferguson also competed in the 60 meter hurdles and advanced to the semifinals.
The women’s side featured senior Mariah Toussaint in the 200 meter dash and placed seventh in the event at 25.09. Junior Kate Frye and senior Laura Williams competed in the college women’s 400 where they finished second and sixth in the preliminaries respectively.
As a result of their recent victories, head coach Joe Compagni believes his team can win the Indoor Conference Championship on Friday, Feb. 21 at the New York City Armory.
“Our men and women both won the last 5 straight NEC Outdoor Track Championships and the last 2 NEC Indoor Championships,” Compagni continued. “We are hoping to now make some noise in the MAAC starting this year.”
The Indoor Track and Field teams’ next race will be the Lafayette/Rider Winter Games on Fri, Feb 14 at New York Armory-New York, NY. The event will begin at 11 am.
PHOTO COURTESY of Jim Reme
