After bringing home two more Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship titles to add to the already decorated reputation that the Monmouth University track and field team has, the Hawks brought that same energy to the Fastrack Last Chance meet in Staten Island, N.Y. and Boston, MA this past Saturday and Sunday Feb. 24 & 25.
At the Boston University Last Chance meet, senior Allie Wilson shattered the school record for the 3000-meter-run with a time of 9:37.59, more than 15 seconds faster than the previous record held for this event. At the same meet, fifth year Dylan Capwell ran a 1:47.86 in the 800 meters. This time made Capwell the top collegian finisher in the 800-meter and will soon find out if his time is good enough to qualify for the National Colligate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships. His time is currently the 13th best time in the country, and if he remains in the top 16 times in this event, he will go on to compete in the NCAA Championships.
Also in Boston, graduate student Chris Marco ran a 4:03.51 in the mile, which is the second best time in this event in school history. Freshman Amanda Dwyer finished second in the 1000 meters with a time of 2:56.09. Dwyer’s time was just .15 seconds below the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) qualifying time of 2:56.24.
The NYC Amory Last Chance meet, the Hawks kept up the momentum. Fifth year Tim Wilson won the weight throwing event with a mark of 66’7”. This mark is the second best in school history, which gives Wilson the top five marks in the event. Junior Ashley McKinnon won the long jump with an ECAC qualifying jump of 18’11” while teammate and junior Patrice Baston finished third with a mark of 18’4. Fifth year Casey Sturts and senior Megan Gambuti finished first and second in the pole vault event with marks of 12’6 and 11’6.75” and junior Dana Lynch won the 60-meter hurdles by finishing in 8.97 seconds. Senior Frank Conforti placed second in the 500 meters, crossing the finish line with a time of 1:07.44 and senior Corey Murphy finished second in the shot put with a throw of 17.69 meter, making him the top collegian for this event.
When interviewed after the Boston University Last Track meet, Head Coach Joe Compagni said, “Our foursome today in Boston all did an excellent job, and we also had a few very nice performances on Friday in New York. We are looking forward to the ECAC/IC4As next weekend and of course also hoping Dylan did enough to get a spot of NCAA’s again this year.”
The track and field team will be heading back up to Boston for the ECAC/IC4A Championships this weekend, Mar. 2 to the 4th. At this meet last season, the men’s team finished 12th while the women finished third out of a total of 86 teams.
PHOTO COURTESY of Tom Connelly
