On Sunday, April 18, the men’s and women’s track & field team hosted their spring invitational at Kessler Stadium against Fairleigh Dickinson, Fordham, Iona, Manhattan, Quinnipiac, Rider, Siena, TCNJ, and Wagner. The meet came at an exciting time as the field hockey and the men’s soccer team won their conference titles the day before!
The track team returned to West Long Branch defeating Rider University last Saturday, April 10, at their facility in Lawrenceville. The women scored 100.5 to 77.5 to win a smooth victory. The men, in contrast, only won by a close margin scoring 106-94.
Head Coach Mike Nelson shared some comments about the meet. “This was a large meet compared to others we have had this year,” said Nelson. “We got a preview of the conference meet because many of the schools that competed here will be with us again shortly. It was nice to have a home competition since we were able to use our own facility for this.”
Assistant Coach Damon Godfrey, added, “I think we had a good day; we broke the record books for many events. This meet was a good confidence builder leading us into the next important couple of weeks!”
The first half of the meet only focused on the throws and distance events. The men and women had a strong performance in distance. In the 10k, true freshman Allie Pierontoni ran 37:06 to win the race meanwhile breaking the freshman record. In 5th place was junior Mackenzie Delahunty running 37:57.
On the men’s side, five Hawks went under 32 minutes. Junior Carrington Retzios ran a personal best of 30:45 for 3rd place. The Hawks took 5th to 8th place with junior Shane Ainscoe running in 31:25, sophomore Jared Taylor in 31:27, freshman Sebastien Reed in 31:33, and sophomore Cameron Janovic in 31:40.
In the 5k, the dynamic duo of juniors Lou Dilaurenzio and James Hoffman shattered the 15-minute barrier for the first time. DiLaurenzio got third place in 14:46, with Hoffman in fourth running a time of 14:47.
In the field, senior Dan Gilligan won the shot put with 16.52 meters. Continuing her successful season, senior Chibuzo Amuno threw 50.58 meters to win the hammer throw. In discus, sophomore Jade Luciani threw a personal best of 41.12 meters.
Senior Danielle Steff won javelin with a far throw of 44.65 meters. In the men’s javelin, they had a 1-2-3 punch with senior Mark Orlando leading in 65.78 meters. Following Orlando was sophomore Taylor Boorse with 53.23m and junior Dorian Jackson throwing 52.55 meters.
In the intermission of the meet at one o’clock, twenty-two seniors on both the men’s and women’s side were honored for their hard work and dedication in their careers as Monmouth University Hawks. Following the ceremony, the afternoon session focused on the sprints and jump events.
In the men’s 400 meters, Junior Jalen Jones won with a sharp time of 48.37. Additionally, sophomores Micah Wood and Daniel Fenton went first and second in the 400-meter hurdles. Later, in the 4×400 relay, the men won the race composed by freshmen Matt Martino and Scott Petersen and returners Jones and Wood.
In the pole vault, junior Randy Showmaker won first place and broke the facility record at 4.75 meters. Following him in second was freshman Connor Bennett, who had a stellar performance jumping 4.60 meters. In the 800 meters, sophomore Ian Moore won the race, changing his personal best to a time of 1:51.
In the women’s 400 meters, sophomore Sydney Squier won her event with a time of 57.48. The women also showed a strong performance in the 4×100, with senior Amanda Dwyer, freshman Brianna Rubino, sophomore Nina Corpora and Squier anchoring the group.
In the Long Jump, junior Romaine Rhoden had a huge performance and won the event in 7.18 meters. For the women’s side, sophomore Natalia Torres earned a new personal best of 5.41 meters. At the end of the day, the men and women’s team won 13 events.
Up next, the Hawks will be competing at Lehigh University on April 24. On May 8 and 9, the men and women’s team will be competing at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conferences Championships at Rider University. This is the first since 2019 the outdoor championship is being held; and the men and women’s team will be defending their winning titles from two years ago.
PHOTO COURTESY of Monmouth Athletics
