The Monmouth University track and field program hosted the Monmouth Winter Classic at the OceanFirst Bank Center this weekend where 12 other schools were in attendance.
The Hawks had won 14 events on their home track Saturday and two more during Sunday’s pole vault events. Monmouth had an impressive meet in all the jumping events, lead by sophomore Dalton Yeust, who broke the school record in the men’s pole vault, which will be adding onto his outdoor school record. Yeust cleared the bar at 4.92m, while teammates Jack Miles and Mike Domozych were the runners-up at 4.60m and 4.00m.
Ahmad Brock, Bryce Boddie, and Keven Kevelier swept the men’s long jump event as they earned the top three spots with Brock taking first thanks to a mark of 7.14m. The Hawks also took the win in the high jump with Kevelier winning the men’s event with a 1.95m jump. His teammate Derek Vander Woude continued to apply pressure as he came in second at 1.90m.
On the women’s side, Veronica Chainov won the high jump with a mark of 1.73m. In the women’s triple jump, Izzy Warren took the event win for the Hawks with a leap of 12.10m. Warren maintained her momentum with a second place finish in the long jump with a leap of 5.37m.
For throws, there were a bunch of notable performances for the Hawks. Mujeeb Ali won the men’s shot put with a toss of 16.52m, while also taking a second place finish in the weight throw with a mark of 17.98m. Natalie Rolon-Issa won the women’s shot put with a throw of 13.21m, and Jade Luciani won the weight throw with a distance of 15.29m, respectively.
On the track, Monmouth continued to shine with Yasmeen Tinsley winning the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.80 seconds and Jess Cervenak also taking first in the 60m dash at 7.98 seconds. Brandon Muir placed second in the men’s 60m clocking in a time of 6.95 seconds.
Tyler Clifford won the men’s mile at 4:19.08, while Jacci Martinelli won the women’s mile at 5:15.06, an event where Monmouth swept the top six spots.
Marisa Kilgarriff claimed a first place finish in the women’s 800m thanks to her time of 2:21.73. Steven Baah-Mensah took second place in the men’s 800m recording a time of 1:59.31. Monmouth captured more wins in the men’s and women’s 500m with Kevin Collura (1:06.67) and Brianna Rubio (1:21.56) each taking a victory for themselves.
The Monmouth University track and field program also sent six student-athletes to Lewisburg, PA to compete at Friday and Saturday’s 24th Annual Bison Open, where they came back home with a first and second place finish in the pentathlon and heptathlon, respectively.
This weekend marked the first time the Hawks had competed in the heptathlon since 2017, and the first time in the pentathlon since 2014.
Annie Rutledge finished fourth or better in four of the five events, which included wins in the long jump (5.23m) and 800m (2:31.54) which gave her the advantage to the top spot in the women’s pentathlon. Rutledge’s 2898 total points is the seventh-best pentathlon performance in school history.
On the men’s side, David Strong took second as the runner-up in the heptathlon, with the events taking place on both Friday and Saturday. Strong was leading through five events after taking the win in the 60m (7.18 seconds), long jump (6.76m), and 60m hurdles (8.72 seconds).
Strong’s 4471 total points is third-best all-time in Monmouth’s history, as teammate Thomas Gibbard’s sixth-place finish at 4135 makes sixth-best in school history.
Up next, the Hawks will compete at the Rutgers Open next weekend from Friday, Feb. 3 to Saturday, Feb. 4 in New York City.
