Another successful weekend for men’s and women’s track and field is in the books as they traveled to the NYC Armory in New York to compete at the Columbia Challenge on Jan. 26 and 27. Over the course of the weekend, four Hawks set program records at the Dr. Sander Invite/Columbia Challenge while the men placed fourth out of the 19 schools competing and women placed 11th out of 21 schools.
Yasmeen Tinsley continues to surpass not only her own records but Monmouth records as well as she clocked in a new Monmouth record with a time of 8.48 seconds in the preliminary round of the women’s 60m hurdles.
Freshman Emily Simko experienced a record of her own for her top moment so far in her collegiate career as she set a new Monmouth freshman record in the women’s mile with a time of 4:58.11. This time put Simko in the lead in the CAA for her class and now claims the sixth-fastest time in the conference this season.
It was quite the successful competition for the freshman as Dylan Bonser re-broke his freshman record. After accumulating 4,501 points in the heptathlon, he now ranks fifth all-time in Monmouth history.
Jan Volkmar the junior from Germany, set a new top mark for his first year at Monmouth. He previously was at Georgian Court University for two seasons before transferring to Monmouth. Volkmar finished second in the heptathlon, finishing with 4,978 total points. Volkmar now leads the CAA and ranks 31st nationally with his outstanding performance.
The Hawks came out on top in two events; the men’s 400m and the men’s DMR. Junior Jordan Ricketts claimed first in the men’s 400m and finished with a time of 48.82 which was his new personal best and ninth-fastest time ever ran by a Hawk in the 400m event. Four additional Hawks joined Ricketts in the winning circle; Tomas Berry, Kevin Collura, Aaron Guensch, and James Martinez when their foursome recorded a winning men’s DMR time of 10:05.66, which ranks 24th in the nation.
According to the Monmouth Athletics Website, Head Coach Mike Nelson says, “We had a great time competing at the Dr. Sander Invite/Columbia Challenge! This has always been one of the most competitive meets in the northeast. It was a great opportunity to compete at a two-day meet at the NYC Armory, which will be hosting the CAA Championships in late February. Our squads produced two new school records along with several Top-10 all-time performances. We are making solid progress as we enter February and get closer to the championship portion of the season.”
