By Gina Morrone
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Parker
The Lafayette Track and Field team competed in two separate meets last weekend and both meets resulted in strong performances. On Friday night, qualifying men and women traveled to the New York City Armory for the Albany Great Dane Classic while on Saturday, the rest of the team traveled down the road for Lehigh’s Mountain Hawk Multi and Invitational.
Led by middle distance runner Chris Parker ‘13, Lafayette’s men recorded impressive times in various events Friday in New York. Parker finished 11th overall in the 800 meter run, with a time of 1:53.9. This was fast enough to join teammates Nick DeRosa ‘12 and Jerome Rudolph ‘12 for the IC4A Championship in Boston this March. DeRosaclocked in at 22.34 in the 200 meter dash, placing him 13th overall. Rudolph ran 6.98 in the 60m dash in the first meet of the season.
Parker is excited for the IC4A meet, but said that the Lehigh dual meet and Patriot League Championship are more of a focus for his team right now. He also attributes his success to the team.
“It helps having a group of teammates and friends to train with who are all highly motivated and are focused on the same goal,” said Parker.
Derrick Hargwood ‘14 and Matt Piazza ‘12 each recorded season bests in the 800 meter run, and Chris Pregler ‘12 set a season best in the 500 meter run. Dayne Mosconi ‘13 also recorded an indoor personal best, clocking in at 4:19.6 for the mile.
“The middle distance men had very strong performances across the board,” said Mosconi. “The two freshmen, AndrewHaff ‘15 and Zach Lizmi ‘15, had great races in the mile and 3000 meters respectively. Both have tremendous work ethic in practice and I expect to see big things from them later in the season.”
The women also recorded strong performances. Adedayo Adu ‘12 clocked in at 58.79 in the 400 meter dash and Sarah Welsh-Huggins ‘12 finished her mile in 5:05.70. Both times were personal bests, and both rank sixth all-time at Lafayette.
On Saturday, senior Joelle Neilson ‘12 placed first overall in the long jump, leaping 18′ 7 1/4″. This performance follows an exceptional outing last week where Neilson broke the indoor school long jump record, as well as the triple jump record, reaching a distance of 39′ 1 1/4″. These times qualified her for the ECAC Championships.
However, the highlight of the weekend belonged to sophomore Elise Buffinton ‘14 who broke the school record with a vault of 11′ 5 ¾” vault. The jump was good enough for second place. She was joined in the top ten by teammates Brooke Kohler ‘13 and Claire Murphy ‘15, who tied with ninth place finishes of 10′.
Overall, the men finished fourth out of 15 and the women placed fourth out of 12 teams.
Brittany Powell ’15 put on as she placed first in the triple jump, second in the long jump, and fifth overall in the 60-meter dash.
The team will travel to Lehigh for their annual indoor showdown with the Mountain Hawks on Saturday. She claimed that even though Lafayette is favored in many of the field events, the team is prepared for tight races on the track.
“It’s all about being the smartest athlete, who can stay calm and out-perform the competition when the pressure is on,” said Welsh-Huggins.
Welsh-Huggins also elaborated on the intense rivalry with Lehigh. “Everyone always talks about beating Lehigh, but there’s nothing that can really compare to walking into that field house, thinking of the decades of track athletes who have come before you, each determined to take down the Hawks,” said Welsh-Huggins.