The track and field team competed at the Patriot League Indoor Championships this past weekend hosted by the Naval Academy. The women finished eighth and the men finished ninth overall of the ten teams in the league.
Senior Becky Hartman said that in order to prepare for a big meet like this, the team has a “down week” in mileage, where they tune up to get ready to race.
In the women’s preliminary events on Saturday, freshman Maeve Waldron finished 19th in the 400-meter run (59.30). Senior Nina Koobatian also finished 19th in the 800-meter run (2:24.93). Freshman Ashleigh Lustgarten placed 16th in the mile run (5:15.63) with classmate Kira Marr taking home 18th (5.24.40). Sophomore Angel Awono finished 15th in the 60-meter hurdles (9.56).
In the finals on Saturday for the women, Hartman finished fifth in the 5,000-meter run (17:11.28), with junior Emma Lorey finishing 18th (18:12.66) and senior Dannah Javens finishing 19th (18:12.92).
“It was really exciting. I wanted to score points for the team so I made sure to put myself in the race so that I was in a good position to be able to do that,” Hartman wrote in an email.
Sophomore Julia Greeley finished seventh in the pole vault (12″ 1.5′). Junior Juliette Delmotte took home 14th in the long jump (17″ 6.75). Senior Grace O’Mara finished 10th in the weight throw (50″ 3.5′), with sophomore Erin O’Leary finishing four spots behind in the same event (48″ 7.5′).
In the men’s preliminary events on Saturday, freshman Roman Conca took home 10th in the 60-meter dash (7.06), with senior Aiden Tai finishing in 14th (7.15). Conca also clocked a time of 22.47 in the 200-meter dash for 13th place. Junior Elias Podber then went on to place 19th in the mile run (4.24.32) with classmate Sean Hamilton right behind him in 20th (4.24.65).
In the men’s finals, sophomore Jack Lynett managed a ninth-place finish in the pole vault (14″ 11′). Senior Andrew Swiniarski earned eighth place in the weight throw (56″ 10.75′).
The Leopards closed out the championships on Sunday afternoon. Standouts of the day from Lafayette were Delmotte with an eighth-place finish in the women’s triple jump (38″ 6.75′) and sophomore Quinn Curtin in ninth in the men’s triple jump (43″ 7.75′).
Rounding out the top individual finishes for Lafayette on Sunday were O’Mara and classmate Solape Fakorede in the women’s shot put (39″ 10.5′, 12th and 36″ 4.25′, 16th) as well as senior Claire Fedor and junior Sophia Dongaris in the triple jump (36″ 1.5′, 14th and 35″ 8.5, 16th).
There were two top-ten placing group runs from Lafayette on Sunday, the first being a seventh-place finish from the foursome of freshman Elena Malone, senior Alex Avery, junior Nava Chevan and freshman Maeve Waldron (3:59.03) in the women’s 4×400-meter relay. The next was a sixth-place finish from the distance medley of sophomore AJ Sanford II and freshmen Roman Conca, Titan Casey and Quinn Worrell (10:07.69).
“There were some places where we had hoped to score, but I think the team still did a really good job, especially with how competitive the Patriot League has gotten,” Hartman wrote. “This season went really well. We had a lot of freshmen contributing, and so I think [we] will keep a lot of things the same, keep doing tough work.”
Now that the 2022-2023 indoor season is complete, the track and field team which will return to action for the outdoor season two weekends from now in High Point, North Carolina.
“We got a new coach after the cross country season,” Hartman wrote. “I think he’s worked really well with the team from the start, which has definitely helped the indoor season go as well as it did, and I think that will continue in outdoors.”
Correction 03/05/2023: A previous version of this article incorrectly spelled the name of Ashleigh Lustgarten and misstated the weight throw distances of senior Grace O’Mara as 48″ 7.25′ and sophomore Erin O’Leary threw as 45″ 1.5′. The article has been updated to correct the spelling of Lustgarten’s name and, to reflect that O’Leary and O’Mara threw 50″ 3.5′ and 48″ 7.5′, respectively.
Grace • Mar 3, 2023 at 12:48 pm
I think it’s really rude to say lackluster-There were many prs from our underclassmen and many people performed well! Maybe you can try to research the team a little better before you write things like this
Please change the name of the article