The track and field team competed at the Patriot League Indoor Championship hosted by Boston University this past weekend. The women finished seventh out of 10 teams and the men finished in last.
To prepare for the championship, junior mid-distance runner Nava Chevan said that the team “tapered a lot” in the week leading up to it.
“For example, for the sprinters and the distance team, we do a lot less mileage and volume,” Chevan said. “Our lifts are also cut so our bodies are prepared to perform at their best.”
In the women’s events on Saturday, senior distance runner Emma Lorey finished 12th in the 5000-meter run and seventh all-time at Lafayette(17:43.17). Sophomore sprinter Maeve Waldron and freshman sprinter Gabby Buber finished 14th (25.37) and 20th (25.77) in the 200-meter dash, respectively. Waldron’s time made her the third fastest in Lafayette history, and Buber’s time put her in tenth all-time.
Freshman sprinter Ida Moczerniuk placed seventh in the 60-meter prelim (7.76) and Chevan finished sixth in the 400-meter prelim (56.38), both times qualifying for the finals on Sunday. In addition, the 4×800-meter team of Chevan, senior Lily Dineen, sophomores Elena Malone and Alexa LaSasso took home a fourth-place finish, good for fourth all-time at Lafayette (9:08.28).
“I was very happy with my time and making it to finals,” Chevan, who sits third all-time for Lafayette in the 400-meter, said.
“We were also very satisfied with our performance in the 4×800, and it’s exciting to have an all-time performance for the school,” Chevan said.
On the men’s side, junior mid-distance runner A.J. Sanford finished 13th in the mile (4:13.37), putting him sixth all-time at Lafayette. The 4×800-meter group of Sanford, sophomores Titan Casey, Quinn Worrell and John Paul Pfisterer placed seventh (7:43.09), good for tenth all-time at the College.
In the field events, sophomore Benjamin Hill managed a fourth-place finish in the pole vault (15’ 7”), good for third all-time at Lafayette, and senior Andrew Bowsher placed seventh in the weight throw (58’ 1”), good for fourth all-time.
Sunday consisted of four top-ten performances for the Leopards. For the women, the distance medley relay team of Lorey, Dineen, junior Chelsey Cochrane and sophomore Katherine Pappas took home a seventh-place finish (12:13.02) and an eighth all-time at Lafayette.
The 4×400-meter relay team of Waldron, LaSasso, Malone and Chevan managed fourth place and fourth all-time at Lafayette(3:51.60). Chevan also placed eighth in the 400-meter final (57.13) and Moczerniuk finished seventh in the 60-meter final (7.83).
For the men, the distance medley team of Worrell, Pfisterer, Casey and Sanford secured a fourth-place finish and broke a 31-year old Lafayette school record in the process (9:54.72).
Sophomore multi Liam Sawian came away with an eighth-place finish in the heptathlon, an event consisting of the 60-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1000-meter run. His score of 4,527 points put him sixth all-time at Lafayette.
“I was overall pretty satisfied with my performance since it was my first time doing a full multi event,” Sawian wrote in an email. “I was a bit down after a bad showing in the long jump but was happy with how I recovered in the rest of the events. It was nice to score a point for the team and finish 8th at my first leagues, however I’m definitely looking to score more in the future.”
The track and field team will kick off its outdoor season in two weeks at the West Point Invitational hosted by Army.
“We still have a lot to continue to work on because we’re definitely not where we want to be yet, but this season showed a lot of promise not only for outdoors but for the next couple of years,” Sawian wrote.
