The track and field team secured several all-time performances at the Patriot League Indoor Championships at the Naval Academy last weekend. The women finished seventh out of 10 teams, while the men finished in ninth. In total, the Leopards snatched three school records and three medals.
Sophomore Ida Moczerniuk took home gold in the 60-meter (7.48) and a second-place finish in the 200-meter (24.60), the first of which tied a school record, and the latter broke the school record.
The last time a Lafayette athlete took home a gold medal at the indoor championships was 2016, when Devin Smith ’16 won the 400-meter.
“Everyone knew what everyone was running,” Moczerniuk said. “Everyone was building each other up and knew how to hype up everyone that was competing in order to go into this holistically with a team mindset.”
Moczerniuk attributed her success to practice and preparation throughout the season.
“The race is very much mental,” Moczerniuk said. “The preparation comes in the weeks, in the months leading up to the championship, in the work that I do with my team and with my coach every day at practice.”
Senior Nava Chevan and junior Alexa LaSasso earned second and sixth-place finishes in the 800-meter at 2:07.42 and 2:11.97, respectively, with Chevan’s time breaking her own school record.
Moczerniuk was also named to the All-Patriot League First Team, and Chevan was named to the Second Team following the championship.
Seniors Casey MacElhiney and senior Chelsey Cochrane, junior Katherine Pappas and sophomore Gabby Buber took home seventh in the distance medley relay for ninth all-time (12:13.41). The 4×800 relay team of junior Elena Malone, freshman Jamie Gorman, Cochrane and Pappas took home seventh (9:23.23).
On the men’s side, junior Quinn Worrell broke the school record in the 800 meters (1:51.99) preliminaries and followed it up on Sunday with a seventh-place finish at 1:53.63. Sophomore John Liedtka earned fifth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.23) preliminaries, good for the school’s No. 2 all-time finish. Liedtka then earned eighth in the finals (8.60).
“I’ve known for a while that I was in good enough shape to run that time or something faster, and I just haven’t quite gotten in the right race for it yet,” Worrell said. “I wasn’t really worrying about that at the time, I was more worrying about just making the final.”
On the men’s side, freshman Kaseme Leckie garnered fourth in the 60-meter, which was good for fourth all-time at Lafayette (6.89). Junior Cole Chukoskie catapulted to ninth all-time in the 3000 meters to place 12th overall (8:27.83).
Junior Roman Conca, junior J.P. Pfisterer, sophomore Christian Wright and sophomore Alexander Caba captured fourth in the 4×400, earning ninth all-time (3:19.44).
The Leopards will kick off their outdoor season on March 21 at the Bob Davidson Team Challenge hosted by High Point University. Worrell said the team would be getting back to the grind quickly to prepare for the short turnaround.
“I know from my group right now, we’re kind of just taking a little down week after the league meet,” Worrell said. “Next week, we’re going to get right back into it.”
