The men’s and women’s track teams had another outstanding weekend as they both won the Upstate Challenge. The Red hosted the event, which featured athletes from Buffalo, Colgate, Ithaca College and Syracuse.
Senior Jamie Greubel won the pentathlon with a school-record 3,731 points, and was also a NCAA provisional qualifier. Over the past few months, Greubel has made significant improvements in several of the events which compromise the pentathlon.
“If she had only improved in one event, her score would not have improved as much as they did, said women’s head coach Lou Duesing.
Greubel’s forte may have been in the hurdles, but her effort and improvement in the long jump, high jump and 800 meters have reflected in her overall performance. Her leap of 18-9 1/4 in the long jump is strong enough to qualify her for the ECACs as it is.
Junior Morgan Uceny also had a great day, breaking the Barton Hall record in the 1,000 meters in only her second performance in the event. Uceny crossed the line in 2:49.21, the fourth-best time in Cornell history for the distance. Cornell swept the top-6 spots in the event, as Uceny was followed by classmate Nyam Kagwima, who finished in 2:56.65. Both Uceny’s and Kagwima’s times were ECAC qualifiers.
The 1,000 was not the only event where the Red dominated the first several places, as it seemed to be a trend throughout the day.
“Going into it, I think they knew their competition would be a teammate, and they did not let it get in the way,” Duesing said.
In the field, junior Sarah Wilfred tied the school record in the high jump, clearing 5-8 3/4. Senior co-captain Sheeba Ibidunni won the weight throw with a heave of 60-3′. The sand was also a place where the women saw success. Freshman Mallory Biblio won the long jump with an ECAC qualifying 18-8 1/2 while junior Karen Snyder won the triple jump (37-6 3/4.)
The men also had a good showing. They won 11 events, set one new school record, one freshman record, and saw five IC4A qualifying performances.
Sophomore Jordan Lester broke his own school record in the 60 meter dash, finishing in 6.79 seconds. Classmate Adam Seabrook won the 500 in an IC4A qualifying 1:05.66, while yet another sophomore, Mike Smayda, won the 1,000 meters with an IC4A qualifying time of 2:29.89.
Also winning their events were sophomore Saidu Ezike (60 meter hurdles, 8.28 seconds), classmate Jason Brown (mile, 4:20.71), freshman Marcel van Eeden (400 meters, 50.23), and senior Gordan Hall (800, 1:55.54).
The Red continued to show its depth in each event, sweeping the first six slots in the 400 meters and top-3 in the 800.
Junior Evan Whitehall led the team in the field, winning the pole vault with an IC4A qualifying jump of 16-10 3/4, just ahead of freshman Peter Thompson and sophomore Jim Bowden.
Freshman TJ Rotoro also had an outstanding weekend, breaking the school freshman record in the heptathlon with 4,424 points.
“I am very happy with the weekend – not only because of the marks but because of how people competed,” Duesing said. “The kids went out there and got to it. They’ve been working hard and it shows.”
Archived article by Erin Garry
Sun Staff Writer