April 21, 2009

Sports Briefs: Track and Baseball Previews

Print More

Track to Compete in Ithaca Open, Penn Relays

This week, the track team will visit East Hill neighbor Ithaca College for the Ithaca Open, then travel to UPenn for the Penn Relays.
The Bombers will have confidence when they host their invitational on Tuesday after having won the Men’s Empire 8 Championship last weekend. After senior Corey Peterman was named Field Athlete of the Meet and teammate sophomore Jeff Wetmore was named Track Athlete of the Meet, both received Empire 8 Athletes of the Week recognitions.[img_assist|nid=37065|title=Right on track|desc=Senior Jeomi Maduka will challenge for both sprint and jumping titles.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
After pairing up to defeat Cambridge and Oxford in the biennial competition between the four schools from both sides of the pond, Cornell and UPenn will again become Ivy rivals at the Penn Relays on Thursday. On the women’s side, star senior jumper/sprinter Jeomi Maduka will look to continue her season of domination, whose most recent chapter included an NCAA Regional-qualifying win in the triple jump at the Sea Ray Relays in Tennessee last week.

Baseball Travels East to Challenge Siena to Doubleheader

The Red will travel to Loudonville, N.Y. on Tuesday to take in the Siena Saints in a doubleheader bill.
Cornell is riding high on a two-game win streak that came at the expense of Ivy League rival Columbia, and has won six of its last seven games. The Red’s record sits at 12-18 (8-8), the same win total as last year’s disappointing campaign, two more than its total 2008 conference wins.
The Saints meanwhile are coming off of a three-game sweep at the hands of Rider College. In both of the last two games, Siena’s late rallies proved fruitless after the Broncos were able to clamp down in extra innings. Siena, who will be looking for its tenth and eleventh wins on the year, is led by junior outfielder Anthony Gainsanti, who is among the top-3 on the team in batting average, slugging, on-base percentage, runs batted in and hits.
For the Red, senior catcher/infielder Nathan Ford has been swinging a productive bat all year, leading the team in slugging (.643) and runs batted in (29). Junior RHP David Rochefort has anchored the back-end of Cornell’s bullpen this season with a 3.32 ERA and has a team-leading six saves.