After their winter hiatus, the men’s and women’s track teams hit the tracks running in early January. They were greeted by a new track in Barton Hall, and excitement about the upcoming “heart” of the season.
After the long break from meets, the tracksters first competition came in the form of the US Track Coaches Association Series last weekend. After a successful initial campaign that saw each team place 4th, the squads are prepared for two home meets this weekend.
This weekend, the Big Red tracksters hit the track with some momentum after shaking the cobwebs out of their shoes last weekend.
With two weeks of practice under their belt, the squads are ready to sprint out of the blocks to victory. Opening up the weekends’ events will be the Pentathalon.
This event, competed in twice throughout the season, is used to prepare the squads for competition in the Heptagonal and ECAC end of the season tournaments.
The squads most important opponent this weekend will come in the form of the Pennsylvania Quakers. As a team that both squads will face again at least once in the season, Penn will bring some top competition to the individual events. However, don’t count out the other competitors as each team features strengths in some events.
“Penn always has a good competitive program,” added coach Lou Duesing. “The other schools should complement all of the events well. This should be a very competitive meet.”
At the US Track Coaches Association Series, the tracksters faced stiff competition in the forms of Penn State, Villanova and Seton Hall. Amidst the tough competition, sophomore sensation Katy Jay really shown, setting school records in both the 60 and 200 meter dash.
Other great performances on the day were recorded by Merili Mosley in the hurdles and AnneMarie McMillan in the 500 meter dash. Finally, junior Lena Matthews recorded an ECAC qualifying time and personal best in the 1000 meter dash.
“All in all there were some really strong performances,” added Duesing. “Some people were clearly a little rusty, but they will be sharper this weekend.”
For the men, the meet was also a positive outing. There were some strong performances in the field events, as freshman Travis Offner continued to prove to have been a valuable recruit, as he represented the lone Cornell victory, with a win in the pole vault. He was followed by Scott Lundy who placed third in the same event.
In the long jump, another freshman phenom, Tyler Caune finished second with a leap of over 23 feet. In the distance meet, Geoff Van Fleet finished third in the mile, and the 4×400 and 4×800 relay teams each finished in 4th place with times of 3:23.53 and 7:57.26 respectively.
This weekend, the Red will be looking to continue building on its recent outings. As each meet and weekend passes, the Red is one step closer to its end of the season meets, the climax of the track and field season.
With a strong showing today and tomorrow, the Red can continue to improve as the tracksters head into their dual meets, an area in which they excelled last season.
Archived article by Peter Bernstein