The men’s and women’s track teams continued their strong seasons with great performances over the weekend. While the men’s team competed in the Lafayette Invitational, the women’s team dominated Penn at home.
In the Lafayette Invitational, the men’s team won seven events and earned three IC4A qualifying scores. Freshman Kenan Goggins won the 200m dash in a blistering 21.70 seconds, which also qualified him for the IC4As. Goggins was also impressive in the 400, finishing second. Junior Brett Coffing also became eligible for the IC4As after winning the shot put with a toss of 16.18m.
Other individual winners for the Red included senior Matthew Gallagher, sophomore John Corley, junior Daryn Johnson and sophomore Travis Offner. Gallagher was victorious in the 800m race with a time of 1:52.58. Corley and Johnson paced Cornell in the distance events, with winning times of 3:57.66 and 15:07.68, respectively. In the pole vault, Offner outclassed the field by clearing a height of 16’3″.
Cornell’s relay teams also excelled, in claiming a first-place finish in the 4×400 and a second-place honor in the 4×100. The time of 41.91 established by the 4×100 team was good enough to qualify the squad for the IC4As.
“Some of the kids did fairly well,” Cornell men’s track and field coach Nathan Taylor recounted. “Some of the events didn’t go quite as hoped.”
Of his team’s performance, Taylor pointed to the success at or near the top of the podium.
“We won a bunch of events, and we finished a close second in seven or eight other events,” Taylor noted.
At home, in the friendly confines of the Kane Sports Complex, the women’s team dominated Penn in a dual meet by winning 15 of 19 events and securing 116 points compared to the Quakers’ 47.
Junior Katy Jay dominated the sprint events, winning both the 100m and 200m races, while qualifying for the IC4A in the 200m. Sophomores Hannah Garrity and Natalie Gingerich both scored victories, with Garrity dominating the field in the 400m, and Gingerich winning the 800m in 2:15.93.
Senior Lena Matthews and junior Carlan Gray each took a top spot on the podium. Mattews cruised to victory in the 3000m and Gray took first in the 3000m steeplechase.
Cornell was equally strong in the field events. Freshman Stacey Nadolny qualified for the ICA4s with an impressive discus toss of 145’4″. Junior Sarah Herskee won both the hammer throw and the shot put in convincing fashion with marks of 48.24m and 45’11.75″.
While coach Lou Duesing was pleased with several individual performances, he was somewhat disappointed in the team’s overall performance.
“I think as a group, this may have been our worst meet of the year,” Duesing acknowledged.
After already having beaten Penn several times earlier in the season, the Red may have lacked the intensity to produce great scores.
“We had run against them four or five times already,” Duesing noted. “It’s hard to get gassed up or fired up. That might have detracted from the performances.”
The cold conditions of Ithaca also might have hurt the team.
“Nasty weather didn’t help our performances,” Duesing added.
While his team didn’t have its usual intensity in this weekend’s meet, Duesing didn’t feel that there would be carry over.
“This team has worked too good and too hard to let their worst meet bother them,” he said.
Archived article by Alex Ip