A diverse effort aptly describes the men’s track and field team’s performance at the Penn State Invitational this weekend, as it scored in 15 of 17 events to secure a fourth-place finish in the 10 team field.
Junior Bruce Hyde and senior Oliver Tassinari each posted first place finishes for the Red squad that finished with 94 points, just 31 points shy of the Nittany Lions who won their own meet. Hyde dominated the 300 meter field, pulling away to earn over an eight second victory with a time of 8:10.90. Tassinari gritted out a win in the mile run with a time 4:06.90, edging out Michigan freshman Mike Woods by 0.39 seconds.
Freshman James Wyner and junior Sam MacKenzie also racked up points for the Red in the mile run, finishing in fifth and seventh place, respectively.
Along with Wyner, several other Cornell freshman had strong impact on the team’s performance. Freshman Jordan Lester had strong showings in multiple sprinting events, earning third place honors in the 60-meter dash and a eighth-place finish in the 200 meters. Meanwhile, his classmate Adam Seabrook paced the Red in the 400 meters with third-place finish of 47.95 seconds.
In the 5000 meters, senior Emory Mort continued the Red’s dominance in middle and long distance runs posting a third place finish in a time of 14:37.
Other point scorers for Cornell on the track included senior Keenan Goggins and sophomore Kelby Hoover in the 400 meters, freshman Aaron Merill in the 600, junior Gordon Hall and sophomore Brian Mongeon in the 800, and freshman Saidu Ezike in the 60-meter hurdles. Merrill, Hoover, Seabrook and senior Brian Eremita also teamed up to take second in the 4 x 400 meters relay. Eremita, with Tassinari, Hyde and junior Gordon Hall took fourth in the medley relay.
Just like on the track, the Red picked up points in several of the field events with freshman Muhammad Halim leading the way. Leaping 7.13 meters, Halim earned second place honors in the long jump, while also picking up a third-place finish in the triple jump.
Sophomore Rayon Taylor and senior Ryan Schmidt also picked up points for the Red in those events with sixth-place performances in both the triple jump and long jump, respectively. Rounding out Cornell’s points from field events, high-jumpers junior Pat McDonough and sophomore David Pell cleared 2.01 meters — good enough for a fourth-place finish. However, due to tiebreakers, the two were forced to settle for seventh and eighth place.
Cornell will try to build off its solid all-around performance this week as it hosts the Deneault Invitational at Barton Hall this Saturday.
Archived article by Scott Reich
Sun Staff Writer