During its last weekend of competition before the Heps meet, the Red was busy hosting the 13th annual Marc Deneault Memorial Invitational on Saturday, against a field of 19 other teams.
The men’s team was very strong, producing 28 IC4A qualifying performances, along with nine event wins on the day. Men’s head coach Nathan Taylor said he was encouraged by what he saw out of his team.
“I’ve been talking to the kids on the team about really competing fearlessly,” he said. “It was great [and] we had some great performances. I was very encouraged, and I think we’re taking the right steps just before the most important meet of the year.”
Taylor added that the athletes who were expected to compete well did so, but he also saw strong performances by the rest of his team.
“[Senior] JD Adarqah and [junior] Steven Bell had a good meet,” he said. “[Senior] Bruno Horletano had a good meet, but these are the guys who you expect to have a good meet. There were guys in their shadow who also had good performances.”
Bell won the long jump and the Field MVP award with a leap of 23’10.75”, while Adarqah ran a 6.83 to win the 60-meter dash and Track MVP honors. Hortelano won the 500 in a time of 63.92. Junior Dan Scott won the triple jump at 48’2.75”, and freshman Bryan Rhodes won the weight throw with a heave of 58’5.75.”
The women’s team was also hard at work, netting 11 ECAC qualifiers and nine event wins.
Women’s head coach Rich Bowman said even though he rested some of his athletes before the Heps, the rest of the team stepped up.
“We were very pleased with it,” he said. “We rested a number of people for the championship meet coming up next week. We had the MVP in the running events. We had a number of great things happen in the field events also. All in all, I thought it was the tune up that we needed.”
The Track MVP Bowman referred to was junior Ebolutalese Airewele, who won the 300 in 39.46 — the second best time school history. According to Bowman, this kind of meet brings out the best in Cornell athletes.
“It’s a memorial meet, and we always try to gear up and perform well and honor [Marc Deneault],” he said.
The team certainly performed well. Senior Mercy Gbenjo won the 60 in a time of 7.83, while sophomore Katie Woodford won the 200 in a time of 24.40. The Red also fared well in the field events. Senior co-captain Ailish Hanly won the high jump with a leap of 5’7”, and senior Claire Dishong cleared 12’5.5” to finish second in the pole vault.
Next up for the Red is the Heps meet at Harvard on Friday and Saturday. The team placed second in the meet last year and looks to match or surpass its previous performance.
Original Author: Juan Carlos Toledo