The Stony Brook Seawolves’ men’s and women’s track and field teams recently took part in the America East Championships. The women’s team finished a very respectable fourth out of nine conference teams, and the men took the sixth spot out of nine teams.
The women’s team had three second-place finishes on Saturday. Freshman Lucy Van Dalen from Wanganui, New Zealand, placed second in the mile with a time of 4:46.73 and sophomore Laura Huet of Carrickmines, Ireland, did the same with a time of 9:46.48 in the 3,000-meter.
Rounding out the second place finishers was the 4×800-relay team, which consists of Van Dalen, sophomore Lisa Voltaire, freshman Jessica Hampson and freshman Holly Van Dalen. With a time of 9:09.12, the team just missed a first place finish behind the Boston University Terriers, who finished two seconds ahead.
The 3,000-meter proved successful as Stony Brook had three other women place in the top ten along with Huet. Senior Dana Hastie finished fourth with a time of 9:52.52. Freshman Ruth Gillespie finished five seconds later in fifth with a time of 9:57.60 and senior Kerry Salzano placed seventh with a time of 10:01.02. For the women, Holly Van Dalen crossed third in the mile with a time of 4:51.67, just a few seconds after her twin sister. Lisa Voltaire placed fourth in the 1000-meter (2:55.66) and freshman Carolina Cortes finished with a time of 2:57.24, finishing in seventh place.
The men’s team was led by sophomore Tim Hodge who won the 3,000-meter with a time of 8:13.62, just missing a new school record. Senior Melvin Genao finished second in the 500-meter preliminaries with a time of 1:05.75 and again took second in the finals with a time of 1:04.8. Junior Gary Chan finished fourth with a time of 2:34.74, freshman Alexander Felicier finished in seventh with a time of 2:38.46 and senior Chris Roertgen placed eighth with a time of 2:42.99.
Stony Brook also earned points in the mile as sophomore Daire Bermingham finishing third (4:14.58). In the 800-meter, sophomore Brandon Leung placed eighth (2:00.37). In the 4×400-relay, the team of Genao, Leung, junior Merlon Pinnock and senior Mubaarak Muhammad finished sixth with an overall time of 3:22.11. Last but not least, in the triple jump, Muhammad placed fourth (13.93-meters).
The track and field team will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 29, at the NYU Last Chance Meet in New York City.