It proved to be an eventful couple of days last week for the Stony Brook Seawolves Track and Field team as they won five different events and placed within the top five 23 different times at the Quinnipiac Invitational last Wednesday. As if that wasn’t enough for the Seawolves, they traveled up to UMASS to prove they are still the team to beat in the America East Conference by winning six events at the UMASS Invitational. Amidst the entire winning and placing first in the events was Jessica Hampson, the sophomore from Smithtown, placing first in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. With her time of 10:52.83 she qualified to compete in the ECAC, or Eastern College Athletic Conference, invitational in next month.
In New Haven, the team possessed vigor and determination, which, mixed with grit and hard work, produced a stunning 23 top five finishes. The top finishers were, from the men’s team, sophomore Alex Felce and senior Justin Miller. With a time of 4:11.43, Felce set a new school record when he crossed first in the mile, and senior Justin Miller also took first in both the shot put and discus with distances of 14.35 meters and 40.51 meters, respectively. The women’s team produced two top finishers as well; sophomore Stephanie Vos took top honors in the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.64 while junior Fisayo Tunde’s seemingly effortless jump of 4.48 meters was good enough for first place in the long jump event.
The rest of the athletes proved also how dangerous Stony Brook can be on both the track and the grass. The men’s team had eight other individuals place within the top five. Finishing just behind Felce in the mile was sophomore Tim Hodge who took second place with a time of 4:11.60, junior Merlon Pinnock crossed third in the 400-meter with his time of 50.11, sophomore Kurt Wende placed fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:22.64, and senior Mubaarak Muhammad and freshman Alex Raffio took second and fourth with distances of 5.85 and 5.55 respectively in the long jump event. On the grass, sophomore Robert Treadwell placed second in the javelin with a throw of 47.30 meters and senior Robert Dantone took second in both the shot put, launching it 11.74 meters, and discus with a distance of 32.09 meters.
Not being done individually, the Seawolves had three second-place finishes in the relays. Muhammad, Pinnock, Raffio and senior Melvin Genao finished the 4×100 posting a time of 45.64. In the 4×400, Genao, Pinnock, Muhammad and sophomore Brandon Leung completed the relay with a time of 3:27.31. Last but not least in the 4×800, Felce, Hodge, junior Gary Chan and freshman Shamell Forbes finished the event in 7:59.60.
With all the names being thrown around, one would think by now that surely those names are enough to constitute a successful day, but then one’s thinking would not have included the women’s team, which also dominated the events they were in. The women’s other top-five individual finishers not named Vos and Tunde included: freshman Kristen Connolly taking fifth in the mile with a time of 5:40.31, freshman Holly Van Dalen crossing second with a time of 9:40.59 and sophomore Laura Huet finishing third in the same event posting a time of 9:42.27 in the 3,000-meter. Junior Rosanna Peralta took third in the shot put with a distance of 7.64. Like the men, the women also had three relay teams finish in the top five. The group of Peralta, Tunde, Vos and sophomore Christina Suthakar combined for a second-place finish in the 4×100 with an even time of 54.00. Peralta, Vos, Connolly and sophomore Kristen Wilkens took second in the 4×400 (4:19.81) and Suthakar, freshmen Kellyann Moniz and Kristina Doyle, and senior Taylor Zaneri crossed fourth in the 4X800 with a time of 10:41.43.
The team then traveled to Amherst, Massachusetts to compete in the UMASS Invitational where Jessica Hampson stood out in the steeplechase. For those of you whom lost count back there with all the excitement from Wednesday, Hampson reached the ECAC with her efforts in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. However, she was not alone at the top for very long; Lisa Voltaire crossed first in the 1,500-meter with a time of 4:37.64, Justin Miller and Mubaarak Muhammad had first-place finishes for the Seawolves in the shot put (15.08) and triple jump (13.94) and sophomore Iain Whitfield won the 5,000-meter dash in a time of 14:58.18. Whitfield was followed closely by Daire Bermingham, who took second in that event with a time of 15:03.09.
Other finishers from the Seawolves were Carolina Cortes who crossed fifth in the 1,500-meter dash in a time of 4:44.17, Ruth Gillespie, who took third for the Seawolves in the 5,000-meter (18:17.46), while Stephanie Vos finished sixth in the 400-meter with her time being 1:06.09 and Fisayo Tunde crossed tenth in the 100-meter dash (13.29).
Sophomore Robert Treadwell took fifth in the javelin (49.19) and Robert Dantone placed second in the hammer throw (49.19). Miller, also competing in the hammer throw, placed ninth with a distance of 37.95 meters. Merlon Pinnock finished in fifth in the 400-meter (50.06) and sophomore Brandon Leung’s time of 1:58.16 was good enough for ninth in the 800-meter.
The spring season chugged on as the Seawolves then traveled to sunny California this weekend to compete at the Mount SAC Relays. During the first day of the meet, the team broke three school records and posted three NCAA Regional qualifying times. For both the women, freshman Holly Van Dalen finished the women’s 5,000-meter in third place with a time of 16:32.63, which is both a new school record and a NCAA Regional Championship qualifying time. Van Dalen broke the previous record of 16:41.27 which was set by current senior Dana Hastie last year. Also contending for the Seawolves was sophomore Laura Huet, who placed tenth in the 5,000-meter with an ECAC qualifying and personal best time of 16:57.33.
On the men’s side, Alex Felce broke his own school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase by just over a second, finishing with a time of 9:00.25, good enough for a third place finish and qualifying him for the NCAA Regionals. Tim Hodge broke the third school record of the day, this time in the 5,000-meter with a time of 14:10.50. This time bested the previous record of 14:26.10 set by Brian Farrell. Hodge’s time qualified him for the NCAA Regional Championships as well.
After having her record broken by her teammate in the previous day’s events by Van Dalen, Hastie went and set another record, this time not only besting a school record, but smashing it. That event was the 10,000-meter which she finished in a time of 34:14.53. Hastie’s time is almost two minutes faster than the previous record, which had been set by Barbara Gubbins in 1985. This time was not only a record breaker for Stony Brook, but it happened to be under the NCAA Provisional qualifying time. That means the time places her inside the top 20 times in the country, which gives her a strong chance of being selected for the NCAA Championships in June.
Stony Brook’s track and field team will be out of action until this upcoming Thursday, when the Seawolves travel to the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
