The America East Track and Field Championships took place this past weekend in Boston, Massachusetts. All nine teams from the America East Conference competed, and both the men and women’s teams finished in eighth place.
On the first day, Stony Brook placed top-five finishes in three events with the men placing seventh overall and the women placing fifth.
On the second day, however, Stony Brook’s age and inexperience started to show as both teams slid to eighth place, where they stayed for the remainder.
There was more to this weekend than just eighth place finished however.
Two ECAC times were posted as well as an IC4 time. Junior Laura Huet and freshman Hayley Green captured both ECAC qualifying times. Huet took second (17:27.32) and Green third (17:31.26.) in the 5,000-meter.
The men’s distance medley relay team, consisting of juniors Daire Bermingham, Brandon Leung , Alex Felce, and Tim Hodge, took third overall, crossing in 9:55.5. The time was an IC4A qualifying time and happened to be just .47 seconds shy of the school record.
With regards to the experience factor though, the youngsters couldn’t maintain their posting on the first day and slipped the second day. But there was more to these youngsters than just finishing in eighth.
“The women’s team is a young group, so it was really encouraging to see the strong performances from Sophomore Carolina Cortes, freshmen Hayley Green, Justine Noel, Jill Fauser and Kristal Conklin,” Coach Andy Ronan said. “Like the women, we had some very encouraging freshmen performances from (the men’s side) Gerard Harley and David Frankel in the 3000m and 5000m respectively.”
On the second day, the “beast from Wanganui,” Lucy Van Dalen, showed up and dominated her events, this time taking first in two events.
Van Dalen won both the mile and 1,000-meter races; she placed a time of 2:48.02 in the 1,000-meter, which is the fastest time ever run in the history of the America East Championships, breaking the previous mark set in 1992.
In the mile, Van Dalen pulled away from the pack with half the the mile left and ended up finishing almost 11 seconds ahead of the second-place runner. Her time was 4:45.87.
Not wasting anytime, the next time she stepped on the track, she won the 1,000-meter by almost five seconds. Joining her in the 1,000-meter was sophomore Carolina Cortes, who crossed fifth with a time of 2:59.35.
“Lucy had a tremendous weekend, winning both the mile and 1000m,” Coach Ronan said. “This winter she has moved up to a new level, now she is a National caliber athlete, ranked in the top 15 in the country for the mile, with a great chance of going to the NCAA Championships next month.”
But, like any good coach, Ronan recognized other contributors who stepped up when called upon.
“Lucy was not alone this past weekend,” he said. “Junior Laura Huet took 2nd place in the 5000m and 3000m, this is a hard double to do, particularly since the events are within 24 hours, but Laura showed great leadership by taking on the task successfully.”
Stony Brook received a pair of second-place finishes in the 3,000-meter races. Junior Tim Hodge crossed in 8:20.52, which is an IC4A qualifying time; Laura Huet finished in 9:54.98.
Also scoring on the men’s side was junior Daire Bermingham. Bermingham finished third in the mile and improved upon the school record he set earlier this year with a time of 4:08.44. Senior Merlon Pinnock crossed sixth in the 500-meter with an IC4A qualifying time of 1:04.79 and Alex Felce took fourth in the 1,000-meter with an IC4A time of 2:26.58.
The men have not had the top performance that propelled them through the conference last year, yet the effort is there and Coach Ronan is the first to notice.
“The men compete well, our big three, Daire Bermingham, Alex Felce and Tim Hodge, ran tough in the DMR relay, then came back and made big efforts to win their respective individual events,” he said. “Senior captain Merlon Pinnock, has been on fire over the last 2 weeks, setting a school record in the 400m, then following that up this weekend with a 6th place in the 500m, achieving an IC4A Championship qualifying time in the process.”
On March 7, at the same location, select Seawolves will look forward to competing in the ECAC/IC4A Championships.
