The Stony Brook women’s indoor track and field team had its best finish ever at the America East Indoor Championships on Saturday.
The Seawolves won six events, including a pair of wins by junior Kaylyn Gordon, on their way to second place at the Boston University Track Center on Friday and Saturday. The men’s team finished seventh. Albany won both the women’s and men’s competitions.
The women’s 4×800-meter relay won with a time of 8:57.93, setting an America East record. The team — comprised of sophomore Holly Manning, junior Tiana Guevara, sophomore Annika Sissan and sophomore Melissa Riback — defeated its closest competition, New Hampshire, by nearly nine seconds.
Gordon, the acclaimed Seawolves field star, took victories in the long and triple jumps, leaping 19-feet-2.5-inches and 40-feet-2.75-inches, respectively. She earned Most Outstanding Field Performer and the Coaches Award at the meet, the later of which is selected by the head coaches of the participating teams in the conference.
On the track, junior sprinter Courtney Warden won the 60-meter hurdles. Her time in the preliminary round, 8.51 seconds, was a personal record. Warden had an injury-plagued sophomore season, but found her stride again this year, demonstrating the hurdling prowess that won a state title in her high school career.
In distance, Sisson and senior Christine Eisenberg each took the crown in their respective events. Sisson, who transferred to Stony Brook this year after competing at Arkansas as a freshman, won the mile by four seconds in a time of 4:48.07.
Eisenberg secured the victory in a tightly-packed 3,000-meter race. She crossed the line with a time of 9:49.76, adding a gold medal to her third-place finish at the America East Cross Country Championships in October.
Across the board, a record number of female athletes placed for Stony Brook in both distance and sprint disciplines.
For the men, sophomore Wayne Williams was the top performer with a blistering 500-meter run. He crossed the line in 1:02.74, setting a new Stony Brook record to come in second place in the event.
Williams also anchored the men’s 4×400-meter relay, which finished third. A trio of freshmen — Sean Ideozu, Ahmed Galal and Raymond Gorzela — ran on the relay with Williams, showing the potential for growth in the men’s sprint program in the future.
The men’s distance team was a bit depleted with injury but some athletes found success. Junior Daniel Connelly and freshman Cameron Avery finished fourth and seventh respectively in the 5,000-meter.
Several Stony Brook athletes attained times that qualify them for IC4A and ECAA Regional Championships, to be held next weekend in Boston.
