The Stony Brook men’s and women’s track team headed to Armory, New York on Friday, Jan. 26 for the Dr. Sander Invitational, where they won five events, but struggled in team standings as the women placed sixth and the men seventh.
Despite low team standings, the Seawolves had strong individual showings in their events competing against an uncommon field.
“Friday’s meet exposed both squads to some quality competition that we don’t normally compete against,” head coach Andy Ronan said in a press release. “For the most part I felt we responded well, our performances matched and actually were better in some areas than last week’s meet.”
On the women’s side, the Seawolves came home with three individual wins. Junior Holly Manning won the women’s 1,000 meter run with a time of 2:50.44, a personal best from her previous 2:52.13 from her freshman year.
Senior Tiana Guevara also set a new personal best on her way to winning the women’s one-mile race, finishing with a time of 4:49.79. Her previous best was 4:54.58 from last year’s America East Indoor Championships. Junior Alexandria Ortega paced herself to first place in the women’s 5,000 meter run with a time of 17:01.95, 22 seconds faster than her previous personal best. Senior Kaylyn Gordon jumped to a second place finish in the women’s triple jump with a 12.05 meter mark. This is her first time jumping over 12 meters this season.
There were many strong performances from the Seawolves and the women’s team found themselves in the top ten out of 34 teams with 43 points. Syracuse won the women’s meet with a total of 58 points.
The men only captured two victories, which came in the mile and the 5,000 meter run. Sophomore Kyle Kelly won the mile with a time of 4:13.19, beating his previous personal best in the event by three seconds.
The Seawolves had a strong showing in the 5,000 meter run, sweeping the top three spots, all within a second of one another. Senior Danny Connelly won the event with a time of 14:28.42, senior Michael Watts came in second place by two tenths of a second with a time of 14:28.62, and sophomore Cameron Avery followed nearly a second later with a time of 14:29.53.
“The guys getting the clean sweep of the top-three spots in the 5000m was exciting and with some quality pace work from [sophomore] Vann ‘The Man’ Moffett as all three qualified for the IC4A’s,” Ronan said.
Sophomore Chris Biondi had an impressive showing in the men’s 3,000 meter run, finishing with a time of 8:32.26 and placing second. He beat his old personal best by nearly 20 seconds.
The men’s team placed in the top ten as well out of 28 teams with 43 points, with TAMU-Kingsville winning the men’s meet with 68 points.
Four men and seven women hit qualifying marks for the IC4A Championships and ECAC Championship, which will be over the course of two days on March 3 and March 4. Both teams will head to Staten Island for the Metropolitan Championships on Friday, Feb. 2.
