Stony Brook track and field athletes competed on Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Metropolitan Indoor Championship, and they certainly made their name heard.
Senior multi/hurdler Alyssa Oviasogie, the only member of the track and field team to compete on day one of the championships, accumulated 3,156 points in the pentathlon. Oviasogie earned her first win of the season in the event.
“Not every event is going to be your best every time you do it,” Oviasogie said in a press release. “The mindset is to keep fighting through all five events. This helps me refocus on the task at hand: defending my conference title.”
That wasn’t the only accomplishment Stony Brook had in the championship. On the second day of the competition, junior sprinter Amanda Stead broke the school record for the 200 meter dash, a record which she had previously broken already last year. Stead set a school record finishing the 200 meter dash in 24.42, beating her previous record of 24.70.
“I felt like I executed my races well today,” Stead said in a press release. “I’m happy to finally have broken my old PR in the 200.”
Senior distance runner Clodagh O’Reilly picked up the team’s another victory in the mile run, finishing in 4:58.53, qualifying for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Indoor Championships.
Sophomore distance runners Tara Hauff and Rachel Ruggiero set career records for themselves for the mile race, finishing in 5:08.06 and 5:10.73 to earn them fifth and sixth place, respectively. Sophomore multi/hurdler Jillian Patterson ran her career-best of 1:16.02 in the 500 meter dash, allowing her to also qualify for the ECAC championships.
Senior mid-distance/distance runner Holly Manning also qualified for the ECAC from her performance in the distance medley relay team consisting of Hauff, Ruggerio, and O’Reilly. They finished in 12:05.22.
For Men’s Track and Field, senior sprinter Sean Ideozu qualified for the IC4A Championships in the 400-meter dash, finishing with a time of 48.71.
A team of sophomore distance runner Robert Becker, junior mid-distance runner Luke Coulter, junior distance runner Paul Catalano and senior distance runner Chris Biondi also qualified for the IC4A, finishing the distance medley relay in 10:02.04.
“We wanted to give them a chance to get some under-distance work that will help them as they continue through the season,” men’s and women’s head coach Andy Ronan said. “We got most of what we wanted to accomplish at this meet done.”
