The College's men's and women's track teams took advantage of the beautiful weather last weekend and dominated in the Sam Howell Invitational at Princeton University. The men and women recorded seven NCAA qualifying performances at the meet with a school record broken along the way.
The Lions faced a tough field that was made up of mostly Division I schools, including Princeton, Yale and Columbia.
Junior Tiffany Clark won the 400-meter run for the women in an NCAA Division III automatic qualifying time of 55.78. She was also part of two NCAA provisional qualifying relay teams for the Lions.
The Lion's women's 4 x 100 relay team, with the efforts of sophomore Khristelle Manuyag, freshman Jessica Bonelli, junior Brittny Boyd and Clark posted an NCAA provisional qualifying effort in the race with a time of 47.86. The Lions also had a provisional time in the 4 x 400 relay behind the efforts of Clark, sophomore Angela Tecco, Bonelli and freshman Carolyn Gray.
Boyd went on to have a banner afternoon as she won the 100-meter dash in a provisional time of 12.13. She was also the first collegiate runner to cross the finish line in the 200-meter dash with a personal best time of 24.86, good enough for second place.
"It was great that we had so many provisional qualifiers that ran fast and qualified for nationals," senior Jennifer Zucaro said.
The men had an equally impressive weekend, with senior Brian Donovan leading the way as he won the 10,000-meter run and broke a school record in the process with an NCAA provisional time of 30:27.81.
Adding to the efforts of the men's team, junior Jeff Zodda finished third in the 800-meter run and posted a time of 1:51.28 to post an NCAA Division III automatic qualifying effort. Junior Jeff Schwerdtman picked up fifth in the shot put with a provisional mark of 15.53 meters.
In the 5,000-meter run, seniors Sean Lesniak and Matt Molski posted personal-best efforts in the race as Lesniak had a time of 14:54.68 and Molski recorded a time of 14:57.38. Lions junior Kevin Jones placed fifth in the long jump with a performance of 6.89 meters while also recording a personal best time in the 200-meter run of 21.94.
The Lions had a number of strong showings in the pole vault as junior Brian Hoffman posted a mark of 13.11 meters, while senior Brian Wanner and sophomore Dan Golazeski each had marks of 13.05 meters.
"There were a lot of standout performances," Donovan said. "It was great to see everyone compete so well."
The Lions will compete in one more tune up meet before they host two meets on campus.
"We have a small meet this coming weekend at Ursinus," junior Kristen Pogorzelski said. "But we're all really looking forward to two big home meets on April 23 and 30, so that everyone from school can come and cheer."
