By Eddie Young
Sports Editor
The College put together a good showing at the Blue and Orange Invitational in Utica, New York, on Saturday, Feb. 8.
This time, it was the women’s team that stole the show. They were able to take home two first place finishes from the invitational.
Freshman Ava Biemuller won the 5,000-meter race with a time of 18:27.62. She spent almost the entire race in second place, neck-and-neck with the eventual second place finisher, senior Isabel Marzec from SUNY Geneseo. Biemuller and Marzec were within one second of each other for the entire race, with Marzec being slightly ahead of Biemuller most of the time. However, Biemuller ran the final 200 meters in 38.65 seconds, the fastest 200-meter split any of the 32 competitors had in the competition. With this herculean effort, she was able to finish ahead of Marzec and claim the victory.
Since Biemuller’s time was under 18:50.00, she qualified in this event for the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships, which will take place in early March.
Junior Kelly O’Grady also won an event, with hers being the 400-meter dash. She won with a time of 59.90 seconds, and she was the only woman in the event to finish in under a minute. With her time being under 1:00.50, she was also able to qualify in this event for the AARTFC Championships.
Sophomore Rukky Daranijo also put together an AARTFC qualifying performance, as she finished in fourth in the 200-meter dash. She finished the race in 26.18 seconds, just one-hundredth of a second behind the third place finisher and one-hundredth of a second ahead of the fifth place finisher. Her time was under the qualifying mark of 26.50 seconds.
Sophomore Lia Malave put together the best performance in the field for the women, as she finished in second in the long jump. Her best jump was 5.36 meters.
For the men, senior Steve Daramola set the tempo for the team in the field. He finished in fourth place in the weight throw with a 16.57 meter throw, giving him a new personal best. This performance earned him New Jersey Athletic Conference Field Athlete of the Week honors, as that was the best weight throw in the NJAC this year.
On the track, fifth-year Ray Schmitt once again put on a show in the 60-meter dash. After having the best time during qualifying with 6.89 seconds, Schmitt managed to barely outdo himself in the finals, running the event in 8.876 seconds. However, he finished in second place, losing by just two-thousandths of a second. Schmitt was still able to qualify for the AARTFC championships in this event, as he was under the 7.02 second mark.
The College also did well in the 5000-meter race, as freshman Phil Pace and junior Evan Melito came in second and third place, respectively. Pace ran the event in 15:24.52, coming in about two seconds ahead of Evan Melito, who finished with a time of 15:26.43. With the AARTFC qualifying time set in this event at 15:25.00, Pace was able to qualify while Melito just barely missed out.
Sophomore Jack Attali earned a third place finish in the 200-meter dash, running the event in 22.30 seconds. He was under the mark of 22.50 seconds, so Attali qualified for the AARTFC championships.
The Lions will have one more tuneup event before they turn their focus to the NJAC Championships in two weekends. They will head to Philadelphia to compete in the Widener Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 15.
