By Eddie Young
Sports Editor
The College’s women’s track and field team won their seventh consecutive New Jersey Athletic Conference Indoor Championship title on Feb. 22 and 23, barely finishing ahead of a second place Rowan squad. The men’s team finished in second place for the fifth year in a row, ending up behind the Rowan men.
The women only took home one gold medal during the weekend, but a myriad of other podium finishes led the team to their victory, beating Rowan by 5.5 points.
Senior Jessica Reilly was the gold medal winner for the Lions, winning in the weight throw. She won with a 15.52 meter throw, just three centimeters ahead of the second place finisher. This was the first gold medal that Reilly has won in her four years at the College. Senior Kerri McCarthy finished third in the event, securing some important points for the College.
Senior Eliza Bruncaj had an impressively busy weekend, as she earned three silver medals in three different events. She got her first two silvers on Feb. 22. Bruncaj earned her third career long jump medal as she finished in second with a 5.22 meter jump, only three centimeters behind the event’s winner.
Bruncaj was also a part of the College’s 4x200-meter relay squad, as she teamed up with sophomore Mackenzie Burke, senior Erin Picklo and sophomore Rukky Daranijo in the event. The four of them won their silver medal by running the event with a time of 1:43.95.
On Feb. 23, Bruncaj won her other silver. She ran the 60-meter hurdles in 9.20 seconds, and was followed by Burke to give the College two podium finishers in the event. Bruncaj also finished fourth in the high jump.
Junior Sarah Scepkowski was also instrumental in the College’s victory, as she took home two medals. Her weekend started with the pentathlon on the first day, as she finished with a silver medal with 777 points. The next day, she earned bronze in the high jump, clearing 1.53 meters. She also finished in fourth in the 60-meter hurdles.
Daranijo also earned two more silver medals on the second day of the weekend. She came in second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.31 seconds, three-tenths of a second behind the gold medalist. She also joined Burke, junior Kelly O’Grady and freshman Brenna Omert to win the silver medal in the 4x400-meter relay.
O’Grady also earned an individual silver medal that day, as she came in second in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:16.83.
Sophomore Maya Scannell and fifth-year Brooke Valan also earned silver medals, coming in second in the pole vault and triple jump, respectively.
While the men may have finished second to Rowan as a team, they were still able to earn four gold medals and some other podium finishes on the weekend.
Sophomore Christian Farhat started off the weekend strong for the Lions, as he took home a gold medal in the shot put with a throw of 15.38 meters. He just barely beat his teammate, junior Jayden Wright, to help the College earn the top two podium spots in the event.
The College also took the top two spots in a tightly contested 60-meter dash. Fifth-year Ray Schmitt and freshman Maxim Rychkov have been going back and forth in this event all season, but it was Schmitt who just barely got the better of his younger teammate in the championship. Schmitt earned the gold, finishing in 6.78 seconds, just barely ahead of Rychkov, who came in at 6.79 seconds.
The 60-meter dash was one of three silver medals Rychkov won on the weekend. He ran the 4x200 meter relay with sophomore Jack Attali, freshman Noah Traverso and freshman Anthony Senatore, and they finished in second with a program record time of 1:26.24. They lost to a Rowan team that broke the Division III record in the event.
Rychkov also won silver in the 200-meter dash, finishing with a time of 21.49 seconds.
Junior Jayvee Dumas was a gold medalist in the heptathlon for the second time in his tenure at the College. He earned 4545 points in the event.
The Lions will compete in some “Last Chance” meets this weekend before they set their focus on the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Championships taking place in Ithaca, New York, on March 7-8.
