By Eddie Young
Sports Editor
The College’s track and field team made a trip to Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, on April 18 and 19 to compete in the Paul Donahue Invitational. The record-setting weekend consisted of many wins and podium finishes for both the men’s and women’s teams.
Before joining the rest of their team at Widener, though, the relay team of fifth-year Ray Schmitt, freshman Maxim Rychkov, freshman Noah Traverso and sophomore Jack Attali made a pit stop at the Coach Pollard Invitational at Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Friday, April 18.
Schmitt, Rychkov and Traverso started their day off by running in the preliminaries for the invitational’s 100-meter dash, with Rychkov and Schmitt setting the top two times of the 58 participants. The top eight sprinters were invited to run in the finals of the event, but the two Lions sat out, instead focusing on the 4x100-meter relay.
The four sprinters for the Lions teamed up to finish second to Susquehanna in this event with a time of 41.05 seconds, setting a school record in the process. They broke the record of 41.11 seconds set by the College’s relay team in 2002.
The quartet then made the hour-long trip to join the rest of their team at Widener to compete in the second day of events there. They once again ran the 4x100-meter relay, this time winning the event with a time of 41.18 seconds, about eight-tenths of a second ahead of second place.
Rychkov then followed up these two performances by winning the 200-meter dash. He ran the event in 21.33 seconds, breaking the program record set by Eric Green in 2002 by just one-hundredth of a second.
As if two program records weren’t enough, the Lions went out and got a third before the end of the weekend. Rychkov, Traverso and Attali teamed up with freshman Anthony Senatore to finish second in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:12.10, less than a second off the winner. However, this time was about one second quicker than the program record set in 2010.
Rychkov now holds an outdoor track program record in four events, more than anyone else in the College’s history. His work in the 100-meter, 200-meter, 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter has been astounding, and in just his freshman year, he is looking to be on pace to maybe be one of the greatest sprinters this school has ever seen.
The men also did well in the field, with senior Stephen Daramola highlighting the weekend. He took home a victory in the hammer throw, with his best throw coming in at 48.50 meters. Senior George Agyei-Sam finished in third in the event with a 46.69-meter throw.
Daramola also finished in second in the discus, with his furthest throw being 47.23 meters.
The men’s field team took home two more silver medals on the weekend, with sophomores Christian Farhat and Tyler Kadezabeck finishing second in the shot put and pole vault, respectively.
The women’s team also had some standout performances during the weekend. Senior Kerri McCarthy had a first-place finish, winning the hammer throw with a 49.88-meter throw.
The Lions also did a good job with their relays on the track. The 4x400-meter team consisting of sophomore Rukky Daranijo, sophomore Mackenzie Burke, senior Eliza Bruncaj and junior Kelly O’Grady ran the event in 3:48.97, good for second place.
Burke and Daranijo also teamed up with freshman Petra Doherty and sophomore Samantha Magin to finish second in the 4x100-meter relay. They finished in 48.98 seconds, just four-hundredths of a second ahead of the fourth and fifth place finishers.
Burke got on the podium in another event, too, as she ran the 400-meter hurdles in 1:02.73. This time earned her third place, as she was just one-hundredth of a second behind the second-place finisher.
Following their impressive weekend, the Lions will now be splitting their athletes across two events. Some will head to the University of Pennsylvania to compete in the Penn Relays from April 24-26, while others will be staying home to compete in the Lions Invitational on April 25 and 26.
