Middletown, CT ? The University of Hartford men's and women's indoor track teams opened the season at the Wesleyan Cardinal Invitational this past weekend. The event was not team scored, however the Hawks saw individual victories on the men's and women's side.
The women's team was led by Stefanie Lombardi, Kaycee Martinez and Sherilyn Nicholas who saw the only individual wins for the women. Lombardi finished the one-mile run in a time of 5:26.99, just missing her school record of 5:26.09. She was also a member of the 4x800-meter relay team that took home first place honors. The Hawks saw top billing in the 4x800 and the 4x400-meter relay's.
Nicholas was part of a one-two punch in the high jump, with Latasha Jarrett finishing second. The two tied for overall height with jumps of five feet 2.25 inches. Overall, the women's team saw 10 top-five finishes. Jarrett also broke her own school record in the long jump with her distance of 15 feet, 10.25 inches. Marisa Poleto and Erika Schramm finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 200-meter dash. Poleto finished in a time of 27.72 with Schramm posting a time just five one-hundredths of a second slower.
Ariana Bass finished second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:01.78 and was also a member of the 4x400 relay team. Kaycee Martinez finished third in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:23.22 and also posted the final individual title with a time of 9.13 in the 55-meter hurdles. She opened that event with a time of 9.39 in the preliminaries, topping that in the finals. She was followed closely in both runs by Nicole Jones who finished second with a time of 9:21.
Diana Christopoulos and Raquel Payne posted top-five finishes on the field side. Christopoulos finished second overall in the shot put with his distance of 32 feet, 11.75 inches. Payne saw a third place finish in the triple jump, with an overall distance of 32 feet, 9.5 inches. Christopoulos also broke a school record in the weight throw. She finished 10th overall with a distance of 28 feet 8.25 inches.
The men's team saw individual victories come in the 5,000-meter run, the high jump and the triple jump, where the Hawks posted the top-four distances. Jonas Hampton and Wes Melnik finished one-two for the Hawks in the 5,000-meter event. Hampton posted the best time at 16:13.86, setting school record, while Melnik finished just under 11 seconds behind with a time of 16:24.68.
Ryan Trupin saw the first top finish in the field events when he jumped six feet, five inches in the high jump. Alex Ivanov also faired well in the high jump with his height of 5 fee 9.25 inches, which placed him fifth overall. Anthony Oluwanifise saw wuality finishes in three events. His best was winning the triple jump with an overall distance of 45 feet 3.75 inches. He was one of four Hawks completed the top-four finishers in the triple jump.
Oluwanifise also saw a second place finish in the long jump with his distance of 21 feet 5.25 inches and finished sixth overall in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.73. Greg Giddings, Mike Havrilla and Stephan Jospitre completed the Hawks impressive triple jump. Giddings saw a distance of 42 feet 9.5 inches. Havrilla finished with a distance of 41 feet, 5.75 inches, while Jospitre finished 2.75 inches behind him.
Both the men's and women's indoor track and field teams will next compete at the Harvard Invitational on Saturday, December 8 in Cambridge, MA.
