Boston, MA - The University of Hartford men's and women's track and field teams competed in their first event of 2008 at the Reebok Indoor Games this past weekend in Boston, MA. The men's team finished 11th out of 13 teams, while the women finished 10th out of 11 teams. The Hawks will next compete at the Dartmouth Classic on Saturday, February 2 in Hanover, NH.
The women's team saw the most success with a pair of Hawks setting school record. The first came in the 55-meter hurdles where Kaycee Martinez topped a 2005 record by .15 seconds with her 8.89 seventh place finish. Latasha Jarrett saw the second record of the day come in the high jump where she finished in a three-way tie for third place with a jump of 5' 4.25”.
Ariana Bass missed placing in the 500-meter dash by just under three second with a time of 1:21.94, placing 17th overall. Marisa Poleto and Martinez also narrowly missed the top-eight in the 400-meter dash, where they finished 11th and 12th respectively with times of 1:02.34 and 1:02.58.
Bass, Martinez and Jarrett joined Sherilyn Nicholas to put up a season best time of 4:04.46 in the 4x400-meter relay, finishing eighth overall. Nicholas also placed in the high jump finishing in a three-way tie for sixth place with a jump of 5' 2.25”.
The men's team was led by their jumpers with four members placing in their events. Ryan Trupin saw the top finish of the day with a third place performance in the high jump. He posted a top jump of 6'2”. Anthony Oluwanifise finished sixth in the long jump, while Greg Giddings finished just shy of the top-eight in ninth place. Oluwanifise saw a distance of 21'0.5” and Giddings finished with a distance of 20'5”.
Giddings and Stephan Jospitre rounded out the leaders, placing sixth and seventh receptively in the triple jump. Giddings saw the best jump between the two with his combined distance of 43'10.5”, while Jospitre jumped a distance of 43'7.75”.
