The University of Hartford men's and women's track and field teams competed at the Wesleyan Cardinal Invitational this past weekend in Middletown, CT. The Hawks finished with a total of 34 top-five finishes between the men's and women's teams. The event was not team scored.
The women's team saw one first place finish come in the 500-meter run where Sherilyn Nicholas posted a time of 1:23.90. She was joined in the top-five in the 500 by Jacqueline Minkler who finished third overall with a time of 1:25.07, two one hundredths of a second behind the second place finisher.
Raquel Payne had one of the most productive days for Hartford with three top-five finishes. She posted a second place finish in the 55-meter dash with a season best time of 7.66 in the finals. Her finals time was .12 seconds faster than she posted in the preliminaries. She also finished third in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump. Her best long jump was 14'7”, while she saw a total distance of 31'11.25” in the triple jump.
The women's team saw a pair of individual school records broken during the meet. The first came in the one mile run, where Stefanie Lombardi broke her own record in the event by more than six seconds. She finished in second overall with a time of 5:20.88. The second record came in the weight throw where rookie Carolyn Grime threw for 32'11.75”, more than four feet over the previous record.
Other top-five finished for Hartford included, Marisa Poleto in the 200-meter dash, Erika Schramm and Ariana Bass in the 400-meter dash, Leanna Godfrey and Lombardi in the 800-meter run, Elizabeth Foster in the 1000-meter run, and Susan Mullane, Biliana Mihaylova and Stephanie Barbosa in the high jump.
The Hawks 4x200-meter relay saw a first place finish, while breaking the school record, with a time of 1:48.34. The relay consisted of Poleto, Bass, Latasha Jarrett and Kaycee Martinez.
The men's team saw a pair of first place finishes; one on the track side and one on the field side of the meet. The first came in the 800-meter run where Warren Lane posted a time of 2:04.26, beating out his closest competition by .56 seconds. Anthony Oluwanifise saw the Hawks second top finish in the triple jump where he posted a total distance of 46'5.5”.
Oluwanifise and Stephan Jospitre saw three top-five finishes a piece. In addition to his first place finish in the triple jump, Oluwanifise finished third in the 55-meter dash and third in the long jump. Two of Jospitre's top finishes came in the same events as Oluwanifise. He finished fifth in the 55-meter dash and fourth in the long jump, while placing second in the 200-meter dash.
Chris Carr, Fawaz Al-Sudairi and Eric Ciccone also saw top-five finishes in sprint events. Carr joined Jospitre in the 200-meter dash, finishing fifth overall, while Al-Sudairi and Ciccone finished second and third respectively in the 400-meter run. Adam Wells and Alex Ivanov also saw top five finishes in track events with third and fifth place finishes in the 55-meter hurdles. Brandon Coleman also saw a top finish with a time of 1:10.17 in the 500-meter run. Matthew Le closed out the top finishes on the track side of the meet with a fourth place finish in the 800-meter run.
On the field side, Gregory Giddings placed in the top-five in the triple jump, joining Oluwanifise. Giddings placed fourth overall with a season best of 44'1.25”. Also on the field side, Brien Woodaman broke his own school record in the weight throw by more than two feet with a throw of 37'4.5”.
The Hawks 4x400-meter relay team also picked up a first place finish with a time of 3:33.48, more than three seconds better than the second place team. The relay team consisted of Al-Sudairi, Coleman, Ivanov and Lane.
The indoor track teams will have on last warm-up Susan Mbefore the America East Championships. They will travel to the New York City Armory to compete in the Rider/Lafayette Invitational on February 15.
