By Shelby Townsend
Sports Editor
The men’s and women’s indoor track teams competed at the Metropolitan Conference Championships on Friday, Feb. 3 in Staten Island. Multiple runners achieved personal bests.
The women’s team tied for ninth out of 17 teams with only 13 girls competing. According to Head Coach Kevin Buckley, who is the head coach for both teams, the women’s team is currently only “distance and middle distance based,” meaning that they have no sprinters. Buckley added that they are “recruiting vigorously in that area for next year.”
Junior Talya Williams led 2,800 meters of the 3,000-meter run, and finished second in 9:57.85, a personal record. Graduate students Elizabeth Stirling and Ashlin Conroy tallied points for the Pioneers in the 5,000-meter by finishing fourth and eighth, respectively. Freshman Nicole Costanzo continues to improve in the high jump and triple jump, Coach Buckley said. She finished fourth in the high jump after clearing 1.55 meters and 14th the pentathlon. Freshman Alexandria Okon also collected points for the Pioneers with a sixth place finish in the 800-meter run.
The men’s team finished in 11th place out of 15 teams with the long sprinters tallying the most points for the Pioneers. Coach Buckley said freshman Jeffrey Reyes ran well in the 1,000-meter run until the last 200 meters when he experienced some hamstring tightness. The injury prevented Reyes from running in the 1600-meter relay later in the meet, which Buckley said hurt the relay team’s overall time. Still, the relay team consisting of senior Stefan Adams, red-shirt junior Kyle Ward, sophomore Jermaine Ifill and freshman Damario Hussey finished the race in sixth place with a time of 3:28.69. Adams also tallied points for the Pioneers in the 400-meter dash finishing fifth with a time of 50.20 and Ifill recorded a personal record in the same event with a time of 51.54.
The Pioneers have two more meets before they return to Staten Island, N.Y. for the East Coast Conference Championships Friday, Feb. 24. The ECC pre-meet poll projects the women’s team finishing in sixth at the meet and the men in seventh, but Coach Buckly is hoping to finish in fourth and fifth respectively. “Our goal is rather lofty, given our limited number of athletes on each side,” Buckley explained. “As long as we perform to our own capabilities, it’s fine. Let the points and standings fall where they may.”
Both indoor tack teams return to action at the St. Joseph’s Winter Invitational in South Huntington, N.Y. on Saturday, Feb. 11.
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