Spread across the country, the Georgetown track and field team found success in all three meets it competed in this weekend. The team is currently trying to qualify as many athletes as possible for NCAA regionals, and Director of Track and Field Patrick Hennery thought sending his team to compete at Auburn, Stanford and William & Mary would provide the best opportunities to do just that.

At the Auburn Tiger Track Classic, the women’s team put up strong numbers in one of the fastest meets of the season. Graduate student Amanda Kimbers lived up to Henner’s expectations by taking fifth place in the women’s 100-meter dash with a time of 11.90, just behind University of Alabama-Hunstville’s junior Katelin Barber. Kimbers also ran a strong 200m dash, again finishing fifth with a time of 23.75.

Senior Deseree King’s top performance was in her event of choice, the 400m hurdles. She finished in seventh place with a time of 1:00.87.

On the men’s side, junior Tyler Smith took 13th in the 100m dash with a time of 11.01, missing the 12th spot by less than a 10th of a second.

The men’s 4-x-400m relay comprised of Smith, freshman Nate Gordon, senior Hansel Akers and sophomore Mike Andre placed 11th with a time of 3:19.21.

Finally, senior Eghosa Aghayere placed seventh in the men’s triple jump with his longest distance of 14.76m.

“I feel like we did some good things and made some progress,” Henner said. “We had some seasonal bests, but it wasn’t quite exactly where we wanted to be. But I think a part of that is that it’s so early in the season still.”

At the Stanford Invitational, the long-distance runners competed in one of the nation’s fastest distance meets.

“[At] Stanford, we put up a lot of times that are going to be in the top 48 in our region, so that’s always a good thing,” Henner said. “But I also feel like we missed some opportunities to put up some really fast times. Some of that is from inexperience, some of it was from never really trying to run a serious 5k before, so we’ve just got to do a little bit better. I think that most athletes that ran out there, if they have a chance to run again, will run much faster.”

In the men’s 5000m run, sophomore Darren Fahy finished 12th with a time of 14:13.39.

In the men’s 10,000m run, graduate student Andrew Springer took 12th place with a time of 29:22.10.

“I was extremely pleased with Andrew Springer,” Henner said. “He missed the whole indoor season and then went out and ran a [personal record] in the 10,000. For him to go out in his first meet since cross-country and put up a PR I think is a harbinger of really good things to come this spring for him.”

Meanwhile on the women’s side, sophomore Haley Pierce took 11th in the 1500m with a time of 4:24.41.

In the first section of the 5000m, graduate student Rachel Schneider put up a time of 16:23.87 and took 25th place. In the third section of the 5000m, junior Annamarie Maag placed ninth with a time of 16:29.65.

In the 10,000m run, graduate student Kirsten Kasper took 12th place with a time of 34.21.52.

Finally, other Hoyas ran in the Colonial Relays in Williamsburg, Va. The women’s team took 16th place overall with 16 points, while the men’s team placed eighth with 21 points.

Senior Chelsea Cox grabbed third place in the women’s 800m run with a time of 2:10.23. Sophomore Heather Martin placed sixth with 2:11.31.

In the women’s 1500m run, junior Kelsey Smith finished in fourth place with a time of 4:25.63. Junior Shanique Dasilva took seventh at 4:30.68. Junior Becca DeLoache put up a time of 4:31.87 and finished ninth.

In the 5000m run, junior Andrea Keklak placed 11th with a time of 17:03.99.

On the men’s side, notable runs were mostly in the 800m race. Sophomore Ahmed Bile took second with a time of 1:50.02. Freshmen Ryan Manahan and Amos Bartelsmeyer took fifth and sixth with times of 1:50.69 and 1:50.89, respectively.

In the 5000m run, senior Brian King put up a time of 14:12.73 to put him in fourth place, and senior Dylan Sorenson finished just behind King, grabbing eighth with a time of 14:18.87.

With these meets, Georgetown hopes to have secured the qualifying times for the upcoming NCAA Regionals next month. There is still plenty of time though, and the team will compete in the George Mason Invitational next weekend for another chance at putting up those qualifying times.

“I think George Mason is a great meet. It’s grown; it’s gotten more and more competitive,” Henner said. “There’s going to be people from all over the country coming there to run, so I’m really excited for it, and I think we’re going to be ready to put up some fast times this weekend. I think it’s going to be great competition.”