The Georgetown men’s and women’s track teams topped the podium in eight events at the Big East Indoor Championships in Geneva, Ohio, on March 1 and 2. The women’s team finished in sixth among eight competitors while the men’s team took fifth out of seven teams.

The women’s team, who posted the most individual wins among conference competitors, opened competition Sunday with its first qualifying time behind a fourth-place finish from freshman Maya Drayton in the 200-meters preliminary race at 24.39 seconds. Drayton followed up the performance with a second qualifying time of 55:34 in the 400 dash preliminaries for a third-place finish. 

The following day, Drayton came in fourth in the 200 finals with a nearly identical time to her preliminary race of 24.40 seconds while placing third once again in the 400 dash, improving her time to 54.78 seconds.

Junior Lexi Del Gizzo scored the Blue and Gray’s first victory of opening day with a 2:11.71 finish in the 800m preliminaries. Junior Olivia Arizin followed closely behind with a time of 2:12.13 to place fifth and qualify for finals. Returning to the track the following day, Del Gizzo grabbed the eighth spot in the finals with a time of 2:15.63 while Arizin reigned victorious with a time of 2:11.19 to earn the title of Big East champion. 

Sophomore Sami Corman dominated the women’s 1-mile run on day one, racing to a 4:56.37 qualifying finish in the preliminaries while senior Maegan Doody also qualified after crossing the line in 4:54.11. Graduate student Alie Fordyce became the last Hoya to make the cut in the event after earning a time of 4:54.96. In the finals, Corman took home the Big East title with a time of 4:55.38 while Fordyce came in fourth at 4:57.71 and Doody closed out the event for Georgetown in fifth at 4:57.86. 

In the distance events, senior Margie Cullen and sophomore Alyssa Aldridge both delivered top-10 finishes in the 3000-meter with times of 9:41.15 for seventh place and 9:44.27 for ninth place on day two of competition. In the 5000 event Sunday, Aldridge was the Hoyas’ top finisher in sixth place with a time of 16:43, followed by junior Baylee Jones, who placed 11th, and freshman Kate Tavella, who placed 14th. 

In the women’s relays, the 4×800 team composed of Corman, Fordyce, sophomore Katherine Lee and Arizin topped the podium with a 8:49.38 finish to claim Georgetown’s sole relay title of the competition. 

The field events brought two individual championships for the Hoyas. Freshman Aniella Delafosse won the long jump with a distance of 5.81m. In the triple jump, sophomore Eni Akinniyi took first with a distance of 11.79m to close out the women’s competition with five Big East titles and 84 total points. Despite their individual victories, the Hoyas only broke into the top three in six of their 12 total events, landing the team in sixth overall. 

The men’s team followed behind the women’s team with three Big East titles, including Georgetown’s only relay title at the 2020 conference championships. 

In the men’s sprints, both junior Josiah Laney and freshman Andrew Robinson earned qualifying times. Laney finished sixth in the finals with a time of 7.00 and Robinson finished eighth with a time of 7.04. 

Junior Lawrence Leake dominated the 200 dash, winning both the preliminary and final races. Leake also snagged third place in both the preliminaries and finals of the 400 race.

In the 800 run preliminaries, junior Ruach Padhal, sophomore Ethan Delgado and senior Kenny Rowe swept the top spots with finishes in first, second and third. In the finals, Rowe took the top spot overall at 1:50.21, shaving two seconds off his preliminary time. Padhal and Delgado followed up with eighth- and 10th-place finishes and times of 1:52.70 and 1:55.75. 

In the 1-mile run preliminaries, fifth-year Nick Wareham finished second and freshman Matthew Payamps took fifth to qualify. Freshman Parker Stokes also qualified for finals with a seventh-place finish, as did freshman Tim McInerney with an 11-place finish. In the finals, Payamps topped the podium at 4:19.88 and Wareham came in third after crossing the line in 4:20.54. Stokes and McInerney followed behind in 11th and 12th. 

In the 3000 run, senior Matthew Bouthillette scored with an eighth-place finish of 8:19. In the 5000 run, senior Jack Van Scoter and sophomore Rusty Kujdych finished in sixth and seventh place. 

In the 4×800, the team of freshman Theo Woods, graduate student Spencer Brown, Padhal and Payamps claimed second overall with a time of 7:33.33. The men’s distance medley relay team of sophomore Tristan Forsythe, Alleyne, Woods and Bouthillette also placed second at 9:48.3, concluding the men’s competition with three Big East titles and 91 overall points.

As the indoor season comes to a close, Georgetown returns to action in its outdoor season beginning March 21 at the Penn Challenge in Philadelphia.