Continuing on the momentum it built at the New York City Gotham Cup, the Georgetown track and field program had another weekend featuring top-10 finishes at the Penn State National Open. The men’s distance medley relay team placed first with a time of 9:33.59 — the 10th-best finish in Georgetown’s history.
“Although the time really wasn’t what we were looking for, we beat Stanford and Middle Tennessee State and Penn State, three of the top programs in the country, so for us to beat them with our team was pretty good,” Assistant track & field coach Brandon Bonsey said.
Sophomore Spencer Brown ran the first leg of the Distance Medly Relay in a time of 2:55.2, followed by a time of 49.7 seconds by freshman Quincey Wilson in the 400-meter leg. Junior Joe White ran the third leg in 1:48.1 — vaulting the Hoyas into second place — followed by senior Scott Carpenter running the last 1600 meters in 4:00.3 to secure the first-place finish.
“We were hoping the race would be a little bit faster. I don’t think that time is going to make the NCAA meet. It’s four really talented guys who are really fit right now. All four of them executed their race plan really well in their legs,” Bonsey said.
Junior Kennedy Weisner claimed second in the women’s mile invitational with a personal best time of 4:39.69, which ranks second in the Big East this season; meanwhile, junior Piper Donaghu finished fifth with a 4:48.04. Graduate student Carey Celata finished third in the women’s 1000m invitational with a time of 2:52.68. Graduate student Jocelyn Hubbard also finished in third in the women’s 500m dash invitational with a 1:15.06, ranking first in the Big East this season.
Younger runners, freshman Margie Cullen and sophomore Josette Norris finished second and third in the women’s mile, running a 4:51.43 and 4:53.27, respectively.
Additionally the men’s distance squad found success in senior Jonathan Green’s fifth place finish in the men’s 3000m invitational in 8:20.26. As for the underclassmen, freshman Kenny Rowe finished second in the men’s 500m dash with a time of 1:04.26 while freshman Jack Salisbury placed second in the men’s 1000m invitational, finishing in 2:25.05.
Bonsey, who oversees the men’s distance team, highlighted Rowe’s performance this weekend.
“Kenny Rowe did a really good job. He hadn’t raced yet all season. [He’s a] talented guy coming out of high school. Him running 1:04 low in his first 500 of the year was really good because that’s an event where you have to run it three or four times to really pop a good one. I think in a month he could run a second and a half faster. He impressed me quite a bit,” Bonsey said.
The Hoyas compete again Feb. 3 and 4 at the Armory Invitational held at the Armory in New York City. A small part of the team will travel to Boston for the Boston University Scarlet & White Invitational on Feb. 4.
