TRACK AND FIELD Hoyas First at IC4As, Second at ECACs By Scott Homa Hoya Staff Writer

After a slightly disappointing fourth place finish at the Big East Championships, the men’s indoor track and field team saw the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) Championships on March 1-3 as an opportunity for redemption and revenge. Facing conference champion Connecticut and several other Big East teams, the Hoyas emerged from the contest back in familiar territory – on top of the leaderboard.

“The men needed something good to happen,” Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Ron Helmer said. “We had a little bit of a rocky Big East and weren’t getting people qualified the way we hoped that we might, so for them to collectively score enough points for us to be able to win the meet was very important to us.”

Georgetown won the meet with a total of 65 points. Connecticut was second with 56, and Penn State tallied 54 points for third.

Graduate students Josh Rollins and Kyle Smits earned a pair of individual titles, with Rollins recording 16.04m in the triple jump and Smits timing 14:15.46 in the 5,000m run.

With his performance, Rollins claimed his second IC4A indoor triple jump title and qualified for the national championship.

Smits logged a season-best time in his event.

The distance medley relay team of sophomore Jesse O’Connell, junior Robert Wingate-Robinson and seniors Corey Smith and Chris Miltenberg set a meet record of 14:15.46 to take another top finish.

Other relays turned in impressive performances as well, with the team of freshman Nat Glackin and juniors Dylan Welsh, Wasim Greaves and George O’Loughlin earning second place in the 4x800m and the 4x400m team of senior Jeff Reinhardt, sophomore Ali Najjar and juniors Ezra Richards and Wingate-Robinson placing third.

The women’s team enjoyed similar success in the ECAC portion of the event, garnering 65 points for second place overall. Seton Hall amassed 107 points for first, and Pittsburgh (51), West Virginia (41) and Connecticut (29) rounded out the top five.

Senior Tyrona Heath recorded an NCAA automatically-qualifying time in the 800m run, crossing the line in 2:06.80 for third.

Junior Jill Laurendeau and sophomore Treniere Clement both earned second place finishes.

Laurendeau timed 4:49.76 in the mile, and Clement crossed the line of the 1,000m run in 2:48.55.

Graduate students Heather Blackard and Emily Enstice and sophomore Amanda Pape recorded personal bests in their events.

Blackard timed 2:07.54 in the 800m run, Enstice clocked 4:53.57 in the mile, and Pape finished the 5,000m run in 16:44.08.

Blackard also joined Laurendeau, Clement and junior Erin Sicher in the 4x800m relay, where the team edged West Virginia for first.

The 4x400m relay team of Heath, junior Jamillah Bowman, sophomores Monica Hargrove and Tyrona Heath timed 3:39.36 for second.

“All in all it was a good meet,” Helmer said. “We had lots of people run seasonal bests if not all-time PR’s, and that’s all you can ask for.”