Journeying near and far, Georgetown’s track team left its mark last weekend, lowering records and grabbing medals. While some team members traveled to Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., to compete in the Meyo Invitational, others stayed close to campus, competing at the Collegiate Invitational in Fairfax, Va.
This impressive team drive was lead by junior Rod Koborsi who turned in a gold-medal performance in the 5,000m run with his NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 14:11.01. In the same race, sophomore Fleet Hower finished eighth with a time of 14:30.17. In the field events, junior Teddy Presley captured the third-place spot in the triple jump with his leap of 13.13 meters. He also soared to a fourth-place finish in the long jump with a distance of 6.57 meters and threw in a jump of 1.92 meters in the high jump to earn a Big East qualifying height. Presley has now qualified in all three jumps at the Big East Championships. Junior Andrew Haskell posted another Hoya win in the pole vault as he reached a height of 4.54 meters.
Other impressive performances were turned in by senior James Graham and sophomore Chris Bonner as they ran respective times of 47.86 and 48.39 seconds in the 400m dash. Senior Ezra Richards finished third in his heat as he crossed the line in 1:51.05 for the 800m run.
On the women’s side, school records came down in the Distance Medley Relay, the pole vault and the 300m dash. The record relay was lead-off by senior Colleen Kelly, followed by senior onica Hargrove who turned in a stellar 400m leg with a 52.9 split. After Hargrove, the stick was passed to senior Maura McCusker who sped to a 2:08.7 split in the 800 to pass the stick to senior Treniere Clement. Clement would seal the win with a 4:38.6 anchor on the mile. Their combined time of 11:07.27 became a new Georgetown school record ahead of the previous mark from 1997 and gave them an automatic NCAA qualifying mark.
“I was really happy about the DMR. They ran well and earned the qualifying mark which was most important,” Director of Track and Field Ron Helmer said. “I think it’s the third fastest DMR of the year so far.”
The next Hoya to break a record was freshman Kandace Ferguson in the 300m dash. She sped to a quick 40.22 seconds to garner third place in an impressive effort. The third new school record was set by another freshman, Leilani Greene. She soared 3.58 meters to win the women’s pole vault and set a new Hoya record.
Grad student Marni Kruppa sped to a third-place finish in the 5000m run at Notre Dame in a time of 17:34.02. At the same meet, the freshman pair of Ashley Mondie and Nichole Torpey finished one-two in heat one of the long jump. Mondie had a 5.11 meter jump and Torpey leaped 4.93 meters.
The Hoyas ran two sets of 1,600-meter relays, one at each meet. The first relay comprised of senior Jill Laurendeau, Mondie, Torpey and sophomore Erin Henry finished third at the Collegiate Invitational. At the Meyo Invitational, the quartette of Ferguson, freshman Jayne Penn, McCusker and sophomore Meghan O’Neill teamed up to produce a time of 3:56.25.
The Hoyas travel to New York City next week to compete in the Collegiate Invitational, held at the New Balance Armory Track and Field Center. The Armory is said to be the “fastest track in the world.”
