Alison Wade/The Hoya Georgetown warmed up for bigger meets to come, running at the aryland Invitational.

LANDOVER, Md. – Despite the presence of opposing teams and officials, the Maryland Invitational last Saturday was more of a training day than a competitive meet for Georgetown’s indoor track and field program, as athletes raced for distances outside their expertise and prepared for meets later in the season.

“We wanted to try to get some of the kids to do some odd events to prepare for Penn State this weekend,” Associate Head Coach Andrew Valmon said. “We try to use some meets in a training capacity, but I think [Penn State] isn’t going to be a training meet – we’re going to try to get something done there. We feel like it’s going to be a meet where we can get a lot of qualifying times, so we moved people around on the track [at the Maryland Invitational] to work on some things.”

Many of the women’s star distance runners sat the race out, and most of the runners that participated in the meet competed in shorter races than usual to work on developing their speed for next weekend’s meet. Georgetown has a history of running many of its top times on Penn State’s notoriously fast banked track, and the Maryland Invitational helped hone the team’s skills prior to next week’s crucial opportunity to earn national qualifications.

Senior James Graham, who is primarily a 400m runner, competed in the 60m hurdles, senior Robert Wingate-Robinson ran the 60m dash, and a team of four freshmen, most of whom are half-milers, ran the 4 x 400m relay. Graham placed third in the 60m hurdles, and nearly set a new personal record with a time of 8.06 seconds. Wingate-Robinson placed fifth in the 60m dash in a time of 6.89 seconds, and the 4 x 400m team placed third in 3:20.28.

The men’s distance runners also dropped down to shorter events, as senior Dylan Welsh ran both the 800m as an individual and the 1,200m leg of the distance medley relay, and seniors Daniel Tebbano and Ethan Kearns competed in the mile. The distance medley relay team placed first, with a time of 10:05.71, and Tebbano (4:14.71) and Kearns (4:19.99) placed fourth and ninth, respectively, in the mile. In the 800m, sophomore Tommy Manning paced the team with a time of 1:56.82, and Welsh followed closely behind in 1:58.20.

The women’s team received standout performances from junior sprinters Monica Hargrove and Kori Hamilton. Hargrove won the 200m in a time of 24.53, advanced to the finals of the 60m dash, and later finished near her personal best in the event with a time of 7.77 seconds. Hamilton stretched out and found success in the 800m, which she won in a time of 2:13.85. Senior Jamillah Bowman also posted encouraging results, and ran close to her personal best with a time of 9.03 in the 60m hurdles.

Freshman Meghan O’Neil continued her solid season by placing first for the team in the 400m, and running a leg on the fifth-place 4 x 400m relay team. Juniors Diana Clock and Rose Wetzel both registered second place finishes, as Clock crossed the line of the 3,000m run in 9:54.95 and Wetzel logged 5:02.61 in the mile.

The field events proved to be one of the major highlights of the meet, as sophomore Andrew Haskell placed second and set a new personal record of 4.72m in the pole vault. Freshman Danny Pellegrino followed Haskell in third place with a clearance of 4.57m. Senior Davin Williams led the team in the long and triple jumps, where he registered 6.95m and 14.50m, respectively, for a pair of top-five finishes. Sophomore Erica Derrickson was the lone field event competitor on the women’s side, and posted a mark of 3.20m in the pole vault for seventh place.

“We didn’t want to use this as an off-week, because with the lack of facilities, you need to train as much as you can,” Valmon said. “We went into it to train and get ready for the next couple weeks and the big push we have coming up with Penn State, the Armory and the Big East all following each other. At Penn State, we’re going to try to run all events – and fast.”