As the days lengthen and the weather warms, runners venture outside as the outdoor season quickly comes into full swing on the heels of its indoor predecessor. The Georgetown track and field team has hardly missed a stride adjusting to the change as it dashed off to make Hoya hearts proud with a string of impressive performances at a slew of meets. On the last weekend of March, the team split up between three meets with the distance runners competing at the Stanford Invitational, the middle-distance runners and sprinters competing at the Florida Relays and the field athletes competing at the Raleigh Relays.

Seniors Colleen Kelly and Amanda Pape both turned in NCAA Regional-qualifying performances in the 5,000m at Stanford, with Kelly finishing ninth overall in 16:30.68 and Pape timing 16:47.69 for 17th place. In an impressive relay sweep, the Hoyas claimed first place in the 3,200-meter, 6,000-meter and 1,600-meter sprint medley relays, and placed second in the distance medley. Senior Treniere Clement, fresh off earning All-America honors in the 3,000m and mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships, combined with sophomore Sabine Knothe, senior Maura McCusker and sophomore anchor egan O’Neil to win the 3,200-meter relay in a sensational time of 8:49.83.

The men’s team also claimed two relay victories in Florida and placed third in another. The 6,000-meter relay team of freshman att Debole, junior Nat Glackin, sophomore Tommy Manning and senior Jesse O’Connell clocked in at 15:40.29 for first place, and the sprint medley team of sophomore Chris Bonner and seniors James Graham, Ali Najjar and O’Connell recorded the men’s other victory at the meet with a time of 3:21.72. The 3,200-meter team of Najjar, O’Connell, Graham and senior Ezra Richards placed third in 7:28.73.

“Our relays are strong, and that’s going to be important for the bigger meets in the season,” Director of Track and Field Ron Helmer said

This past weekend, the Hoyas traveled to the Duke Invitational to prove their talent once again in an impressive team showing. ost of the runners were thrown into events which they do not normally run for training purposes. Despite the change, the Hoyas still garnered some qualifying marks. The team was led by the men’s 1,600-meter relay which paced to a Big East-qualifying mark of 3:12.06. The relay was made up of O’Connell, Najjar, Bonner and Richards. The women’s 3,200-meter relay won their race by over 10 seconds with a time of 9:05.26 in a field of 10 teams. The women’s 1,600-meter relay also had a strong race, placing fifth in 3:47.48 to qualify for the Big East Championships.

“I was happy with our 4×400; I think they can go much faster. The school record is 3:04 – high, and I think that’s in their reach,” Helmer said.

As one of few athletes racing in their specialty events, senior James Graham turned in one of the top individual performances of the meet with a NCAA Regional-qualifying mark of 51.59 in the 400m hurdles. Graham won his section and got second overall. Teammate and middle-distance runner Glackin ran to a Big East qualifying time in a later section with a time of 55.64.

Other Big East qualifiers at the meet included Knothe and junior Kelley Otstott in the women’s 1,500m, and O’Connell in the men’s 1500m. Knothe was seventh in 4:31.34 and Otstott was 21st in 4:37.79, while O’Connell claimed second in his section and seventh overall with a time of 3:51.50 in the men’s event. Sophomores Erin Henry and Kim Malcolm earned Big East marks in the 3,000m steeplechase. Henry was sixth in 11:06.14, followed by Malcolm in seventh with a time of 11:07.46. Georgetown provided equally strong results in the men’s steeplechase as well as Tebbano claimed fifth 9:14.97 and Dalpiaz placed seventh 9:21.26.

In the field events, the Hoyas received strong performances from senior Teddy Presley in the triple jump and junior Leilani Greene in the pole vault. Presley was 11th in the triple jump with a mark of 13.50m, while Greene cleared 3.45m to place seventh in the pole vault.

As the track and field team barrels through these early season meets, the runners are preparing for such meets as the Penn Relays and the Big East Championships, which loom in the near future. Both high-profile meets will take place in less than a month.

“It’s a pretty good start to the season,” Helmer said. “Outdoor season tends to sneak up on you and you have to be ready. I’m pleased with many of the relay legs. I think that all of our relays can do some damage at the Penn Relays as well as help us with [the Big East] Championships.”