The 2010 season for the Georgetown outdoor track team kicked off this past weekend at two separate meets. The men’s distance team traveled to the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., while the rest of the Hoyas raced at the Raleigh Relays. Georgetown’s track and field team enjoyed a respectable start to the season with almost every Hoya qualifying for the Big East championship in May.

The women’s 4×1500-meter relay team showed Raleigh why Georgetown is known for its distance teams placing first. Freshman Kirsten Kasper, graduate student Christine Whalen, senior Amanda Walsh and senior Lauren Gregory earned a time of 18:33.56. Graduate student Lise Ogrodnick won the 3000m steeplechase with ease running a 10:30.58 followed by Gregory in second and senior Kelsey Malmquist in fourth with times of 10:40.14 and 10:49.08, respectively.

The women’s mid distance team, comprised of sophomore Lauren Borduin, graduate student Avril Ogrodnick, Kasper and Whalen, added to the weekend’s success by taking home the win in the 4×800-meter and qualifying for the Big East championship.

Georgetown’s men’s and women’s distance teams have built a reputation for themselves in the last couple of years, but the Hoyas’ hurdling team stormed the track in Raleigh following a remarkable performance this past indoor season.

Graduate student Nene Kamate, who recently broke a school record during the indoor season in the 60m hurdles, made the record books once again with her 13.74 performance in the preliminary round of the 100m hurdles. She placed fourth in the finals with a disappointing time of 13.87. Together, Kamate and junior Chris Kinney continue to make a name for Georgetown’s hurdling team alongside sophomore Biyerem Okengwu. Kinney placed second in the preliminaries of the 110m hurdles and Okengwu placed 10th, running a 13.82 and a 14.37, respectively. In the finals, Kinney placed second once again with a time of 13.93.

The men’s sprinters represented themselves well at Raleigh. Freshman Kadeem Hunter, Kinney, graduate student Kenny Mitchell, and freshman Justin Crawford placed third in the final round of the 4x100m relay with a time of 40.76. They barely missed the school record, but together they ran an IC4A-qualifying time.

itchell dominated the men’s 100m dash and placed second with a time of 10.47, qualifying for the Big East championship. Juniors Toby Ulm and Austin Perron placed 10th and 12th with times of 47.97 and 48.03, respectively, in the 400m dash.

Other Highlights:

-Freshmen Amanda Kimbers and Tenille Stoudenmire represented the women’s sprinting team well in the 100m dash. Kimbers had a great start to the season placing third in the finals with a time of 11.86 and Stoudenmire ran a disappointing 12.08, placing 10th. However, Stoudenmire placed fourth in the preliminary round with a time of 11.92.

– Over at the Stanford Invitational, sophomore Mark Dennin had a solid start to the outdoor season in the 5000m race. He placed 15th with a time of 13.59.15 in the Section 1 race followed by senior Sandy Roberts and junior Ayalew Taye in the Section 3 race. They placed 21st and 24th with respective times of 14:30.59 and 14:35.81. Graduate student Michael Krisch also did well, placing 15th in the men’s 10,000m with a time of 28:59.94.”