A week ago junior Chris Lukezic took second in the 800-meter run at the Duke Invitational. Despite the performance, Assistant Coach Scott McLeod said that the 800 wasn’t really Lukezic’s event.
This weekend Lukezic showed why.
On Friday he won the men’s 1,500-meter Olympic Development Run at the prestigious Mt. San Antonio College Invitational in Walnut, Calif., beating USC’s Thomas Babiskiewiecz by nearly a second. It was Lukezic’s first win of the season.
It wasn’t until the 400-meter mark that Lukezic really took control. According to McLeod, the race started a little faster than Koborsi expected, but he managed to hold the pace. “For most of the race he was in a big pack,” McLeod said, “but with a little more than a lap to go, he took the lead and never relinquished it.”
On Sunday, Lukezic went on to run the 800-meters, taking fifth with a 1:47.51 in a tight race where the top-five finishers all came in within a second of each other.
Also on Friday, senior Rod Koborsi fared well against some of the world’s toughest distance-running competition, taking 16th in the 5,000-meter Invitational run with a time of 13:49.24. Team Nike’s Bernard Lagat won the event followed by Kenya’s Boaz Cheboiywo. Lagat won a bronze metal in the 1,500 at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Senior Nat Glackin and junior Stanley Lagrenade also placed well, both achieving 20th place finishes in different heats of the 800 meters. Glackin ran 1:53.06 in the University/Open event while Lagrenade ran 1:55.10 in the Olympic Development race.
Junior Steve Meinelt and sophomore Neil Grosscup rounded out the Hoyas who placed – Meinelt took 32nd in the 10,000-meter Invitational with a time of 28:33.24 and Grosscup took 40th in the 1,500-meter University/Open with a 3:55.45.
The women’s mid-distance duo of junior Meghan O’Neil and sophomore Nana Hanson-Hall ran a tight 800-meters, finishing nearly side-by-side in their heat. O’Neil clocked a 2:09.34 with Hanson-Hall at 2:09.83. It was the first time O’Neil has broken the 2:10 barrier. The pair appeared to work together, McLeod said, and while Hanson-Hall led the pair for most of the race, O’Neil “finished with some fury going into it.”
Overall O’Neil took fourth place while Hanson-Hall placed seventh. Senior Kelley Otstott took 17th in the event with a 2:12.72.
Freshmen Maggie Infeld continued a standout season, paralleling Lukezic with a high finish last week in the 800-meters and a fifth in the 1,500-meter Olympic Development race. Sophomore Elizabeth aloy also took a fifth over the weekend, hers in the 1,500 meter open at 4:29.98. Junior Sabine Knothe finished 11 seconds later in 27th place.
In the 3,000-meter steeplechase – one of track and field’s more adventurous events, which includes hurdles and obstacles – junior Erin Henry finished 24th with a time of 11:13.89.
The atypically young women’s 4 x 400-meter team, anchored by freshman Alex Baptiste and including sophomores Kandance Ferguson and Nichole Torpey and freshman Ashley Hubbard, took fourth with an NCAA-qualifying time of 3:41.59. McLeod expects the squad to shave a few seconds from each leg in the coming weeks.
The Hoyas also competed Saturday at Long Beach State, where junior Chris Bonner took fourth in the open 400-meters and Glackin took eighth in the open 800-meter run. Ostott and Hanson-Hall had high finishes in the women’s 1,500-meters, as did Ferguson and Hubbard in the open 400-meters. Ferguson also finished 13th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.72.
On the field, sophomore Ashley Mondie took third in the triple jump with a height of 11.6 meters, and sophomore Nicole Torpey took 10th in the long jump with a length of 5.33 meters.
The Hoyas next compete this weekend at the Metro Invitational at ount Saint Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Md.
