With two separate meets to attend this past weekend – the Giegengack Invitational at Yale and the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory in New York – the Georgetown track and field team had its hands full. But the Hoyas continued to run strong, notching both personal records and NCAA qualifying marks.

In one of the most impressive performances of the weekend, the women’s distance medley relay (DMR) just missed the school record of 11:02.67, which was set at last year’s NCAA Indoor Championship.

In the opening 1200-meter leg of the race, senior Renee Tomlin was boxed in early on but managed to break away in the last 250m and join the lead pack. Coming through at 3:25, she handed the baton to fellow senior Abigail Johnson, who dominated the 400m leg with a time of 53.3, her best indoor split ever, and took the lead for the Hoyas.

Racing exceptionally well lately, freshman Rachel Schneider then took the stick and settled in behind Arkansas. Though she was passed by Tennessee and BYU down the final stretch, Schneider finished in 2:08.8, a time good enough both to keep the Hoyas within striking distance and to notch herself a personal record. Sophomore Emily Infeld anchored the relay, running a fantastic 4:36 for the1600m leg. She overtook BYU and Arkansas, but Villanova snuck past down the middle stretch of the 1600m. Regardless, Infeld helped the women to place third overall, less than a second behind first place Villanova and second place Tennessee, who they will face again in the Big East Championship.

Continuing her hot streak, Infeld returned to race in the mile later in the weekend and once again ran a NCAA automatic qualifying time of 4:36.83. Tomlin ran an NCAA provisional time of 4:47.34 and placed fourth. The Hoyas were paced by Emily’s older sister, current Georgetown School of Medicine student and four-time All-American, Maggie Infeld. Maggie brought her younger sister through the 800m at a speedy 2:18. Emily then attempted to take control of the race and close it out.

“I tried to keep up my same pace and progressively speed it up for the last 300m,” Infeld said.

Although Nicole Schappert of Villanova passed her in the last 100m, Infeld still had much to be proud of. She earned herself a new personal record and an NCAA automatic qualifying time. Her time is currently the second fastest in the nation this season behind Schappert.

Up at Yale, the men’s distance runners demonstrated their depth and showed that they will be major competitors at the Big East Championship. Barely short of the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:03.5 on a banked track, three Hoyas timed in at 4:04 in the mile. Though they came into this past weekend with high hopes of breaking the storied 4-minute barrier, the pacing was a little off and the middle 600m was too slow.

While senior Alex Bean’s and graduate student Alex Mason’s domination of the middle distance events this season has earned them the title of the “Bash Brothers,” senior Sandy Roberts nearly crashed the party, coming up just short down the final stretch to place third with a time of 4:04.75. Bean positioned himself right behind the pacer from the beginning, and once again took control of the race, battling it out with Mason. Both runners finished with new personal records. Edging out Mason, who came in at 4:04.71, Bean won the race with a time of 4:04.54.

“For three guys to finish that close together with that kind of time is definitely a big step in the right direction for our distance runners,” Head Coach Pat Henner said.

Other Highlights:

– In the sprints, sophomore Austin Perron had a great weekend at the Armory and ran a 48.47 in the open 400m. He helped the Hoyas place fourth in the men’s 4x400m with graduate student Chris Taylor, senior Danny Harris and junior Toby Ulm.

– In the 3000m at Yale, sophomore Mark Dennin and graduate student Levi Miller ran very well with juniors Ayalew Taye and Jimmy Grimes following behind. Dennin led the last 1000m and earned himself a personal record of 8:06.14 while also easily winning the race. Recently struggling, Miller gave a great performance and placed second with a time of 8:10.21.

– Sophomore Theon O’Connor ran his second-best indoor 800m ever, and his improvement upon last weekend’s performance at Penn State was noticed. He placed second and ran 1:50.64.

– The women hurdlers continue to show their consistency, with graduate student Nene Kamate and sophomore London Finley both improving throughout the weekend. Both narrowly missed qualifying for the finals in the 60m hurdles but ran good times in the consolation race. Kamate won the consolation heat, improving upon her NCAA provisional time by hitting 8.36, and Finley notched a personal record with an 8.48 to place third in the same heat.

– On the men’s hurdlers side, sophomores Kamryn Austin and Biyerem Okengwu did not qualify for the finals but ran well to qualify for the consolation race. Junior Chris Kinney continued to show his consistency in the preliminaries by running a 7.84 for the second weekend in a row. He went on to run a slightly disappointing 7.91 in the finals and placed seventh. With up to four Hoyas running consistently each weekend in the hurdles for the Blue and Gray, the squad is poised to have a big day come the Big East Championships later this month.

– Just a hair off the indoor school record of 6.73 in the 60m dash, graduate student Kenny Mitchell ran a 6.74 in the preliminaries and barely missed the NCAA provisional time. He later came back to place fifth and run a 6.75 in the finals.

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