HAMILTON, N.Y. – On a chilly day in Central New York, the Colgate men's and women's track teams hosted the Class of '32 Invitational in the Sanford Field House.
The meet included two local teams of Mohawk Valley Community College and Finger Lakes Community College as well as a few open athletes. The Colgate athletes also had an inner squad competition where the team was broken up into maroon and white teams.
The white team was victorious for both the men and the women. For overall team standings, Colgate won the meet with 109 points for the men over second place Mohawk Valley with 58. On the women's side Colgate dominated with 130 points to Mohawk Valley's 65.
Many athletes today took home first place honors but more importantly set several personal bests and continued to improve off of last week's performances early in this indoor season.
Elizabeth Driscoll shined in the pole vault where she won and scaled 3.05 meters (10'0") which tied the school record.
Rachel Schaaf continues to improve in each meet and won the triple jump (11.34 meters, 37'2 ½") and long jump (5.29 meters 17' 4 ¼").
Dominique Groguhe also took home two gold medals with her season bests in both the shotput (10.76 meters and 35' 33/4") and weight throw (14.53 meters 47'8"). The last field event first place for Colgate was
Katherine Wand who cleared 1.45 meters (4'9") in the high jump. Colgate also took home second place in the pole vault, weight throw, shot put and long jump.
On the oval, the women excelled with several first and second places. In the 500, 800 and the mile, Colgate took the first two places.
Graeson Landsberg moved up this week and won the 500 meters in 1:28.52.
Carollin Mellin set a personal best and ran 2:23.93 in the 800 and
Sophia Manners continued her win streak with a 5:15.31 in the mile in her best time. In the 3000 meters, freshman
Lauren Sterne led her teammates to finish 1-3-5. She ran her best time of 11:21.08.
In the shorter events, Isabela Cunio won the 60 meters in 8.56 seconds and freshman
Katie Caracciolo took the 400 meters in 1:05.67 which was her first collegiate race at that distance.
The men's team also had a very successful meet. The field events were the first contested and the Raiders brought home three golds from the three events in which they competed.
Nick Johnson improved upon his throw from last week to toss the weight throw 13.73 meters (45' ½"). Like Johnson,
Cole Blair improved his season mark in the long jump, taking first place in 6.88 meters (22'7"). Not to be outdone, two of the Colgate jumpers cleared 1.85 meters (6' ¾") over the high jump bar, but
Luca Sturgeon took the win with one less miss over an early height over teammate
Bo Lynett.
In the middle-distance events, the Raiders took home gold in both the 800 and the 1000. Senior
Dillon Aryeh added an extra lap from the week before to take on the 1000 meter run. He ran his best time in the five lap race in 2:34.29. His freshman teammate, Benjamin Horner took the honors in the 800 with a time of 1:58.24. Jumping up in distance, freshman,
Owen Holland led the way for a 1-2-3 sweep of the 3000 meters in a time of 9:12.93.
In the short sprints, the Colgate men placed 3
rd,4
th, 5
th and 7
th in the finals of the 60 meter dash and all improved their time from the trials earlier in the meet with Blair placing third in 7.16 for his second medal of the day.
The Raider men also brought home top five finishes in the 200 meters and the mile.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Harlis Meaders
"The Class of '32 Invitational has proven to be a great competition for our teams over the last few years and once again it did not disappoint. There was an extra energy in the building as our kids got the chance to compete at home. Across the board, we were better today so it is hard to single out individual athletes. It was truly a team effort.
"I was very proud to watch all of the seniors who competed in their last home meet and happy to have many of the parents and friends in the facility watching. We even had a small group of alumni compete in the alumni mile.
"Our kids found a way to challenge themselves and in doing so they brought out the best in each other. Ending the meet with the mixed gender 4x400 run primarily with our mid-distance and distance group, was definitely one of the main highlights of the meet.
"We are off to a very good start to the season and looking forward to the meet at Utica next weekend where we will face our most challenging competition of the season"
UP NEXT
The men's and women's teams will head to Utica, N.Y., to compete in the Pioneer Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 5.
