ITHACA, N.Y. – The Colgate Women's and Men's Track and Field teams opened up their 2023-24 season Friday and Saturday at Cornell for the Greg Page Relays and Multi at Barton Hall.
Nine individual top-5 performances and another top-5 effort by a relay team were the highlights throughout the two days for the Raiders. A trio of top-2 showings from the women's team were also included in that group.
WOMEN
Clare Gillis, Hailey Bradley and Kiran George came away with the top individual performances over the weekend for Colgate, as all three earned second place marks in their respective events.
Gillis was just .43 seconds away from winning the 300 meters, as she finished the event just narrowly behind Cornell's Takiya Henson. Gillis was able to set a new collegiate-best time in the process and break the Colgate school record with a time of 40.30. Bradley, who competed in her first collegiate meet, was just fractions away from winning the mile, as she was edged out by just .10 by Lauren Jonathan, who ran unattached. Kiran George, who was also making her debut as a Raider, cleared 1.60m in the high jump to finish just .05m off the winning mark from Emma Dale of Toronto.
Colgate got a top-three effort from Melinda Haagensen, who began her collegiate career over the weekend by breaking the school record when she cleared 3.58m in the pole vault. Bella Toscano earned a top-5 performance in her first meet as a Raider when she ran the 500 meters in 1:23.39, which was also just .15 from fourth place. Grace Kwitek also came away with a fifth place finish on the weekend when she soared to 5'1" in the high jump.
MEN
Liam Davis and Bo Lynett were the top highlights of the weekend on the individual side for the men's team, as they both came away with top-3 finishes.
Davis was just .40 away from winning the 500 meters in his collegiate debut, as he only finished behind a pair of Cornell upperclassmen for third. Lynett soared to third place in the high jump with a mark of 1.80m, which narrowly missed his collegiate best effort and was just .10m away from victory.
The Raiders also had a top-5 relay team on the weekend thanks to the quartet of Luca Sturgeon, Benjamin Krill, Ryan Krill and Ethan Eisner. That group claimed fifth place by over two seconds when they ran the 4 x 400 relay in 3:26.94.
Simon Connors had the final top-5 event of the weekend for the Raiders, as he reached 6.66m in the long jump to claim fifth. In the first meet of his collegiate career, Connors also broke the Colgate school record for fastest time by a first-year in the 60m dash and sits at second all-time with a time of 7.13. Fellow first-year Jeff Groth also chipped in a career day, logging the sixth-fastest time in Colgate history with a 7.23 in the 60m dash.
In the field events, Colgate was led by sophomore Samuel Epstein who broke the school record with a 4.59m jump in the pole vault.
UP NEXT
Colgate does not return to action until after the New Year, as it returns to Ithaca, N.Y. once again on Jan. 13 for the Southern Tier Invite.
