As the Fordham Athletics community continues to survive through the pandemic, the outdoor track and field teams took to the lanes for the first time since the 2019 season this past Saturday. Hosting the Icahn Invitational, the first Fordham-hosted outdoor meet in nearly 75 years, team scores were not kept and focus was instead on the individual achievements of each team.

The men’s team had quite a number of athletes placed in the top three. Senior Anthony Misko’s 400m dash time of 50.66 was good enough for third place, while junior Zalen Nelson and graduate student Sean Sullivan dominated the 800m race with second and third place finishes at 1:54:79 and 1:57:85, respectively. Although junior Chase Krug was the sole competitor of the 400m hurdles, his subsequent first place finish of 1:08:32 should not be overlooked.

While the men’s runners put up impressive scores in their individual races, they shone in their relay performances: the 4×400 team of Krug, Misko, senior Arthur Gooden Jr. and sophomore Erik Brown finished in second place with a time of 3:22:80, and the 4×800 team of junior Jeremiah LaDuca, Nelson, sophomore Eric Jacobson and freshman Thomas Lewis finished first of two teams with a time of 7:58:17.

The field team also came motivated as freshman Justin Rhee landed third in a tight long jump competition with a distance of 6.49m, finishing only 0.17m away from the leader, and junior Alec Wargo also placed third in shot put with a throw of 10.87m.

With an all-around effort producing consistently high-ranking scores, the men seemed to have minimal trouble readjusting to competition. The future will tell if they can keep up this spread of placement, and, if they can, Fordham should have no trouble in future events with team scores.

The women’s team also put in an admirable performance, with an underclassmen core of freshman Michele Daye in the 400m, freshman Maddy Kopec in the 5000m, freshman Tara Coyne in the High Jump and freshman Skylar Harris in the Long Jump, along with sophomore Ruby Avila in the 100m, sophomore Kyla Hill in the 200m, sophomore Nicoleta Papavasilakis in the 1500m and sophomore Amanda Gurth in the shot put all putting up efforts that are a positive sign of things to come in the future. Capitalizing on this performance are the relay teams who both finished second in their respective races. Avila, junior Jade Dyer-Kennedy, Hill and Harris ran the 4x100m in 50.50, and junior Jilli Jones, sophomore Taylor Mascetta, graduate student Sydney Snow and freshman Abigail Llach ran the 4x800m in 9:39:55.

While both teams certainly have their work cut out for them, they seem to be up to the task. Their next chance to do so comes Friday, April 2 at the Stockton Invite #2 in Galloway N.J. Fan attendance will continue to be barred, so take this as a chance to be vocal about your support of Track & Field from afar.