Spring break was certainly anything but relaxing for the men and women of the Fordham track and field team as they competed in four meets across only three weeks. Despite this, the Rams enjoyed their best stretch of performances in a long time.
This run of great success all began at the Rider 5-Way Invitational: a smaller meet held at Rider University. The women’s team kicked everything off by impressively registering a total team score of 104 points, good enough for third at the meet. A large portion of these points would come from their two event wins, with senior Clodagh McGroary winning the 3000-meter steeplechase on the back of her excellent time of 12:04.36, and freshman Brenna Sears likewise toppling her event’s field, the 800-meter dash, with her own respective strong time of 2:20.91. Moreover, the women’s team was also able to lay claim to silver in a couple of events, as freshman Megan McCann finished just behind Sears in the 800-meter dash, while freshman Meredith Gotzman ran herself into second place in the 1500-meter run with an impressive time of 4:45.81. Finally of note for the women’s team was freshman Michaela Gier’s performance in the pole vault, as she was once again able to break her own school record by completing a personal best attempt of 10’ 6” — a mark good enough for fourth on the day.
In terms of the men’s performance at Rider, while they fared a little worse than the women’s team, coming in fourth place with 67 total points, they nonetheless had some strong showings. Freshman Dakota Strains, for one, was able to claim gold with his brilliant time in the 200-meter dash (22.94 seconds), sophomore Matt Nurse finishing just behind him in second with his own stellar time of 23.06 seconds. Moreover, sophomore Darren Croke (8:49.86) and freshman Jack Boerger (8:51.65) were likewise able to dominate an event as a duo, finishing second and third, respectively, in the 3000-meter run. Finally, freshman DaRon Elam pitched in with his performance in the men’s high jump, claiming silver with his tremendous mark of 6’ ¾”.
After this brief unified stint at Rider University, the team then split up the following weekend, one larger group traveling to Princeton University for the Sam Howell Invitational while the other went to compete in the Ramapo College Invitational.
Looking first at the former of these two meets, Fordam enjoyed a significant amount of success while at Princeton, a number of Rams having extremely strong showings on the day.
On the field side of things, a pair of Rams managed to register top-five finishes in their respective events: senior Eric Galante and his third-place finish in the men’s long jump (22’ 10 ½”) and Elam with his fifth-place finish in the men’s high jump (6’ 2 ¾”).
On the track side, the Rams’ strongest showing came in the women’s 100-meter dash, with senior Skylar Harris claiming bronze with her blistering time of 12.27 seconds. Fordham also showed out in the unseeded iteration of the 800-meter run, as sophomores Trevor Rinn, Croke and Yariv Simhony all registered top-10 finishes, Rinn being the highest finisher of the group with his bronze-medal worthy time of 1:56.02. The Rams were likewise able to exercise some measure of team dominance in the men’s 5000-meter run: graduate student Colin Flood finished in sixth behind his time of 14:24.49, senior Steven Zucca finished just behind him in eighth with his respective mark of 14:26.63 and junior Rodolfo Sanchez rounded out the pack with his 12th-place worthy time of 14:29.39.
In terms of the performances of those sent to the Ramapo Invitational, they too made their presence felt despite being few in numbers, laying claim to a slew of medals across several events. For starters, Gier continued to roll by winning the seeded iteration of the women’s pole vault, propelling herself to the top of the field by again breaking her own school record, this time recording a phenomenal mark of 10’ 10”. The Rams would also claim the top spot in the women’s high jump, as sophomore Leia Ruvo’s mark of 5’ 5” was more than enough for gold. Finishing just behind her in the event was not only fellow sophomore Zoe Arakelian, whose mark of 5’ 1 ¾” was good enough for bronze, but also junior Anya Alfonsetti Terry, with her fourth-place worthy mark of 4’ 11 ¾”. Finally, also of note for Fordham was the team’s performance in the women’s 1500-meter run, as the Rams accounted for a whopping 50 percent of the event’s top-six: McGroary won the event, sophomore Alexis Smith ran herself into fourth place with a strong time of 5:02.81 and freshman Grace Kenny propelled herself into sixth on the back of her mark of 5:04.04.
Finally, last but not least for Fordham Track and Field in this gauntlet run of theirs was one of their most highly anticipated meets of the year: the Metropolitan Championships. There, both the men’s and women’s teams again absolutely showed out for Fordham, the Rams effectively claiming the Big Apple as their own.
First, on the men’s side of things, the Rams would finish second out of 14 eligible teams behind an impressive team score of 134.5 points — a large portion of this total coming from the Rams’ astounding six event wins on the day: Boerger’s victory in the 3000-meter steeplechase, Flood’s win in the 1500-meter run (an event where the Rams would almost sweep the podium), Simhony’s victory in the 800-meter run (an event where Fordham would successfully sweep the entirety of the field’s top-five), Strain’s win in the 200-meter dash, freshman Tadael Mihret’s victory in the 5000-meter run and the team of Strain, Galante, Nurse and sophomore Liam Volz’s victory in the 4×100 relay.
However, impressive as this performance was from the men, the women once again were the more dominant team, winning the whole meet with an astounding total team score of 173 points. Like the men, they too would win a slew of events with Michaela Gier’s record-breaking victory in pole vault (she registered a new school-best mark of 11’ 3 ¾”), Leia Ruvo’s win in the long jump and the team’s two relay victories in the 4×100 relay and 4×400 relay. Aside from these victories, the women would also lay claim to a plethora of silver and bronze medals, the Rams coming in second in eight separate events and third in three separate events.
Yet, after all this, the Rams are not done with their travels, with the team’s schedule in the immediate future anything but relaxing. Thus, Fordham Track and Field will just have to take things day-by-day and meet-by-meet, especially with their next meet being the highly competitive Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton University this coming weekend.
