Last week was what one might consider a successful, and if not that, eventful, weekend of competition for the men and women of Fordham Track & Field. At the Metropolitan Championships on Staten Island, the Rams had multiple wins and impressive finishes across the table of events, and it made it seem as if things were on the up-and-up. It felt as if every week from then on out would be a steady ride to success as the winter season ended.

This week did not provide that same kind of satisfaction.

There was only one event of note, or at all, this week in track: the men sent a squad off on Saturday to the 168th Street Armory in New York City to compete at the second day of the Millrose Games. That quartet of young men competed in the 4×400 event, and out of the seven teams who finished the race, the Rams came in fifth place.

That is not the follow-up that a team would hope to have after last week.

After the Metropolitan Championships, Fordham had left Staten Island — the event was hosted by the University of Manhattan — flying high, as the winter season is nearing its end, and the most important events of the year are on the horizon.

The mentality of the Rams was exactly where you would expect it to be.

“(The) race was just a nice reminder of how fit we are right now, and that there is a lot of room for progression not just from me but for a lot of our distance team,” said distance runner and graduate student Nicholas Raefski. “We have a lot of freshman on who are poised to have big breakthroughs in the near future. And it is a really exciting time to be a Fordham distance runner (or any member of the team). Coach Horowitz has done a great job getting us ready for (the) championship season.”
Ready as they may have been or may be now, it is very difficult to prove yourself as a squad when you only have one event to make a statement. That was the case for the Rams on Saturday.

The Fordham men who competed in the event were junior Antony Misko, junior Kyle Mack, freshman Erik Brown and junior Arthur Gooden Jr. The finishing time of 3:20.56 put them in fifth place out of the seven teams with finishing times (an eighth team, Columbia, competed but was disqualified).

Like any team, the Rams must continue trekking and voyage on.

“We are preparing for the Boston Valentine Invitational at Boston University on the 14th and 15th of February, and then our conference meet at the end of the month,” Raefski said last week. “I’m very excited to see both our women’s team and men’s compete at these next two meets.”

That meet will begin on Friday, Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, at 2 p.m. at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center.