By Emmanuel Berbari

Fordham Track and Field needed a tremendous performance to follow-up its Metropolitan Championship display at the Wolfie Invitational this past Saturday on Long Island.

While the teams did not send all of their top competitors, both groups posted respectable performances, as the men and women both finished in fourth place at Stony Brook University’s complex.

“For such a small meet, the competition was fierce,” said freshman Will Whelan. “We put up a great fight. We also had some terrific performances from the women too.”

Individually, three Rams won events at Stony Brook, including junior Mary Kate Kenny’s quick 100-meter dash finish (12.19 seconds), senior Merissa Wright’s stellar showing in the 400 meter dash (57.66 seconds) and freshman Christopher Strzelinski’s 800 meter run victory (1:53.71).

The high-end performances did not stop there, as the women’s squad received major contributions from multiple areas. Freshman Kathryn Kelly placed third in the 100 meter dash (12.46 seconds). Junior Aidan Moroz was close behind Wright in the 400 meter dash (58.03 seconds). In the 800 meter run, senior Brynna Harum (4th in 2:17.32) and freshman Dana Beggins (8th in 2:20.56) were among the top finishers. Sophomore Katarzyna Krzyzanowski (6th in 10:06.79) and freshman Germaine Harbaugh (9th in 10:33.49) starred in the 3,000 meter run. Senior Jennifer Boerke (3rd in 1:03.96) and sophomore Gabrielle Schreib (6th in 1:08.00) excelled in the 400 meter hurdles.

Out on the field, junior Adrianna Batista threw a 37.38m toss to finish fifth in the hammer and freshman Maeve O’Connor registered 21.90m to place sixth in the javelin.

As a team, the women’s 4×100 relay group was the runner-up in 48.33 seconds, while the 4×400 relays brought along second and ninth-place results in 3:52.09 and 4:11.35, respectively.

The men’s team tacked on more elite individual performances, including Strzelinski’s third-place mark (3:58.74) and junior Patrick Dineen’s eighth-place cross (4:06.08) in the 1,500 meter. Also impressing were Whelan (3rd in 9:03.94), sophomore Matthew Roma (4th in 9:10.14) and freshman Thomas Fitzpatrick (8th in 9:29.98) in the 3,000 meter run. Freshman Kyle Mack finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles (57.68 seconds) and sophomores Andrew Byrne (6th in 18.05) and Jeremy Milite’s (9th in 20.62) did well in the 110 meter hurdles.

“I was scared yet excited to run in an event so new to me,” said Whelan. “The coaches gave me a quick plan before the race and it obviously worked.”
Freshman Nikolas Reardon set the pace for the Rams in the field events, finishing second in the high jump (1.95m) and long jump (6.50m). Senior Ryan Riviere also recorded a second-place finish in the javelin throw (47.26m), while Byrne (35.70m) and Milite (30.83m) placed fifth and sixth, respectively.

The men had their own success in the relays, finishing sixth in the 4×100 (44.46 seconds), and third (3:25.15) and sixth (3:31.53) in the 4×400.
Fordham travels to Philadelphia this weekend to compete at the Penn Relays, which will span Thursday to Saturday.

“With A-10s less than two weeks away, it is time to time to tone down the workouts for quality instead of quantity,” said Whelan. “Fortunately for us, the cold weather is slowing going away, meaning no more indoor track workouts.”

As of late, indoor or out, no obstacle has been able to derail the positive progression of these Rams.