Fordham Track and Field showed up to play at the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton, N.J. Unfortunately, so did the rain, as the two-day meet was cut short due to rain and poor conditions.

Friday went by without interruption as the Rams competed in five events. Action began with the women’s long jump, seeing graduate student Kathryn Kelly take fourth place and junior Skylar Harris posting a 10th-place finish. In the 1,500-meter run, graduate student Helen Connolly led the Ram effort with an 11th-place finish while senior Mary Kathryn Underwood and junior Marin Bogulski also posted top-20 finishes. Closing out women’s events for the day with the unseeded 5,000-meter, sophomore Caroline McDonagh came in ninth and senior Nathania Tan placed in the top 20.
The men’s side only competed in the 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter on Friday. Senior Colin Flood led the Rams in the event, finishing 31st, narrowly ahead of sophomore Nathan Bezuneh in 32nd and freshman Ben Borchers in 38th. Junior Steven Zucca ended the first day on a high note, placing 10th in the unseeded 5,000-meter.

The Rams were able to compete in seven events on Saturday before weather interfered. The women’s field events saw three top-10 finishes. Freshman Leia Ruvo finished sixth in the high jump while fellow freshman Alexandra Manetovic had herself a day, taking sixth in the triple jump and ninth in the high jump.

The 4×100 relays saw top-10 finishes from both men’s and women’s. The unit of sophomores Kenneth Maxwell and Jonah Coleman and freshmen Liam Volz and Christopher Weddington posted a time of 43.02 seconds, good for seventh, while Kelly, Harris and freshmen Nicole Lytle and Dilyn Green were ninth in the women’s event with a time of 47.71. Lytle also took part in the 100-meter hurdles preliminaries, coming in 14th.

The final event before play was postponed was the 1,500-meter run. As fate would have it, this would be the high point of the entire invitational thanks to strong performances from seniors Alexandra Thomas and Taylor Mascetta. Posting season bests, Thomas’s 4:45.53 and Mascetta’s 4:45.89 earned the duo second- and third-place finishes in the women’s event. Freshman Darren Croke led the men’s side in the 1,500, finishing 14th while freshman Yariv Simhony squeezed in a top-20 finish.

The rain refused to relent, forcing a cancellation after a lengthy delay, but the Rams were fortunately able to end things on a high note. They’ll return to N.J. on April 21-22 as they hope for continued success and some better weather at the Rutger Relays.