By Emmanuel Berbari

Fordham Track and Field tuned up for the Atlantic 10 Championship this past weekend at the 2019 David Hemery Valentine Invitational, hosted by the Boston University Track & Tennis Center, adding further ECAC qualification to an already impressive collective resume.

On the men’s side, the Rams boasted ECAC qualification and four season-best efforts on Saturday. Junior Sean Sullivan picked up his second IC4A qualifier of the season, finishing the 800 meter run in a season-best time of 1:53.94 and ranking 46th among competitors.

In the mile, freshman Brandon Hall led the charge at 4:20.40 (135th), sophomore Will Whelan posted 4:22.28 (157th) and sophomore Christopher Strzelinski crossed in 4:22.47 (162nd).

Senior Jared Benn cracked the top 100 in the 200 meter dash, finishing in a season-best 22.39. In the 500 meter, sophomore Kyle Mack turned in one of Fordham’s best showings of the day, placing 21st in 1:05.46.

Meanwhile, freshman Jeremiah LaDuca sped to the tune of 2:30.75, good enough for 34th place in the 1,000 meter. In the 3,000 meter, junior Ryan Kutch showed his dissatisfaction with “good enough,” topping his already IC4A-qualifying time, clocking in at 8:07.91 (15th).

The Rams performed best collectively, with Kyle Mack, Jared Benn, Jack Keegan and Arthur Gooden thriving in the 4×400 relay, they came in 11th in 3:18.72, topping their previous ECAC-qualifying time.

Sophomore Ryan McGraw finished off the day by posting respectable marks in the long jump and triple jump, stacking up 19th at 21’ ¾” and 34th at 41’ 5”, respectively.

The women’s competition on Friday, featured one ECAC qualifier and five season-best performances for the Rams.

The highlight of the day was by senior Aidan Moroz, who placed 33rd in the 1000 meter run in an ECAC-qualifying 2:55.63.

With that said, sophomore Kathryn Kelly stole the show.

In the field events, she recorded 17’ 9 ½” (13th) in the long jump and a season-best 36’ 6 ¾” (18th) in the triple jump.

Kelly did not stop there, taking on part in the 4×400 relay, which also included Moroz and sophomores Sarinnagh Budris and Dana Beggins, helping Fordham to 15th-place and season-best 3:52.88 clip.

When the longer distance competitions came around, two standouts came to play. In the mile run, junior Katarzyna Krzyzanowski placed 61st in 5:01.52, good for 61st overall, the best time by a Ram this season. In the meantime, senior Angelina Grebe impressed in the 3,000 meter to the tune of a season-best 9:57.46 (64th).

Fordham is next in action at the Atlantic 10 Championship, hosted by George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, coming up Feb. 23-24, where they will look to build on a dominant showing at Metros and an encouraging tune-up in Boston.