This past weekend, Fordham Track & Field traveled to Randall’s Island for the Manhattan Invitational. It was a historic weekend for the women’s team as they won the invitational for the first time ever, while the men’s team finished sixth. 

For the Fordham women, day one saw several impressive individual performances from the Rams that catapulted them into first place. In the 3,000m steeplechase, sophomore Maddy Kopec took first place with a time of 11:52.90, followed by fellow sophomore Clodagh McGroary behind her in second place at 12:03.94. 

The Rams also took home three of the top four spots in the 10,000m run. Freshman Caroline McDonagh won the race at 38:12.81, while juniors Alexandra Thomas and Nathania Tan finished in third and fourth place, respectively.

In the field, Fordham also received point-scoring performances from graduate student Tiffany Hanna and senior Casey Metzler in the hammer throw. Hanna placed second with a school-record distance of 47.09m, while Metzler finished fourth at 46.08m.  

In the 15 team invitational, the Ram women built up an 18-point lead after the conclusion of day one. With 52 points in first place, Fordham was comfortably ahead of Manhattan College (34 points) in second, St. John’s University (27.5 points) in third and Rutgers University (18 points) in fourth.

Day two saw more of the same for the Rams, this time in the relay events. The 4x800m relay team of sophomore Marin Bogulski, senior Jilli Jones, junior Taylor Mascetta and senior Bridget Alex finished first with a time of 9:28.86. Fordham also won the 4x100m relay, with freshman Sarah Galvin, graduate student Kathryn Kelly, senior Dominique Valentine and junior Kyla Hill coming in at 47.67. 

Individual scorers on day two included Kelly, who won the long jump event with a distance of 5.76m and placed third in the 200m dash. Hanna experienced more success in the field on day two, finishing second in the discus throw with another school record distance of 45.09m.

These additional scoring tallies gave the Rams a total of 152 points, 36 points ahead of Columbia University in second place. The victory also meant that the Fordham women completed the Metropolitan Championship trifecta, as the team won the indoor championship and the cross country championship earlier this year.

The men’s teams experienced less success, although they still had a positive showing at the championship by finishing sixth out of 15 teams.

Notable finishes for the Rams came in the 10,000m, where junior Ryan Fahey placed second at 33:40.40 and the 1500m run, with junior Colin Flood coming in third with a season-best time of 3:58.62. Additionally, redshirt senior Christopher Strzelinski earned a second-place finish in the 800m at 1:55.75.

Fordham took home a first-place finish in 4×800 relay, with the combination of sophomore Daniel Asher, junior Erik Brown, Strzelinski and junior Eric Jacobson coming in at 7:50.52.

The final tally for the Fordham men was 54 points, well behind Manhattan in first place but ahead of schools like Marist College, Iona College and Rutgers.

The Rams are back in action this weekend at the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton, New Jersey.