The winter track season is not particularly long. The Fordham men’s and women’s squads came into this past weekend with just five more meets before the Atlantic 10 Championships kick off on Feb. 29. Right after that comes the ECAC/IC4A Championships and then the NCAA Championships to conclude the winter schedule.

Needless to say, both of the Rams’ teams need to prove themselves, and there is not a real host of time to do so.

On Friday, the women kicked off the Fordham campaign at the John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston University’s Track & Tennis Center in Boston, Massachusetts. They spent most of the day in the spotlight, as all but one event featured a Fordham Ram.

The women also found success on the day, led unsurprisingly, by junior Kathryn Kelly. Kelly had a couple of solid finishes, placing second in the 200-meter dash with her best time of the season at 24.61 seconds, which is good enough to be an ECAC qualifying time. Next up, her time of 7.79 seconds in the 60-meter dash invitational was enough to earn second place.

Also of note was the 4×800 relay team of senior Sydney Snow, sophomore Helen Connolly, sophomore Jilli Jones and freshman Taylor Mascetta. They teamed up to post an ECAC qualifying time of 9:19.83, finishing second on the day behind only the University of Texas.

There were three other events on Friday that showcased the Fordham women. Junior Sarinnagh Budris ran the 500-meter race with a final time of 1:16.93, her best time of the season and good enough for 15th place in the competition. Budris was also joined by her teammates, sophomore runner Dominique Valentine, freshman Mary Kathryn Underwood and freshman Kyla Hill to come in 18th in the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:57.48, also a season-best. There was one more season-best finish for Fordham on the day, and it came from sophomore Jade Dyer-Kennedy in the triple jump, coming in 18th at 36’2”.

Other events for the women on the day included freshman Radha Dooley’s turn at the 60-meter hurdles and high jump, with marks of 10.34 and 5’11”, respectively, and Snow coming in 44th at the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:57.87.

The Friday portion of the Classic also included one event for the Fordham men, as junior Christopher Strzelinski, junior Antony Misko, freshman Erik Brown and sophomore Brandon Hall competed together in the distance medley relay and finished with a IC4A qualifying time of 10:06.00, good enough for fourth place on the day.

The following day, the men took center stage at BU and had themselves an outstanding day. They had only one event win, and it came in the final showing of the day, as sophomore Zalen Nelson, junior Arthur Gooden Jr., Strzelinski and sophomore Jeremiah LaDuca ran 4×800 relay in a time of 7:41.07, a IC4A qualifying time as well.
While that may have been the only first place finish the Fordham men saw on Saturday, they would place qualifying times in six other events.

Three of the four members of the medley-winning squad, Nelson, Gooden and Strzelinski, all had qualifying finishes on their own. Gooden competed in the 500-meter run and came in fourth with a time of 1:03.55. Meanwhile, Nelson and Strzelinski competed alongside each other in running the 1,000-meter event, as Nelson came in seventh at 2:27.36 and Strzelinski finished 13th at 2:28.56.

Racing in the 500 with Gooden was his teammate, junior Antony Misko, who himself finished with a qualifying time of 1:04.04, good for 10th place. LaDuca also competed in the race, but came up short with a time of 1:05.31 in 17th.

There were two more qualifying finishers for the Rams on Saturday, as senior Ryan Kutch and graduate student Nicholas Raefski ran together in the 3,000-meter run. Kutch came in at 8:11.29 to come in 17th while Raefski crossed the finish line at 8:19.62.

Other notable events for the men on the day were freshman Robert LeFevre having a season-best mark in the 200-meter event at 22.62 seconds and junior Nikolas Reardon coming in sixth place in the triple jump with a height of 46’6 1/4”.

To cap off the day, the women competed in one last event as Budris and Jones were alongside sophomore Bridget Alex and the freshman Alexandra Thomas when they competed in the distance medley relay and came in eighth at 12:20.97.

It was a successful trip up to Boston for the Rams, who will face the challenge of the first championship of the season next. They will participate in the Metropolitan Championship at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island on Thursday, Jan. 30 and Friday, Jan. 31.