This past weekend, the Women’s and Men’s Track & Field teams competed in the Penn Relays on Friday, April 26, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, and, on the following day, the Monarch Open at King’s College in Wilkes Barre, PA. These two meets marked the teams’ last meets before the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Outdoor Championships, and both teams proved to be very successful in each meet.
At the Penn Relays, which is the largest and oldest track meet in the United States, the Ducks found success, even when competing against athletes from other conferences. The women’s team sent four athletes to this meet: first-year Isabella Shanley, sophomore Isabel Vogel, senior Allie Cancianci, and graduate student Laura Mathews. They competed in the Centennial/MAC 4×400-meter relay, finishing in a time of 4:00.96 and placing second. Mathews competed in the 100-meter hurdles, being only one of two non-Division I athletes in the race, and finished in a season-best time of 13.92 seconds, placing sixth in her heat and 17th overall. This placing put her ahead of athletes from Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, South Florida, and Columbia just to name a few, as well as putting her as the top seed in the 100-meter hurdle race in the MAC championship meet.
The men’s team was also very successful at the Penn Relays. Like the women’s team, they sent a team to compete in the 4×4-meter relay, including sophomores Brandon Kiefer, Mick Barbi, Connor Robinson, and graduate student Kajetan Leitner. They finished in a season-best time of 3:29.69, placing fourth.
The Monarch Open similarly brought along record-breaking performances from both teams. First-year Maya Lapinski cleared 1.57 meters in the high jump to set a new season best and also allowed her to finish second. Additionally, she finished second in the long jump after jumping 4.99 meters, an impressive feat, noting that this was her first-ever collegiate attempt in the long jump. On top of Lapinski’s personal record-breaking performances, senior Fionna Feerick ran the 5,000-meter race in a season-best time of 21:47.86, and sophomore Gianna Adamo won the steeplechase in a time of 14:04.8 to set a new personal record. To continue this success, sophomore Alexis Merola won the pole vault after posting a height of 3.25 meters.
On the men’s team, more personal records were shattered. Barbi ran the 400-meter hurdles in 1:00.14, marking a new personal record and placing him in first. First-year Ryan Paradine set a new collegiate best after running the 1500-meter in 4:11.49. Among other top performances were sophomore Caleb Stephen winning the 800-meter in 2:02.54 and first-year Chris Persico winning the pole vault after clearing 3.72 meters.
Both teams will be competing in the MAC Outdoor Championships, to be held in Chester, PA, from May 2 to May 4.
