By Jessica Landman
The men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Southern New Hampshire University to compete in the Penman Relays April 16. The men’s team finished ninth overall with a total of 30 points and the women finished eighth out of 15 with 39 points total.
Senior Kristen Boerke said, “As a whole, the team did awesome. We had different competition this week which is always a great thing because it brings new energies and new personal records in events.”
The first event to compete at the Penman Relays was the men’s long jump. Aidan Masten jumped a total of 6.02 meters landing him in seventh place overall. For the women’s long jump, Katherine Berge took 16th with a distance of 4.13 meters. For the women’s high jump, Kristen Boerke was the only Plattsburgh athlete to clear the starting height, jumping a total height of 1.40 meters putting her in 10th place.
In the discus circle, Spencer Trudo threw 30.82 meters placing him 20th overall, just behind Jorge Cabrera who threw 31.60 meters. Aidan Tous finished 13th overall with a final distance of 33.91 meters. For the women, Biss Rhoads threw 27.57 meters placing her in 14th. Jasmine Piper ended in 12th place with a final distance of 30.02 meters. Journey Myricks threw her way into second place with a final distance of 36.75 meters.
Shot put proved to be just as successful for the women with Myricks placing 5th with a throw of 10.95 meters and Kaitlyn Bjelko finishing with a throw of 11.37 meters landing her in third place. On the men’s side, Tous finished in 12th place with a throw of 11.40 meters. In the hammer throw, Piper ended in 11th with a final distance of 35.24 meters. Bjelko finished just ahead in 10th place with a throw of 36.57 meters. The men finished well with Trudo in 11th with a distance of 32.75 meters. Tous threw 37.95 meters just behind eighth place finisher Cabrera with a throw of 39.25 meters.
The women competed in the javelin throw with Mikayla Osmer finishing in 16th with a throw of 24.21 meters. Piper finished with a throw of 27.89 meters placing her in 12th. Bjelko threw 29.41 meters landing her in 10th place and Rhoads finished in seventh with a distance of 30.94 meters.
On the track, the Cardinals opened their events with the 3,000 meter steeplechase. Logan Van Buren finished in second place with a final time of 10:29.80. Following was Berge in the 100-meter hurdle preliminary race who finished in 11th place with a time of 19.37 seconds.
For the women’s 4×100 meter relay, Morgan Thompson, Deanna Zoch and Hannah Cluck finished with an overall time of 52.67 seconds earning the team second place. Immediately following the relay was Cody Monnat competing in the 400 meter dash. He finished sixth overall with a time of 52.33 seconds.
For the distance team, Justin Kumrow, Micheal Brockway, Noah Bonesteel and Sarah Smith all competed in the 5,000 meter race. Smith finished in fourth with a final time of 20:09.68. Kumrow ended with a time of 17:01.56 placing him 12th overall for the men. Brockway crossed the line at a time of 15:54.99 earning him seventh place. Finally, Bonesteel took fourth place with a time of 15:45.05.
The final event competing on the track was the mens and women’s 4×400 meter relay. Thompson, Cluck and Zoch took fourth place with a commanding time of 4:24.83. For the men, Monnat, Cameron Giuliano, Nicholas Anderson and Van Buren easily took third place with a final time of 3:36.10.
Also competing over the weekend at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton were a few select athletes who previously qualified to compete at the exclusive meet. Brexton Montville ran in the 100 meter dash and finished 29th overall with a time of 11.06 seconds. Aislyn McDonough competed in the 800-meter run. She finished with a time of 2:17.39 earning her 12th place. In the 400-meter hurdles was Janyll Barber who finished 14th overall with a time of 1:03.95. Lastly, competing in the triple jump was Micheala Schaffer. She finished 16th overall with a final distance of 10.72 meters.
“During the second half of the season we will look to ‘sharpen’ our abilities going into championship mode,” jumps and sprint coach Brett Willmottsaid, “ There are particular energy system needs as well as biomechanic refinement to help us become faster and more efficient.”
An award called “builder of the week’’ is awarded to one male and one female athlete on the team based upon effort displayed throughout the week and performance at the meet. The builders of the week for this meet were Tous and Boerke. The men’s and women’s track and field teams will compete again April 23 at Middlebury.
