The Plattsburgh State track and field broke the ice on its outdoor season with a weekend of two second-place finishes.
“We used it as training and got some good experience in,” head coach Nicholas Jones said. “All around, it was a pretty good showing considering the weather we had and how early it was.”
The women finished second out of four teams at the Saints Ice Breaker meet while the men finished second out of five.
On the women’s side of things, the Cardinals came out dominant in several events.
Sophomore Elisabeth Plympton built on her nationals appearance in the indoor season with first-place finishes in the 100 and 200-meter dashes to account for 20 of PSUC’s 220 points.
In the five-kilometer race, sophomore Kristina Watrobski, senior Lindsey Davenport, junior Hannah Despres and sophomore Annie Campbell picked up 28 of the Cards’ points as the only competitors in the event.
Freshman Janyll Barber won the 400-meter hurdles, high jump and triple jump to collect 30 points of her own.
“It was the first meet, so it was an ice breaker,” Barber said. “I think I can improve from here, but I think I overall did a decent job.”
Sophomore Taylor Canet took second in the 400-meter hurdles for eight points.
The women’s 4×400 relay team of Canet, senior Stephanie Boucher, sophomore Marissa Jones and senior Ashlee Estes won the event with a 4:17.27 time to earn PSUC 10 points.
“We did exactly what we expected to do, and I think we can go even faster,” Marissa Jones said.
Marissa Jones also took first in the 800-meter to grab 10 more points for the Cards.
In the throwing events, sophomores Brianna Coon and Hannah Cunningham had strong showings.
Coon earned 26 points while winning the shot put and taking second in the javelin and hammer throw.
Cunningham took fifth in the shot put and sixth in the hammer throw for three points.
Freshman Desirae Blair won the javelin to earn 10 points of her own.
The men took second place out of five teams with 128 points.
PSUC received strong times from several runners in the five-kilometer race, with juniors John Weed, Matt Jenkins and William Lindau taking second, fourth and sixth place respectively to earn the Cards 15 points.
“It was tough because of the amount of laps and the temperature at that point in time, so they did a good job,” Nicholas Jones said.
Junior Brian Fabian won the 800-meter and was a part of the quartet of runners that won the 4×400-meter on the men’s side.
Fabian was happy with the performance but hopes the team can push further.
“It was our first meet, so it’s something we can build off of and improve after it,” Fabian said.
Seniors Sobaan Ayub and Zach grandy and freshman Michael Warchol joined Fabian in the 4×400 for a 3:34.15 time that snagged the Cards 10 points.
Grandy also won the 400-meter hurdles for 10 points, while Warchol finished second in the 1500-meter for 8 points.
Freshman Jordan Kane won the 110-meter hurdles with an All-Atlantic Regionals qualifying time of 15.41 seconds while earning 10 points.
Freshman Michael Hartlieb III won the discus, finished third in the shot put and fifth in the hammer throw to earn PSUC 18 points en route to earning SUNYAC Track and Field Athlete of the Week honors.
The Cards will return to St. Lawrence University tomorrow for the Saints Ice Broken Open at 10 a.m.
Coach Jones is looking at the upcoming meet to get more experience against a couple more teams before the more consequential part of the season starts.
“We’re hoping that some of the Canadian teams will show up,” Nicholas Jones said. “Hopefully we’ll get some good weather and start getting into some of the more important meets the following weekend.”
EDIT: It was announced Friday morning that the Saints Ice Broken Open would be canceled due to inclement weather.
Email Ben Watson at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
