The Plattsburgh track and field team continued its strong indoor season with another great performance, this time at Boston University during the Valentine Invitational.
The meet saw the men grab four ECAC qualifications, while there were two on the women’s side.
Coach Nick Jones was pleased with his team’s overall performance in Boston.
“I’m very happy we went out to that meet,” Jones said. “We had a lot of really good performances, so it was well worth the trip.”
On the women’s side, senior veterans Stephanie Boucher and Lauren Perschetz picked up two ECAC qualifying times for the Cardinals. Perschetz got her qualifier with a 18:00.43 time on a banked track (which converts to 18:08.75 on a flat track) to get 40th overall. Boucher broke a PSUC program record in the 800 meters to get a 17th overall finish out of 143 runners with a converted time of 2:13.57, which was .2 seconds better than the programs previous record.
Boucher herself has been quite happy with her own performance, but also looks at her senior season as an opportunity to be an example for the younger runners.
“For a lot of the older people on the team, we’re just trying to work hard and show focus,” Boucher said. “Running is mostly mental, so it’s good to maintain a positive attitude and spread that to the rest of the team.”
Boucher was also part of the four-woman group that ran the 4×400 meters that just missed beating their season-best time, along with freshman Taylor Canet, junior Ashlee Estes, and freshman Casey Keane.
On top of all of this, Boucher was also named the SUNYAC Women’s Indoor Track and Field Runner of the Week, and the ECAC Corvias Women’s Division III North Track Athlete of the Week.
Jones was also satisfied with the veteran leadership he’s getting out of his team.
“It’s good to show the underclassmen that if they put in the work, they’ll get the results,” Jones said.
Junior Lindsey Davenport also had a commendable weekend. She only barely missed the ECAC qualifier for the 800 meters with her 2:23.37 converted time, just .27 seconds too high.
On the men’s side, the Cards picked up four ECAC qualifying marks, with some veterans leading the way too.
Senior Ethan Vinson got his ECAC qualifying time in the 800 meters with a 39th overall finish out of 204 runners, while senior Kyle Jones earned his with a 42nd overall finish in the 400 meters. The standout of the weekend for the men, however, was sophomore Brian Fabian.
ECAC qualifying time of his own in the 400 meters. Fabian also teamed up with Jones, Vinson, and junior Sobaan Ayub as part of the men’s 4×400 relay that finished 23rd overall with a ECAC qualifying time of its own.
Fabian was quite content with his performance as a whole saying that he took around a full two seconds off of his previous 400 meter time.
Senior Eric Denny continued his own strong season as well, getting 24th in the high jump and 28th in the long jump to lead PSUC in field events.
Now, the Cards have one more meet to gear up before SUNYACs. Both Boucher and Fabian were of the same mind when it came to how the team was approaching this weekend’s meet in Utica.
“We’re just trying to run fast and get some people some qualifying marks for ECAC and SUNYACs,” Fabian said.
“We just need to continue to work,” Boucher said. “This meet isn’t going to be a huge one but we still want to go and run hard, while hopefully staying healthy for SUNYACs.”
Their coach had a similar forward-thinking outlook.
“We’re trying to keep people healthy, while getting some work in,” Jones said “We’re looking for quality, and hopefully we’ll be ready to go (for SUNYACs).”
PSUC’s next meet will be the Pioneer Invitational in Utica, Saturday.
Email Ben Watson at sports@cardinalpointsonline.com
