The Plattsburgh State track and field team had a busy last weekend, with contingents competing in two different meets over the weekend before another section of the team competed this past Tuesday.
Friday and Saturday, the Cardinals sent a small group to the Bison Outdoor classic at Bucknell University. Several Plattsburgh runners had much success in the Division I level tournament, much to head coach Nicholas Jones’ delight.
“It was pretty good,” Jones said. “Those performances were definitely the season’s best, and a step in the right direction.”
Among the performances was a familiar face from this season. Senior Stephanie Boucher broke PSUC’s 800-meter record with her 2:12.99 time, while also qualifying for ECACs and securing the 11th-fastest time in Division III this spring as of the writing of this article. Also at Bucknell, seniors Kyle Jones and Ethan Vinson had ECAC qualifying times in the 400-meter and 800-meter events respectively, and senior Lauren Perschetz had an ECAC qualifying time in the 3000-meter steeple chase.
Perschetz was proud of her team’s group performance at such a competitive meet.
“It was definitely a more competitive meet than I’ve been to in a while,” Perschetz said. “We had a good showing being a Div. III school, it was fun to see us performing well in the mix with Div. I and Div. II schools.”
The other meet of the weekend was the RPI Upstate classic. Both the men and women saw success, with the women finishing 4th out of 10 teams, and the men finishing 3rd out of 11 teams.
The men saw first place finishes in several events along with some other strong times.
Sophomore Brian Fabian took first place in the 400-meter while also finishing fourth in the 200-meter, and
senior Zach Grandy took first in the 400-meter hurdles while sophomore Luke Roderka took fourth in 110-meter hurdles. Sophomore John Weed picked up second place in the 3000-meter with junior Stephen Schnalzer coming after him in fourth place.
Their coach was quite pleased with their performances.
“The weather wasn’t amazing. It was pretty windy,” Jones said. “They did well in those conditions, so I’m happy with that.”
On the women’s side, some standout performances came out as well.
Junior Courtney Wilson led the way, taking first place in both the long and triple jump, qualifying for the ECACs in both events. She also came just short of qualifying in javelin, missing the mark by only four inches.
“Courtney definitely had a great weekend,” Jones said. “It was probably her best meet in the time she’s been here, it was great.
The Cards got some help from some freshmen as well, with Elisabeth Plympton, Taylor Canet and Lauren Chin all getting in on the action.
Plympton took fourth in the 200-meter, coming just short of ECAC qualification, while qualifying for ECACs in the 100-meter. Canet and Chin took third and fourth, respectively, in the 400-meter hurdles.
Chin said she and the team certainly enjoyed the weekend.
“It was a pretty good feeling around the team,” Chin said. “I was having a really good time because it was really nice out. Plus, I was really happy to finally get into that event (400-meter hurdles).”
Finally, on Tuesday, PSUC sent five athletes to the Catamount Invitational in Burlington, Vermont.
On the men’s side, senior Steve Bussey competed in the hammer throw and discus, while freshman Anthony Ciccarelli competed in the javelin throw, pole vault and high jump.
On the women’s side, Plympton took home first in the 100 and 200-meter events, while junior Heather Chapman and sophomore Liz Berry took home third and fifth, respectively, in the discus.
The Cards now head into their homestretch with only two more meets before SUNYACs. Next up is the SUNY Cortland Classic this Saturday and Sunday.
For Perschetz, as the team heads into the more important races, it’s all about staying focused.
“We’ll be doing a lot of the same things,” Perschetz said. “We’ll be cutting down a bit on mileage in practice, but a lot of it is just getting mentally prepared. We’ve been running all year, but you have to be mentally ready for the bigger races.”
Email Ben Watson at sports@cardinalpointsonline.com
