BOSTON, Mass. - Picking up where they left off yesterday, both of the Monmouth University track & field teams finished with medalist wins, MU top-five all-time finishes, and personal records en route to a solid team showing at the Boston hosted Terrier Invitational event on Saturday. With most of the women's team competing yesterday, the majority of the men's team competed this afternoon along with the women's distance medley and 4x400 meter relay. Nine members of the men's and women's teams qualified for the prestigious IC4A/ECACs while competing against some of the New England area's top schools.
The women's distance medley team, following the lead of the men's team that qualified for the IC4A's Friday afternoon, posted their own ECAC qualifying time (12:04.52) on their way to a third place finish. The performance from Laura Embrey (West Long Branch, N.J./Shore Regional), Michelle Losey (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway), Emily MacEwen (South Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury), Cailin Lynam (Sparta, N.J./Sparta) was also good enough for second all-time on the MU annuals.
Sophomore Geoff Navarro (Mays Landing, N.J./Absegami) produced a trio of impressive finishes at the event starting with his medalist win in the 55 meter sprint (6.47). The lightning fast sprinter then tied the MU all-time record in the 200 meter sprint with a finish of 21.79, giving him a fourth place finish and qualifying him for the IC4A's. Teammate Chris Taiwo (Budd Lake, N.J./Mt. Olive) crossed the tape in 22.04 to finish 20th overall in the 200. Navarro then ended his weekend as the lead leg on the 4x400 meter relay team that finished seventh overall (3:18.80). Teammates Chris Rutherford (Toms River, N.J./East Toms River), Kevin Merrigan (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee), and Jason Kelsey (Ramsey, N.J./Don Bosco Prep) rounded out the squad that earned a trip to the IC4A's for their efforts.
Rutherford put together two more solid performances - to go along with his 4x400 meter relay finish - finishing fourth in the 500 meter run and a top-ten finish in the 55 meter hurdles. The sophomore finished the hurdles event with a time of 7.75 while his 1:03.89 time in the 500 - fourth best in school history - also earned him an invite to the IC4A Championships.
Finishing 14th in the 800 meter run, freshman sensation, Ford Palmer (Smithville, N.J./Absegami), crossed the tape in 1:53.98 to punch his ticket to the IC4A's. Kelsey led the Hawks crew in the 400 meter run, finishing just short of the IC4A Championships with a time of 49.50. The junior multi-event athlete also won the long jump with a leap of 22' 7".
In throws, junior Vincent Elardo (Forked River, N.J./Lacey) led the Blue and White in shot put with his throw of 53' 7". In the 5000 meter run, three of the Hawks distance crew finished with top times as Ben Hutterer (Saxonburg, Pa./Knoch) (15:03.45), Billy Dowd (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) (15:27.22) and Evan Mydlowski (Hamilton, N.J./Hamilton East) (15:41.12) competed for Monmouth in the last event of the day.
Results from the Bison Open were not available at press time. MU will return to action on February 5th and 6th for both the Penn State Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup and Bob Giegengack Collegiate Invitational. Action in both events will start at 5:00 p.m.
