KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Two school records fell and several athletes qualified for the ECAC/IC4A Championships this weekend as the Monmouth University men's and women's track and field teams competed at three different meets. The Hawks split in a trio of different directions as a number of student-athletes represented MU at the Tennessee Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., Rider Invitational in Lawrenceville, N.J. and the Bucknell hosted Bison Outdoor Classic in Lewisburg, Pa.
"We made good progress this weekend in every event area," said Head Coach Joe Compagni. "We need to keep getting better every week."
Men's discus opened up events on Friday afternoon at the Tennessee Sea Ray Relays with senior Shawn Sabo (Oakland, N.J./Indian Hills) earning a fifth place finish for the Blue and White (158' 2"). Opening up field events for the women with high jump, freshman Alison Day (West Chester, Pa./Bayard Rustin) cleared the 5' 3" standard to finish fourth overall. Then later on in the day, senior Brittany Gibbs (Matawan, N.J./Old Bridge) showed her firepower in her signature event, triple jump, as she finished fifth overall with a leap of 39' 5.25" to break the MU school record that she already previously held.
Amongst fierce Midwest competitors, junior Vincent Elardo (Forked River, N.J./Lacey) posted a season-high toss of 57' 7" to finish fifth overall in shot put. Elardo then followed up on Saturday morning with a ninth place finish (187' 6") in the hammer throw while teammate Larry Lundy (Friendville, Pa./Montrose Area) took 10th place with a toss of 181' 8". Posting top finishes for both the men's and women's teams in the 800 were freshmen Emily MacEwen (South Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) and Ford Palmer (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East). MacEwen was the medalist winner in the unseeded 800 meter women's event (2:17.93) while Palmer finished fourth overall in the men's unseeded run in 1:54.03.
Both sophomore Chris Rutherford (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) and graduate Terrell Gissendanner (Rochester, N.Y./Edison Tech)qualified for the IC4A championships in the men's 110 meter high hurdles with Rutherford posting a time of 14.65 and Gissendanner finishing a hundredth of a second behind his teammate in 14.66. Also punching his ticket into the IC4A's was senior Chris Taiwo (Budd Lake, N.J./Mt. Olive) who finished the 200 in 24th place overall in 21.75.
Gissendanner then made his debut in long jump, nearly qualifying for the IC4A's with his sixth place finishing leap of 22' 7.25". Fresh off of her heptathlon performance on Wednesday and Thursday, junior Mary Wilks (Bridgeton, N.J./Bridgeton) finished the women's javelin with a toss of 136' 1" to end the event fourth overall. Reigning NEC Men's Field Athlete of the Week Marion Easley (Somerville, N.J./Somerville) finished eighth overall in men's javelin (202' 2") while teammate Vincent DuVernois (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) finished 10th with a mark of 196' 7".
The women's 4x800 team of senior Aracelis Lantigua (Elizabeth, N.J./Elizabeth), MacEwen, freshman Amanda Eller (Delmont, N.J./Millville) and freshman Danielle Toritto (Smithtown, N.Y./Smithtown East) finished the event fifth overall improving on their season best time by over four seconds (9:21.61).
Leading the Hawks at the Bison Outdoor Classic was junior Ben Hutterer (Saxonburg, Pa./Knoch) whose 10,000 meter finish of 30:42.15 not only qualified him for the IC4A's, but also broke the school record as well. Sophomore Esteem Winder (Philadelphia, Pa./Carver) posted top-ten finishes in both the 100 and 200 meter runs. Both 4x800 meter relay men's and women's teams also finished in the top-ten overall.
Senior Victor Rizzotto (Manahawkin, N.J./Southern Regional) led the Hawks contingent at the Rider Invitational with his IC4A qualifying throw of 192' 10" in javelin, earning himself the medalist win.
Also at Rider, men's pole vault monopolized the top-four spots with sophomores Peter Matano (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills) and Jason Timmons (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) taking first and second clearing the 14' 5.5" and 13' 11.75" heights. Senior Samantha Hegmann (Mineola, N.Y./Mineola) finished fourth overall in women's hammer throw (153' 10"),freshman Jake Bartlett (Middletown, N.J./CBA) finished second in men's jump (6' .75"), freshman Shane Carle (Jackson, N.J./Jackson Memorial) took home the medalist win in shot up (48' 11") and fourth in discus (135' 11") and sophomore Jessica Toritto (Smithtown, N.Y./Smithtown) finished second overall in women's discus (123').
Other notable finishes at the Broncs' meet include freshman Josh Mann (Warwick, N.J./Warwick Valley) winning men's triple jump (46' 11.5"), freshman Anne Moccia (Wood-Ridge, N.J./Wood-Ridge) taking second in javelin (132' 4"), sophomore Michael Bertocchi (Morris Plains, N.J./Parsippany Hills) finishing fourth in the 1500 meter run (4:17.65) and freshman Jesse Cohen (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) finished second in the 800 meter run (2:00.40)
Bucknell had more than 50 schools to Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium for the Bison Outdoor Classic.. Included on the list of those who competed at the Bison Outdoor Classic event were host Bucknell, Lehigh, Colgate, Duquesne, Pittsburgh, Cornell, Binghamton and Buffalo, among others.
The Hawks will return to the track this weekend, April 16-17, for two separate meets. The Hawks will travel to the Princeton hosted Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton, N.J. and also see action at the Lehigh hosted - Saturday only - Greyhound Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa. The Greyhound Invite is scheduled for a 10:00 a.m. start while start time for the Larry Ellis Invite is TBA.
