UR dominated the conference at the NYSCTC Indoor Championships last weekend at Ithaca College, breaking several records along the way
The UR women sat comfortably at second place out of 12 teams with 67.5 points, where host Ithaca helds first place with 73 points. The Yellowjackets have set five new school records and have taken four of the top 20 spots in the NCAA.
Senior sprinter Yvette Igbokwe stole three records this weekend. She ran the 60-meter dash at 7.81 seconds, which placed her at nineteenth overall in Division III, and ran a 200-meter dash at 26.05 seconds in the preliminary heats. Additionally, Igbokwe assisted in the 4×200-meter relay—along with junior Brittany Schutrum and seniors Emily VanDenburgh and Cameron Edwards—which qualified for the ECAC Champion meet next week. Although Igbokwe performed at her best, she is unsure of her fate during the upcoming event. “I don’t know how I will perform next week,” she said. “I hope that I will run well, but all I can do is go run as fast as I can.”
Others made their mark at this weekend’s event, with many UR athletes managing to make qualifiers for the ECAC championships.
VanDenburgh claimed that the members have many “strengths, both individually and altogether.” VanDenburgh depicted the vigor and the overall “competitiveness when going up against the other strong teams in the conference.”
Edwards broke her own record in the 60-meter hurdles, along with VanDenburgh, displaying great ferocity by recording 18’3” in the long jump, smashing Renee Schmitt’s distance of 18’1.25” in 1984, a 32-year-old school record.
Edwards, along with senior Catherine Knox, freshman Alice Freese and junior Samantha Kitchen, finished at 12:09:59 for the medley relay and made qualifiers with ease. Additionally, freshman Kylee Bartlett placed second in the pentathlon scoring 3,245 points. UR’s other event champions were junior Audrey McCarthy and senior Anya Joynt who both earned ECAC qualifying times for the 5000-meter run.
Samantha Kitchen along with her teammates believe that the coming events will be about “running personal bests” in order to have many national qualifiers.
Along with the women, the UR Men’s Track and Field had a sensational performance, impressively keeping hold of its second straight NYSCTC Indoor Track and Field title. The Yellowjackets finished at 139 points, defeating host Ithaca by additional nine points on. Junior Brant Crouse described the team’s overall performance as “amazing” and emphasized how the athletes “went out onto the track and worked as a team.”
Senior Patrick Rice performed his personal best at the heptathlon, scoring 4,980 points. In addition to Rice’s win, UR posted four other commendable victories.
Crouse set records in the 1000- and 5000-meter runs. Three qualifying spots were given to senior Mintesinot Kassu, junior Christopher Cook, and sophomore Nate Conroy.
In the 800-meter, sophomore Cory Peruffo, junior Wilfred Wallis, and freshman Christopher Dalke earned ECAC qualifying spots and are set to claim national qualifiers. Along with that, both Peruffo and Dalke, accompanied by freshman Andrew Gutierrez and senior Jeremy Hassett, earned first place in the 4×800 relay.
“Our strengths are definitely our coaching,” Cook said.“They worked hard and made sure we were doing the right things, and really pulled us together this weekend. We should perform very well this weekend. It’s a big meet, and we historically do well at those. It should be exciting.”
