The UR track and field teams sent athletes to the Marc Denault Memorial Invitational at Cornell University on Saturday and to the New York State Championship pentathlon meet on Sunday.
At the Denault invite the last meet before States the women’s team showed their anticipation of States via solid performances.
Junior Sarah Gollub finished seventh in the 1-mile run with a time of 5:29.23, and Snyder came in ninth in the 1000-meter run with a time of 3:09.06.
Freshman Latoya Dunbar placed 10th in the 60-meter dash, finishing with a time of 8.19.
Both the women’s 4-by-400 and 4-by-800 teams placed second overall.
The 4-by-400 team of junior Shanthi Chodagari, sophomore Jacqueline Cinella, freshman Nikita Bourque and freshman Sarah Hutchinson ran in a time of 4:05.29.
The 4-by-800 team of senior Lauren Jewett, junior Heather Graham, Snyder and Gollub crossed the finish line at 10:16.97.
In the pentathlon part of the NYS championships that end next weekend at Rochester Institute of Technology the women had three finishes in the top eight.
Senior Jamie Landry, junior Melissa Skevington and junior Marissa Eccleston all placed in the top eight they combined to give the Yellowjackets 12 points going into this weekend’s state championships.
‘The three of us really came together and got each other through all five events,” Landry said. ‘We proved that we are strong both individually and as a team.”
Landry placed second overall with a combined total of 3,024 points. Skevington was sixth with 2,530 points, and Eccleston was eighth with 2,460 points.
Landry provisionally qualified for NCAA with her high point total.
This is the first year that the pentathlon will be included in NCAAs, so a standard point level was set as a provisional marker, and the finalists will be chosen from that bracket.
Because the pentathlon is in its first year, there is no official automatic standard.
With strong performances, th women are eager to race this coming weekend.
‘The whole team is really excited for States,” freshman Hilary Snyder said. ‘We have worked hard for this all year.”
On the men’s side, at the Denault Invititational, freshman David Cobb finished 12th in the 400 with a time of 51.87 and ninth in the long jump with a jump of 6.62 meters.
Freshman Brian Thomson earned 10th in the 1-mile run, crossing the finish line at 4:34.21.
The 4-by-400 team finished ninth and the 4-by-800 team won the relay.
At the pentathlon, the men had two top 12 finishers.
Senior Travis Buttaccio finished seventh with 2,979 points, earning two team points for UR to start with next weekend.
Sophomore Daniel Abud was 11th overall in the pentathlon with 2,597 points.
Both the men’s and women’s teams have been working hard all year in preparation for this weekend’s NYS Championships at RIT.
Going into the Championships, the women will begin with 12 points, and the men will start with two.
Both the teams will then compete at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship meet, which is held at Tufts University this year.
The Yellowjackets’ indoor season will conclude at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where they will run in the NCAA Championship meet.
Rogers is a member of the class of 2012.
