The men’s and women’s track and field teams returned from their weekend-long trip to Geneva, Ohio with a justifiably proud sense of accomplishment for their performances this past Saturday.
The teams competed in the SPIRE Midwest Open track meet, a meet comprised of teams from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, junior colleges and club programs.
Five individuals from the men’s team met the qualifying NYS Championships mark. Freshman Jon Macoskay ran a 50.8 in the 400. Seniors Greg Hartnett and James Myers qualified with respective times of 1:58.09 and 1:58.13 in the 800 meter run. In the field events, junior Jon Richardson and senior Pat Single shined for UR. Richardson cleared 1.8 meters in the high jump and Single hit 12.68 meters in the shot-put.
UR performed remarkably in the mid-to-long distance events, with Yellowjackets qualifying for the ECAC in three events. Accomplishing the feat were seniors Nick Chisolm in the 400 (50.16) and Andrew Fleisher in the 800 (1:56.10) and sophomore Yuji Wakimoto in the mile (4:20.00). The 4×400 relay also qualified for ECACs.
The standout performance came from senior Adam Pacheck for his ECAC time in the 5,000 meter run (15:04), a time that ranks in the top 20 in Division III.
On the women’s side, six Yellowjackets returned to Rochester with qualifying performances to the NYS Championship meet. Four of those performances came in the field events. The other two, by freshmen Yvette Igbokwe and Allison Patrick, met the mark in running events.
Senior Kaily Abbot hit 2.9 meters in the pole vault and both senior Carina Luck and sophomore Amanda Connell submitted impressive results in the triple jump, going 10.48 meters and 9.92 meters, respectively.
Junior Ashanna Lynch qualified in two events: the shot put and weight throw.
The lone ECAC qualifier for the women’s team was sophomore Danielle Bessette in the 3,000 meter run with a time of 10:39.46. Almost joining Bessette was Yvette Igbokwe, who missed the ECAC mark by three hundredths of a second.
The ’Jackets hope to build on their momentous performance in the SPIRE Midwest Open when they travel to Clinton, New York this Saturday for the Hamilton College Invitational.
McAndrew is a member of the class of 2015.
