[/caption1-]1Junior Greg Hartnett and the men’s track and field team compiled 69 points to place above five teams at Saturday’s St. Lawrence Invitational, finishing fourth overall.
By Will Penney
A & E Editor
The men’s and women’s track and field team had its first team-scoring meet of the season at the St. Lawrence University Invitational this past weekend. The men placed fourth and the women second, both out of ten teams.
The men in yellow and blue scored 69 points, finishing behind host school St. Lawrence, University of Ottawa and SUNY Brockport. Two men qualified for the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s race, which will be run later this season.
Senior Brian Lang snagged an ECAC spot with a time of 8:48.00 in the 3000-meter run. Junior Jamie Vavra finished fourth (8:56.58) despite having two untied shoes at the sound of the gun. Freshman Adam Pacheck finished fifth (9:02.31) and sophomore Dan Hamilton in sixth (9:07.07).
The other ECAC qualifier was senior A.J. Lee, who finished fifth in the 500-meter run (1:08.06). The men also took first place in the distance medley relay.
The UR women scored 118 points, only to be beaten out by Ottawa. Four women had ECAC qualifying performances — two of which came from senior Yaneve Fonge. Fonge won the 20-lb weight throw with a distance of 15.62 meters, and later took second in the shot put (11.94 meters).
In the 500-meter run, senior Jackie Cinella and junior Claire Crowther qualified for the ECAC meet. Cinella claimed the win (1:21.01), while Crowther crossed the line only a quarter of a second later (1:21.26), finishing second.
Senior Casey Green took second in both the 55-meter dash and the 200-meter run.
In the distance events, junior Hilary Snyder won the 1000-meter run in 3:09.33, shortly followed by sophomore Emily Kleiman in fifth. Zarah Quinn broke free from the lead pack with a quarter mile left to win the mile.
Cinella was pleased with the women’s performances, especially in the wake of the tragedy that hit UR — and the track team in particular — one week ago.
“Following the tough week we had after losing our beloved teammate Jeffrey Bordeaux, Jr., this meet really showed that we could pull together as a team,” Cinella said. “We have supported each other, doing so to the best of our ability in memory of our always positive and hard working Jeffrey.”
Penney is a member of the class of 2012.
