Looking to set season bests and place more athletes in a position to qualify for nationals, the University of Rochester Men’s and Women’s Track & Field teams traveled to Ithaca College to compete at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships this weekend. En route to these goals, a school record was broken.
On Friday, freshman Hannah Duttweiler set a personal record in the pentathlon, and was able to secure sixth place overall. Continuing this momentum, senior Audrey McCarthy and junior Clara Wolfe finished the 5000-meter run in 18:03.64 and 18:50.00 to place second and eighth overall.
Then, the distance medley relay (DMR) team of graduate student Catherine Knox, seniors Laura Lockard, Samantha Kitchen and Anne Peterson took to the track with goals of posting a national qualifying time. The relay was able to post a school record time of 12:01.12 on way to their fourth place finish. That time ranks the team 17th in the nation.
“The race was really an awesome performance as a team,” Kitchen said. “It may not be enough to get us into nationals, but getting the opportunity to set a school record with my teammates of four years is something special that I think all of us will remember.”
On day one of the men’s side of the meet, the DMR team of sophomores Benjamin Martell and Chris Dalke, freshman Leo Orsini, and senior Eric Franklin were able to post a time of 10:38:77 to secure eighth place.
Day two of the meet for the women saw many scoring performances, three of which came from the 3000-meter run alone. Peterson, senior Audrey McCarthy and sophomore Rachel Bargabos captured third, sixth, and seventh respectively. Peterson and Bargabos set personal bests of 10:07.17 and 10:25.69 in the race.
The women’s highest placing performance came from the 4×800-meter run, where sophomore Alice Freese, freshmen Jordan Hurlbut and Julia Myers and junior Brianna Loughran teamed up to post a time 9:43.44, placing them second. Hurlbut and Myers also scored in the 1000-meter and mile runs earlier in the meet.
For the UR men, senior Brant Crouse captured the 400-meter title in a time of 49.31. Crouse returned to the track two more times—once to finish seventh in the 200-meter, and once to team up with freshman Mark Westman, junior Wesley Clayton, and senior Nathaniel Kuhrt to finish second in the 4×400-meter. Crouse currently sits 18th in all of NCAA DIII in the 400-meter.
Aside from sprinting events, UR had three other scorers, two of which came in the 1000-meter run. Orsini and senior Chris Cook placed fifth and seventh respectively. Also scoring on the distance side, Martell placed fifth in the 3000-meter run in a time of 8:55.53.
“Overall I think there were a lot of strong performances,” Cook said. “With this in mind, more work needs to be done. This meet was a good stepping stone towards our team’s ultimate goals in outdoor track.”
