Men’s and women’s track and field sets multiple records
The Saint Joseph’s University track and field teams participated in two meets last weekend – the Fastrack National Invitational on Feb. 10 and the Monmouth Winter Collegiate Invitational on Feb. 11. Both the men’s and women’s squads had successful weekends.
The Fastrack National Invitational in Staten Island, N.Y. was a meet with no team scoring. Still, the men’s team performed very well.
“We had another good weekend,” said Head Coach Mike Glavin. “Lots of people running faster than they ever have.”
Senior Torey Doaty ran a fantastic 400-meter race finishing at a listed 49.03 seconds, but officials later measured his time at 49.038 seconds. As a result, he finished just three one-thousandths of a second behind Fairleigh Dickinson’s Kazeem Otun for first place and qualified for the IC4A’s.
“It had Torey Doaty listed as getting second, but it really should’ve listed him as tied for first,” Glavin said. “He finished with the exact same time as somebody in the other heat, so they went to the computer and went to the thousandths of a second to figure out who won and they’re not supposed to do that. That’s not the way this sport works.
The Hawks had two other men qualify for the IC4A’s in Staten Island as well – sophomore Dylan Eddinger in the 800 meter and senior Jimmy Daniels, who shattered his personal best, in the 3000 meter. Additionally, freshman Josh Clark ran a 4:17 mile, which is the fastest he’s ever run, according to Glavin.
The women’s team had some impressive feats to add to the event. Junior Cassidy Weimer ran a 4:57.60 mile, which was the first sub-five minute mile of her career, according to Head Coach Melody O’Reilly, and good enough to qualify for the ECAC’s.
Freshman Emily Bracken also performed well in the mile finishing with a time of 5:02.50. O’Reilly said that had it not been for a bad first lap, Bracken would’ve also qualified for the ECAC’s.
Fifth-year senior Dannah Hayward ran her career best 400 meter in 57.37 seconds. As a team, the Hawks boasted many impressive finishes.
“Gosh, we had so many good performances,” O’Reilly said.
The Hawks did well at the Monmouth Winter Collegiate Invitational as well and had one more athlete qualify for the IC4A’s. Freshman Trae’ Robinson had a second place finish in the 500 meter with a time of 1:05.92 to qualify. Also freshman Justin Moscoe finished in first place in the 400 meter in 51.48 seconds.
“We had a lot of really good things again going on for the younger guys,” Glavin said. “It just was a good weekend for us.”
Each in a field of six teams, the men’s team finished third and the women’s team finished fourth at Monmouth. Both head coaches were more than pleased with how the weekend went for their respective squads.
“I actually think we had another great weekend,” O’Reilly said. “We continued on with a lot of athletes having personal bests. It was a really nice weekend overall and a really nice way to go into the Atlantic 10 meet.”
Both the men’s and the women’s team will travel to George Mason University to compete in the Atlantic 10 Championships on Feb. 18 and Feb. 19.
“The A-10 has gotten so competitive over the last three or four years, we could get third or we could get seventh,” Glavin said. “I think we’re going to score reasonably well in the 400’s through the 3000’s. I think we’re going to be alright.”
Glavin mentioned that the University of Rhode Island and George Mason are most likely the favorites headed in, but the Hawks have a good shot to compete. O’Reilly, too, had confidence in her squad.
“I think our expectation would be just to look stronger than we did last year,” she said. “We looked pretty strong last year, which was my first year coaching with them. We want to score higher than we did last year and I think we’re really capable of doing that right now.”
