On Saturday, Geneseo's indoor track and field squads traveled to RIT for a 15 team, non-scoring invitational meet. The Knights used this meet to reach many of the standards that they need for competition in SUNYAC or ECAC meets later in the year.
The women's team was led by their three winners. Junior Meghan Nolan won the 800 meter in 2:18.87, sophomore Laura Iafrati won the 3000 meter with a time of 10:28:80, and junior Diana Snyder captured the first spot in the 500 meter race with a time of 1:20:20.
Junior Karen Merrill finished in second place in the 3000 meter with a time of 10:32:40. The women's squad then proceeded to capture the fifth through eighth spots in the race.
The men's squad had similar success with three first place finishes and an additional three second place finishes. Seniors Jim Tillapaugh and Ross Hunkovic were first and second in the 800 meter in 1:56.81 and 1:56.93, respectively, the former being a personal best for Tillapaugh.
Senior jumper Joe Goodspeed took first place in the high jump with a distance of 1.98 meters and second in the long jump with a distance of 6.75 meters. Freshman Lee Gabler took second place in the 1000 meter race with a time of 2:34:26. Junior Wes Hamilton, in only his second competitive meet, won the triple jump with a distance of 13.42 meters.
Both the men's and women's squads won the 4x400 meter race with times of 3:30:76 and 4:09:03 respectively. Coach Dave Prevosti commented on this singular race, saying that given Geneseo's reputation as having limited success outside distance races this showed a significant improvement in the program and that the other areas of the team were catching up to the level of the distance program. "We're feeling really good about where we are right now so far this season, we're right where we want to be," said Prevosti.
The next competition for the Knights is the Brown and Orange Invitational on Feb. 2 at RIT.