Fresh off a dominating indoor track season, the Geneseo outdoor track teams opened up their season with a non-scoring meet at Ithaca College, not missing a beat as the men's and women's squads combined for eight first-place finishes.
According to head coach Dave Prevosti, this feat was even more impressive due to the fact that some of the athletes who went to the NCAA meet didn't compete and that the weather was barely above freezing.
"We gave some of those athletes a rest, they'll have a much longer season than the rest of the team," Prevosti said. "It's a great indicator of our depth that we don't run our top athletes and we can still do well."
On the women's side, sophomores Alyssa Smith and Julie Dmochowski led the way, each winning an individual event. Both then teamed up with graduate student Maggie Morris and freshman Cailin Kowalewski to win the 1,600-meter relay in a time of 4 minutes, 14.73 seconds. Prevosti had high praise for Kowalewski. "I thought she had a great race," he said. "She came in second place in the 800 in just her first meet ever with us."
Smith captured the first-place spot in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with an Eastern College Athletic Conference qualifying time of 11:55.57 and Dmochowski won the 800-meter race in 2:24.09 to top off the meet for the Knights.
The men's team earned a first place victory in nearly every event category and added a trio of second place finishers by the meet's end. The men's 1,600-meter relay team came in first place with a time of 3:31.09. That speedy quartet consisted of juniors Jon Brotsch, Niko Brown, John Gammariello and senior Pat Gallagher. Gallagher also placed second in the 200-meter race.
Another high point for the Knights was in the 1,500-meter race as they placed five runners in the top 10 spots. Senior Lee Gabler led the pack with a first place finish as he broke the tape in 1:57.85. Junior Stephen Fitch, fellow seniors Tim Kramer and Dan Pollock and sophomore Chris Moore followed Gabler, taking third, sixth, seventh and 10th, respectively.
The Knights also had two athletes set ECAC-qualifying marks in weight events. Senior Andrew Sorrento won the hammer throw with a toss of 52.35 meters and fellow senior Ken Wickey placed second in the shot put, hurling it 14.35 meters.
This Saturday, the Knights travel to Hamilton College. According to Prevosti, due to the Easter break it will be a smaller squad, but he said he expects both teams to do well despite some onerous competition.