On Saturday Jan. 28, the Geneseo men's and women's indoor track and field teams traveled to Geneva, Ohio to participate in the non-scoring Spire Midwest Indoor Open.
"For the most part [the competition] was exceptional," head coach Dave Prevosti said. "It was what we were looking for; actually, it was more than what we were looking for." Prevosti continued, "We kind of looked in some races the way we make Division III teams look usually. We had a guy that's running a Top 10 time for Geneseo behind the fifth guy from another team … It's great for perspective. We're not just getting competition, but we're raising the bar for ourselves."
The men's distance medley relay rose to the competition and earned first place. The relay team comprised of junior Alex Brimstein and seniors Chris Carter, Jesse Cleary-Krell and Eddie Novara finished with a time of 10 minutes, 2.40 seconds.
"It's great anytime you're able to get up there and win with that kind of competition," Prevosti said. "They were awesome. Ninety percent of the time we win that event. We have such a stable group of distance runners."
Carter also stepped up in the 800-meter with a fourth place finish – even with a cleated foot and ripped pair of spikes.
"On the exchange [of the distance medley relay, Carter] got stepped on, ripped his shoe right open, bloodied up his foot, ended up running on the same pair of ripped open shoes in the [800-meter] because that's all he had," Prevosti said.
In the field events, senior Wenley Louis leaped past all his opponents in the long jump – by nearly two feet. According to Prevosti, Louis' 23 feet, 9-inch jump is "the best mark in the country."
Other notable performances include freshman Keira Wood and sophomores Allison Hoh and Mary Aldridge who finished fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively, in the 800-meter run. Junior Marissa Liberati led the mile pack with a seventh place finish.
The Knights travel to the Ithaca Invitational on Saturday Feb. 4.