The Geneseo men's and women's track and field teams traveled to Ithaca on Saturday Feb. 4 to compete in the first ever Ithaca College Invitational at the newly built Glazier Arena.
Despite running on an undersized and flat 200-meter track, conditions which many consider "inferior" according to head coach Dave Prevosti, several Geneseo student-athletes excelled and found themselves qualifying for future events.
Leading the way for the men's side was senior Lee Berube, who started off his day with a 4 minute, 16.39 second mile; a first place finish. Later on in the day, Berube came back and ran the 3,000 meter in a time of 8:25.00, winning that event as well.
"For Berube to run a 4:16 mile and then run a 3k in that time is phenomenal," Prevosti said.
This meet was also a significant day for the field events, as senior Colin Keenan and freshmen Phil Longo and Luke Taverne all qualified for the SUNYAC high jump mark, a standard that only nine student-athletes in the conference have met thus far.
Prevosti also said that the "pole-vaulters did real well," as sophomore Jake Pasenen and freshman Ben Canellys finished fourth and sixth in the meet, respectively. Senior Andrew Jehle ran the heptathlon, Geneseo's first ever student-athlete to do so and now holds the school record by default and hopes to qualify for future meets.
In the sprinting events, first year Ben Schwartz took home the 500-meter championship with a time of 1:08.32, while senior Greg Izzo placed fourth in the same event and fifth in the 60-meter hurdles.
Also standing out on the men's side were senior Matt Hart, junior Tim Chambers and Longo, who all placed in the top five in the 200-meter, 3000-meter and high jump, respectively.
For the women, juniors Emily Sullivan and Marissa Liberati stood out in the 800 meter. Sullivan finished third overall with a time of 2:22.37, while Liberati finished fifth with a time of 2:24.44. Senior Kelly Brunscheen and sophomore Allison Hoh led the 4x400-meter relay team that finished fifth overall. In individual races, Brunscheen finished fourth in the 400 meter and Hoh finishing sixth in the 3,000 meter.
"At these meets, we try to qualify our student-athletes for SUNYACs and ECACs. We took advantage of the nice facility and qualified a good number of people," Prevosti said.
The Knights travel to Boston University on Friday Feb. 10 to face some of the nation's toughest competition in the Valentine's Day Invitational.
"It is good every now and then to put yourself with tough competition. That is what we are going to have next weekend at Boston," Prevosti said.