The Geneseo men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to the University of Rochester on April 7 to compete in the non-scoring Spring Invitational.
Head coach Dave Prevosti said that before the meet he was looking forward to three things: the opportunity for individuals to qualify for postseason events, the chance to see his teams compete at a higher level and the hope that there would be some good weather.
While the temperature was cool for most of the day, Prevosti said he was impressed with his team’s performance in “less than ideal temperatures.”
Senior Nwana Okafor did not slow down with the cool air, as he leapt 7.02-meters in the long jump. Okafor out-jumped his opponents by more than half a meter in the long jump and according to Prevosti, his leap – equivalent to just over 23 feet – should put him “high in the national standings.”
Jumps “have been an X-factor” for the team this year, Prevosti said, but he added that as in the past, the team relies heavily upon the distance events to score.
The distance runners ran on Saturday with performances highlighted by junior Alex Brimstein’s time of 15 minutes, 8.80 seconds in the 5,000-meter, which was 33 seconds ahead of the second place finisher. Senior Kevin Bronson finished second in the 1,500-meter with a time of 4:01.69, a mere half-second behind the first place finisher.
Senior Ashley Jones (11:37.11) and sophomore Allison Hoh (11:50.66) finished second and third, respectively, in the women’s 3,000 steeplechase and both posted ECAC-qualifying times. Prevosti said Jones’ performance was one of the most impressive of the day but added that all the runners impressed him.
The women’s team loaded the 1,500-meter run and posted nine of the top 13 times. Amongst this group was freshman Keira Wood, who finished second with a time of 4:46.44.
“As a freshman, [Wood’s] doing really good things,” Prevosti said.
Right behind Wood was junior Caitlin Kowalewski (4:46.59) who, like Wood, qualified for the ECAC Championships with her time.
On April 14, the Knights split as select athletes return to Rochester and others travel to Bucknell University (Pennsylvania).