While it’s the dream of every athlete in all sports to be able to test oneself against the best competition available, the chances for this are rare. On the weekend of Jan. 25 and 26, however, some of the men’s and women’s indoor track team not only got to compete against the best collegiate athletes but also some internationally elite runners at Boston University’s John Thomas Terrier Invitational.
Several Knights had memorable days in the meet, which was populated by a host of larger Division I schools as well as many other top Division III teams.
Generally, Division I schools are larger and can offer athletic scholarships to get top athletes, something that Division III schools are forbidden to do. The chance to compete against Division I schools is an exciting opportunity for the Knights.
Junior Keira Wood turned in one of the best performances in the meet at the 800-meter run.
“Even though there’s someone who ran 2 minutes, and 5 seconds, Keira ran 2:14 and finished in the middle of her heat. That puts her in the top two in D-III,” head coach Dave Prevosti said. “She wasn’t even in the fast heat, but she could have been. Her time puts her right in there,” he added.
Geneseo had another strong performance from the men’s distance medley relay team, consisting of juniors Tony George, Benjamin Schwartz and Colby Burke and senior Thomas Clark. The quartet completed the race in 10:04, a time that Prevosti said was good for fifth best in Division III.
“If you look at what we did with our [distance medley relay] team last year, we actually ran better at this time of the year with this team than we did with last year’s DMR team,” Prevosti said.
Even if the Knights had not done so particularly well, the meet would still have been exciting to attend thanks to two young superstars. Galen Rupp, the silver medalist in the 2012 London Olympics in the 10,000-meter run, easily won the 2-mile event at the meet. High school senior Mary Cain, hailed as having the potential to become one of the greatest American women runners of all time, also took top honors in her event, the mile run.
Other members of the team were in action elsewhere, as the field athletes competed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Art Farnham Invitational. Junior Chaz Abad and freshman John Panus took first and second, respectively, in the 3,000-meter run. Sophomore Aidan Fullerton and junior Phil Longo swept the top two places in the long jump, while senior Jake Pasanen won the pole vault. On the women’s side, freshman Joanna Heath took the long jump title.
Geneseo returns to action at the SUNY Brockport Invitational on Saturday Feb. 1.