Senior Alfredo Mazzuco and junior Isaac Garcia-Casaani race around to the final leg of their event during the SUNYAC meet at SUNY Brockport. Both the men’s and women’s teams took first place in the SUNYAC meet. (Troy Hallahan/Sales Director)
Both the men’s and women’s track and field teams won the SUNYAC Indoor Championships held at Brockport on Friday Feb. 24 and Saturday Feb. 25. The Knights “were nothing short of stellar,” according to assistant coach Ben Wach.
To be eligible and to compete in an event at SUNYACs, an athlete must hit certain entrance standards and be among the top 16 people who have declared to participate in the event. This qualifying process further shows how well the Geneseo athletes had to perform to come out on top.
“The women were seeded to win by a lot, and they won by a lot,” Wach said.
Breaking the record for most points scored at the meet—in its current format, which has been around for approximately a decade—the women’s team won big in a variety of events. This included distance running, the 60-meter dash and the long jump and triple jump—both of which reached in-meet records.
The men’s team was seeded to lose by approximately 10 points, according to the entries, but they ended up winning by that much. The Knights edged out SUNY Cortland by scoring 177 points to Cortland’s 170, both of which were scoring records.
“It took absolutely unbelievable performances to do it,” Wach said. “We knew going into the meet that we would have to be on our A+ game in every single event and we were.”
For the men, there was almost immediate momentum after the first scored event: the 5K. The team scored 34 points out of a maximum of 39.
While both teams were overall successful, there were certain athletes that stood out in their performances.
“On the men’s side, we had some pretty big stand out performances,” Wach said. “People who weren’t seeded to score came up huge.”
One example would be sophomore sprinter Amman Weaver, who was a No. 9 seed coming in but took a 10th off his time. He not only qualified in first place, but also ended up coming in second in the final.
“The moment he crossed the line, the entire team took it up another level. It was so exciting,” Wach said.
Another key contributor to the championship was senior sprinter Connor Christian, who competed in five races during the two days, during which he bumped a couple potential scorers out of finals.
On the women’s side, there were multiple event winners. Multiple freshmen had quite successful first SUNYAC meets. Junior jumper Camille Wutz broke the meet record in the long jump and won the 60-meter dash. Senior jumper Alexa Wandy broke the meet record in the triple jump.
The women’s team had not finished first for the past 10 years, always coming in second or third, so this was an important championship for them. The men’s team has placed sporadically in the past decade—having both the men’s and women’s teams winning first place is certainly a highlight for the track and field program here at Geneseo.
NCAA Division III Indoor Championships will be held starting Friday March 10 in Naperville, Illinois, where the Knights are hoping to have a strong showing.