For the past two weeks, Geneseo’s track and field team has slowly been preparing for the SUNYAC Championships that are set for Friday Feb. 28 and Saturday Feb. 29 at SUNY Brockport. As part of their preparation for the big meet, both the men’s and women’s squads have continued to compete and win.
Both teams traveled to Boston to test their abilities at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational hosted by Boston University on Feb. 14 and 15. The women’s team saw two members break program records; junior Emily Lavarnway finished the 800-meter race with a blistering time of 57.16 seconds while junior Jenna Strickland ran her way into Geneseo history books in the 200-meter with a time of 25.93 seconds.
While discussing goals that were set before the season began, Lavarnway admitted that setting a new program record was a welcome surprise. “Caught off-guard, if that makes sense, but really happy about it,” she said. “That was one of the goals I set for myself that I didn’t think I would achieve, so now my goals have shifted because there are still three or four weeks left of the season.”
In addition to the two program records that were broken in Boston, the Geneseo women came close to breaking two other records; the 400-meter relay team finished with the second-fastest time in program history, while senior Genny Cochran also finished with the second-best time in school history in the 5,000-meter.
On the flip side, the men’s team had less of a flashy performance but still managed to record solid times. Geneseo’s distance medley relay team—which consisted of senior Justin Hoelzl, sophomore Nico Bellavia, junior Brendan Murphy and first-year Ezra Ruggles—placed fourth in a field of fierce competition with a time of 9:57.49. Ruggles was named PrestoSports Athlete of the Week for how he anchored the distance medley relay and his impressive performance in the mile, placing 37th in the nation.
Ruggles commented on the team’s closeness as a factor in his quick assimilation to the college ranks of runners. “Most of my primary friends, as a freshman, are on the team so I’m always around the team. I’m always eating with the team, or playing basketball with them or studying together,” he said. “Finding myself outside of that group is challenging because they’re just a bunch of great guys. I’ve been with them since cross country, which is a team sport, so you know we build a foundation there and it just keeps growing and growing.”
Following the meet in Boston, Geneseo took a short trip to compete at the Nazareth Conference Tune-Up on Friday Feb. 21 in Rochester, N.Y. where both teams posted seven or more top-five finishes. On the side of the men’s team, sophomore Jackson Hays finished second in the long jump with a leap measuring 6.96 meters. His teammate, first-year Sean Stewart, also notched a second-place performance with a 13.8-meter triple jump. Yet another second-place finish came when junior Michael Hartcorn posted a 4:28.10 time in the 60-meter hurdles.
The women’s team was able to secure three first-place finishes on the day, along with three runner-ups. Junior Eileen Reinhardt finished first in the 3,000-meter, sophomore Gwen Shepardson took the win in the 60-meter hurdles and first-year Windsor Ardner placed first in the 1,000-meter.
With the SUNYAC Championships upon them, Geneseo must continue to ride their current wave of momentum if they want to bring home another banner.