Men’s & Women’s Track & Field

Collin Riviello
MSMU Class of 2020

(3/2020) Both the men’s and women’s track & field teams brought home hardware from the 2020 Northeast Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships held at Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island, New York from February 21-22. At the beginning of the season, the men were projected to finish fifth, while the women were projected to finish in sixth place.

With a total of 115 points, the men’s team took home the second-place team trophy. Wagner won the meet with a total score of 143.5. In third place was Fairleigh Dickinson with 96 points, Central Connecticut in fourth place with 88 points, LIU in fifth with 78 points, Saint Francis University (Pa.) in sixth-place with 34.5 points, Merrimack in seventh with 32 points, Bryant in eighth with 31 points, Sacred Heart in ninth with 30 points and St. Francis (Ny.) in tenth place with 12 points.

Sophomore Dylan LaNoue earned the men’s Most Valuable Performer award after winning gold in both the long jump and high jump. He also garnered the Most Outstanding Performer (Jumps) award, the first Mountaineer to do so since 1998. Junior Isaac Kole earned a silver medal in the mile with a time of 4:11.57. Teammate and freshman Grant West placed sixth (4:15.33) adding three points to the Mount’s point total. Kole and West also helped the Distance Medley Relay (West, Khalil Reid, Brandon Briscoe and Kole) team to a silver medal finishing with a 10:12.10 and helping the entire DMR team earn Second Team All NEC honors. Senior Alex Devine also earned a silver medal in the shot put (15.58m).

The Mount went two and three in the pole vault: senior Carter Nave earned the silver with a 4.80m mark and sophomore Cage Jones earned bronze with a 4.40m mark. In the 60m hurdles, freshman Spencer Brown placed fifth with a time of 8.36, while freshmen Todd Charles ran a 6.98 in the 60m dash to place 6th. In the 800m, Briscoe ran a 1:57.14 to place seventh, and junior Will Merritt ran a 14:59.75 in the 5000m run to also earn a 6th place finish. Junior Sean Fahey and sophomore D.J Hamilton placed sixth and seventh respectively in the triple jump with marks of 14.37m and 14.20m. The 4x400m relay team of freshman Zach Berg, Charles, freshman Joshua Cella and junior Branden Roach finished sixth with a time of 3:24.20.

On the women’s side, the Mount earned 97 points. Fairleigh Dickinson took the title from the Mount by 12 points with 109 points. LIU took third with 96 points, Sacred Heart took fourth with 78.50 points, Saint Francis University (Pa.) took fifth-place with 64 points, Central Connecticut earned 63 points in a sixth-place effort, Wagner earned seventh-place with 55 points, Bryant earned 42.50 points good for eighth-place, Robert Morris earned ninth-place with 36 points, Merrimack earned 21 points which earned them tenth-place and St. Francis (Ny) earned one point for eleventh-place.

Freshman Emily Lewis had the meet of her life earning the Most Outstanding Rookie Performer award and the Most Outstanding Performer (Sprints) award, enroute to winning gold in the 60m hurdles with a new school record time of 8.68 seconds. She also helped the 4x400m relay team of junior Chardane Logan, junior Chalys Caruth and sophomore Dominque Jefferey to a gold medal with a winning time of 3:50.68. Lewis capped off her day with a fourth-place finish in the 400m dash with a time of 56.54 second, just .34 seconds behind the third-place time.

The Mount swept the 60m hurdle podium with a 1-2-3 finish. After Lewis broke the school record, the former school record holder, junior Najae Nickerson finished in second with a time of 8.78 seconds and freshman Alexandra Lawson took third place (8.84 seconds). Sophomore Rene Rosso took sixth place in the event with a time of 9.11 seconds. In the 200m dash, junior Kayla Barnes defended her Indoor title with a time of 24.69 seconds to earn gold. The second-place finisher ran a 24.73. Lawson earned seventh in the 200m (25.31) and Jeffrey earned eighth (25.42). In the 400m dash, Jeffrey also scored earning sixth place (58.09) which netted three points. In the high jump, sophomore Delaney McKnight earned bronze with a mark of 1.64m. Freshman Kayla Hackett earned fifth-place with a mark of 1.55m and senior Chelsea Wright also scored points for the Mount in the high jump with an eighth-place mark of 1.53m. In the triple jump, freshman Seun Sule scored two points by placing seventh with a mark of 11.28m. In the weight throw, sophomore Emily Eckard went fourth in the weight throw (15.12,) and senior Jesslyn Manni placed fifth (15.03m). The Distance Medley Relay team of freshman Theresa Long, Nickerson, senior Tenia Jordan and junior Destiney Boone scored two points by placing seventh in the event.

The women’s swim & dive team also competed in a conference championship: 2020 Northeast Conference Swim & Dive Championships. The Mount scored 127.5 points enroute to an eighth-place finish.

Sophomore Kira Buchler had a top-10 finish in the 100-backstroke with a tenth-place finish in 57.58. Buchler also helped the 400-medley relay team (4:02.47) and 400 free relay team (3:36.18) in scoring points. Junior Julia Whitman finished in 14th place in the 200m butterfly while junior Valeria Villigran finished in 17th place in the 100m butterfly. Junior Eliza Felos went 18th in the 200-back stroke.

On the diving side, freshman Montana Griffith garnered a diving score of 137 points to score team points in the 3-meter diving finals.

Bryant earned the three-peat winning the title with 813.50 points. Central Connecticut State university placed second with 586 points, Wagner College earned third place with 531 points, Saint Francis University (Pa.) earned fourth place with 455 points, LIU earned fifth-place with 415 points, Sacred Heart earned sixth-place with 277 points, St. Francis Brooklyn earned seventh-place with 274 points, the Mount earned eighth place with 127.5 points and Merrimack College earned tenth-place with 97 points.