Track teams middle of pack at Wheaton
Coming off a national championship-meet appearance in the winter, first-year Myra Collins is ready to take a great leap forward.
Collins provisionally qualified for spring nationals in the long jump and helped women’s track to a third-place standing with 125 points at the Wheaton Invitational Saturday. The men had a respectable finish of their own, scoring 68 points to finish fifth out of eight teams.
The standard-meeting 5.50-meter effort won the event for Chicago, though the result came as a bit of a surprise for the first-year jumper.
“I didn’t feel like I had actually jumped that far,” Collins said. “Overall, I know that qualifying at this past meet was only the beginning. I have a lot of room for improvement, and if I want to be certain to actually go on to nationals I’ll have to work even harder.”
Collins’s fellow jumper, first-year Appie Hirve, came away with a win of her own, taking the triple jump with a 11.03-meter performance. Third-years Annie Sanders (12:27.65) and Amy Lopez (13:13.95) also contributed to the cause, finishing 1-2 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
First-year Nofi Mojidi scored a pair of silver finishes in the 100-meter dash (12.63 seconds) and 200-meter run (25.34 seconds), continuing her progress toward the national meet qualifying standards.
“I’m looking forward to qualifying,” Mojidi said. “This isn’t just a personal goal. I’m looking forward to a lot of my teammates qualifying in their respective events and competing on the next level.”
The men did the majority of their damage on the field, where fourth-year Seyi Oyenuga won the long jump with a 6.66-meter mark and placed seventh in the triple jump, reaching 11.98 meters. Third-year Dan Milroy joined him in the winners’ circle, taking the javelin competition with a throw of 48.35 meters.
The men also got points on the field from the pole vaulters: First-year Luke Sandberg placed second with his 3.96-meter performance and fourth-year Brian Eichhorn finished fourth with a height of 4.27 meters.
On the track, in the 1,500-meter race, graduate-student Jerome Tharaud had a solid performance, coming home in second place with a time of 4:00.0.
—Kim Song
Fencing team competes for Club title
As spring got going, the Maroons crossed swords with the best.
The Chicago fencing team finished ninth overall at the National Club Fencing Championship at Michigan State April 2-3. In this intense competition, the Maroons faced 24 teams from all across the country, including Dartmouth, the University of Massachusetts, and West Point. The tournament included both team and individual competitions.
The women finished ninth, and the men’s team held down 14th place.
The women’s foil squad, led by fourth-year captain Lindsay Atnip, finished seventh. In team competition, first-year Elizabeth Stolarcruk finished fifth in her bracket and Atnip scored sixth-place standing. Third-year Christina Johnson qualified for the individual competition, finishing twelfth in those rounds.
The women’s epée squad, led by team co-captain Lisy Cuming, finished 13th, keyed by a strong performance by first-year Emily Rowe, who finished ninth in her bracket.
The women’s sabre squad scored a ninth-place finish. All three fencers, including fourth-year team co-captain Carolyn Gruber, finished seventh in their respective brackets in team competition. The team finished ahead of a number of teams they had fallen to earlier in the season, most notably the home team, the Michigan State Spartans.
Third-year Marvin Lowenthal beat Pan-American bronze-medal winner Rob Bralow of Northwestern in men’s epée, finishing ninth in his team competition bracket to help lead the epée team to 13th-place standing. Second-year epée captain Steve Flood scored a ninth-place finish of his own for a squad that fenced better than their finish.
The men’s sabre squad, under the command of second-year squad captain Basil Katz, finished eighth overall. Katz finished eighth in his bracket in team rounds, and first-year Massimo Young finished tenth due to injury forfeits. Fourth-year Wayne Duan won his team bracket to advance to individual rounds, where he scored a respectable seventh-place finish.
A men’s foil squad marked by its youth finished 21st, continuing the efforts of team members to gain experience for future competitions.
The tournament marked the end of regular season competition for the team. There will be several individual tournaments throughout the spring, and team members will compete in an intra-squad tournament, featuring university president Don Randel, which is scheduled for April 30.
—Hanna Lundqvist
