The University is going to need to solicit new donors for a trophy-room addition to the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center at the rate at which the Maroons have been winning meets this season. After both the men and women won the Phoenix Invitational earlier this season, the Maroons added another notch on their belt this past weekend as both took home the top prize at the Private College Invitational in Kenosha, WI.
On the men’s side, there was never any doubt that the Maroons would come out on top. On the backs of several strong individual performances, the men topped their group of 12 teams with a total of 183 points, nearly 60 more than the 125 points second-place Carthage managed to total. Taking home wins for the Maroons were first-year Mitchell Dennis in the 800-meter with a time of 1:59.31, second-year Gareth Jones in the one-mile with a time of 4:31.22, fourth-year Renat Zalov in the 3,000-meter with a time of 9:14.44, second-year Eyal Hanfling in the 5,000-meter with a time of 16:01.25, and third-year Nicholas Lyon, who won via tiebreaker in the pole vault with a height of 4.15m.
On the women’s side, the day in Kenosha was marked by a series of dominating individual and group performances. After the dust settled, the South Siders found themselves at a pretty familiar place, the top of the podium, as they racked up 210.50 points, good for first over the 89 produced by second-place Carthage. Notable winners for the Maroons included fourth-year Pam Yu in the long jump and triple jump with distances of 5.13m and 10.62m respectively, third-year Brianna Hickey in the one-mile with a time of 5:09.61, and third-year Nkemdilim Nwaokolo in the weight throw with a distance of 16.38m.
While the Maroons would like to rest on their laurels, they won’t have any time to do so as they continue their marathon of a season this Saturday at the Triangular Invitational in Bloomington against Illinois Wesleyan and conference rival Wash U.
For the Maroons, this won’t be the same competition from the past two weeks. Wesleyan and Wash U are both competitive programs with several of their competitors likely to advance to the national championships later this season. For the Maroons to win this weekend, it’s going to take their most formidable efforts.
“I think that Wash U being there definitely gives us more of a reason to want to win this weekend,” said second-year sprinter Charissa Newkirk. “They are our biggest competition, and seeing them early on in the season gives us an idea of where we are at compared to them and how we can improve our training for conference.”
Looking for their third win in a row on both the men’s and women’s sides, the Maroons will trek down to Bloomington, IL this weekend to the indoor field house of Illinois Wesleyan. Competition is slated to begin at 11 a.m. with individual event times posted on the Illinois Wesleyan website.
