In another two-day event, both the men and women of the indoor team showed very strong performances at the Chicagoland Indoor Championships at North Central College this past Friday and Saturday, with the women finishing third and the men snatching fifth place.
There were 19 teams competing and several Division I schools, including DePaul and Loyola. This created a great opportunity for the Maroons to reach new heights in their events.
As men’s head coach Chris Hall mentioned before the meet, this meet was the chance to put down some solid times, heights, and distances for the conference meet, which is being held at Brandeis University in two weeks. Between now and then, there is only one more meet and one more chance to go into the UAAs as strong as possible.
Not leaving the meet until around 10 p.m. on Friday, the women’s team exhibited a range of success throughout a very long evening. A highlight from the night was both the preliminary races and finals of the 60m hurdles race, with first-year Robin Peter breaking her own school record in the prelims and again in the finals. Her determination and talent have created great enthusiasm and excitement among the women, especially as the team huddled at the end of the meet. Interestingly enough, despite her outstanding time, Peter did not even win this event in the meet, showing how high the level of competition was that day.
The first place finisher of the night for the women’s team was third-year Kelsey Dunn in the 3000-meter race, with teammate and fourth-year Minnie Horvath only a second behind her. Other top finishes include third-year Claire Costelloe taking third in the 5,000 meters race, first-year Isabel Garon snatching fourth in pole vault with third-year Angel Fluet sliding into fifth right behind her, and first-year Alisha Harris taking fourth in the 60-meter dash. The 4×400-meter relay team also managed to take fourth, as did thedistance medley relay team,and second-year Jenna McKinney finished fifth in the 800-meter race.
After a great showing by the women, the men’s team followed suit the next day with seven top-five finishes. The highest placer of the night was third-year Nathan Downey, who came in second in the pole vault with a jump of 4.90 meters. The other top-five finishers of the men’s team include second-year Owen Melia, who finished third in the mile; fourth-year Jeremy Ferguson, who finished right behind him taking fourth; and third-year Patrick LeFevre racing into third in the 60-meter hurdles. The distance medley relay came in third and the 4×400-meter relay took fourth, while fourth-year Eyal Hanfling took fifth in the 5,000-meter race.
With only one meet left to go before conference, the squad is looking very strong in a variety of events.“The team is showing very exciting times and we are looking really strong going into conference. I can’t wait to see what next week brings,” said second-year Emma Koether, a member of the 4×400-meter relay team.
The Margaret Bradley Invitational, hosted by the University of Chicago, will take place this coming Saturday, February 18. The men and women’s teams will be able to come together and compete one last time before conference.
