The men’s and women’s track and field teams ventured into that frozen and barren wasteland of Wisconsin this Saturday to compete in the Carthage Invitational in Kenosha. As has been the trend all season, Chicago met with no small measure of success, as both the men’s and women’s squads completely dominated the distance events and had several outstanding individual performances in the sprints and jumps.
Fourth-year Valerie Anderson was the highlight of the meet for the women’s team, finishing first in the weight throw competition with an effort of 15.23 meters. With that victory Anderson now stands eighth in Division III in that event.
Second-year Jessica Winter finished second in the 800-meter run in 2:18.75, falling just shy of the NCAA Division III provisional qualifying time of 2:18.50. She was followed by teammates first-year Alexandra Robertson and first-year Jackie Kropp, who finished fourth and fifth respectively in times of 2:22.01 and 2:25.30.
Another second-year, Annie Sanders, captured first place in the 3,000-meter run in 10:47.83 and was followed directly by Sarah Mendez, second in 10:54.63. The Maroons also finished one-two in the 5,000-meter run as fourth-years Darcy Flora and Amanda Parrish captured first and second respectively in times of 19:02.56 and 19.31.70.
In the sprinting events, first-year Andrea Keliihokoai took sixth place in the 200-meter dash in 26.93 and was followed by second-year Gabby Jones, who finished eighth in 27.45. Jones also placed fourth in the long jump competition with a jump of 5.17 meters.
The women finished fourth overall with 87 points. UW-Milwaukee won the meet with 151 points. Carthage College was second with 127 points, and Aquinas College was third with 94 points.
The highlight of the men’s competition was the 1500-meter race, as the Maroons captured three of the top four places. Racing for the first time this season, fourth-year and returning indoor All-American Tom Haxton won the event in 4:02.90.
Behind Haxton were teammates first-year Emil Bojanov and second-year Teage O’Connor, finishing third and fourth respectively in times of 4:03.39 and 4:05.01; impressive times for so early in the season.
The Maroons also had strong showings in the other middle distance events. Third-year David Barr finished third in the 800-meter run in a personal best time of 1:57.13. Second-year Pat Hogan finished second in the 3,000-meter run in a breakthrough time of 8:51.17, losing only to University of Chicago Law School student Tim Karpoff, who won the race in 8:50.44.
First-year Jonathan Allan certainly had the performance of the meet for the Maroons. Allan finished third in the 200-meter dash in 23.21, and sixth in the 400-meter dash in 52.02.
Chicago captured two first place finishes in the field events as fourth-year All-American Adeoye Mabogunje won the high jump easily, clearing a height of 1.95 meters, and third-year Brian Eichhorn won the pole vault competition with a height of 4.42 meters.
The men finished fourth in the team competition, scoring 85 points. Aquinas College won the meet with 112 points, Carthage College was second with 104, and UW-Milwaukee was third with 87 points.
Both men and women’s teams compete again this weekend at the Chicago Duals on the second level of the Henry Crown Field House. Free beer will be served to those over 21 with a UCID.
