Successes at home continued to pile up for the Maroon track teams over the long weekend.
Breaking both the facility and the school records for the distance medley relay event, the team of fourth-year Patrick Sullivan, first-year Jonathan Allan, third-year David Barr, and fourth-year Tom Haxton successfully met the Division III national provisional-qualifying standard with a time of 10:04.01 in Saturday’s Chicago Duals in the Henry Crown Field House.
The Maroons finished second to the team from UW-Whitewater, which won the event in 10:01.69. The Maroons currently stand as the third-fastest DMR team in Division III and are all but guaranteed a position in the National meet. The previous Henry Crown record had stood at 10:28.70 and the previous school record at 10:06.49.
Chicago also boasted two individual winners as second-year Teage O’Connor won the 3,000-meter race, going away with a personal best time of 8:48.14, and third-year Brian Eichhorn tied for first place in the pole vault competition, clearing a height of 4.20 meters.
Fourth-year Babak Yousefian finished second in the 55-meter high hurdles with a time of 7.85 seconds and first-year Emil Bojanov finished third in the 800 meters with a personal best time of 1:56.67.
On the women’s side, fourth-year Val Anderson moved up in the national rankings in the weight throw, as she won the event with a personal best effort of 15.70 meters. She currently stands eighth in Division III and, given certain team qualifying limitations, actually stands seventh among those eligible for the National meet. Anderson also won the shot put competition with a throw of 10.88 meters.
Two other Maroons were also individual event winners. Third-year Emily Kay won the 800-meter run in 2:23.30 and third-year Erin Steiner won the mile run in 5:25.64. Second-year Annie Sanders finished directly behind Steiner in the mile with a time of 5:27.62.
The Maroons also received a strong performance from first-year Melissa Lopez, who finished third in the 55-meter dash in 7.61 seconds, second in the long jump with a distance of 4.78 meters, and second again in the triple jump with 10.58 meters.
Second-year Diana Connett finished second in the 55-meter high hurdles in a time of 9.47 seconds and then finished fifth in the 400 meter dash in 1:04.87. Second-year Andrea Keliiholokai and second-year Gabby Jones finished third and fourth in the 200-meter dash in times of 27.09 and 27.43 seconds, respectively. Finally, second-year Sarah Eldridge was third in the high jump with a performance of 1.50 meters.
The men’s team will race again this Friday at the Whitewater Invitational in Whitewater, Wisconsin. The women will race again on Saturday, also at the Whitewater Invitational.
