Emory’s Track and Field team has a lot to look forward to this upcoming season after a strong performance at the Crossplex Invitational in Alabama this past weekend. The women came away with an impressive third place finish out of 23 schools (76.5 points), while the men finished seventh out of 21 schools (45 points).
For Head Coach John Curtin, this annual invitational is particularly important as it is one of the few meets Emory hosts. Hosting the event allows Emory to enter more runners and gives the team a rare opportunity to compete as a complete team.
“There aren’t a lot of indoor tracks in the southeast, so it is hard to get into meets, and when you do get in, your entries are limited,” Curtin said. “We took 90 kids, and every kid got a chance to compete and show what they could do.”
In the track events, the women dominated the field, placing in almost every event. Four Eagles placed in the top eight for the 3,000m run as junior Gabrielle Stravach took first place with a time of 10:16.54; senior Mia Eisenhandler placed fourth with a time of 10:39.23; junior Tru Powell placed seventh with a time of 10:44.00; and sophomore Clare Ubersax took eighth at 10:44.43.
In the 5,000m, senior Michelle Kagei finished in second place with a time of 18:18.66. Junior Megan Waples finished third with a time of 18:28.41 and senior Sophie Cemaj took sixth at 18:39.82.
In addition, junior Erica Goldman, sophomores Hayley Moyer and Ariana Newhouse and freshman Kaitlyn Leonard took fifth in the 4×400 relay with a time of 4:06.58.
Keeping pace with the women’s strong performance, the men’s team racked up strong finishes in their track events as well, especially in many of the longer events.
“The level of competition was high, so our kids had to perform well to reach the finals,” Curtin said. “Smaller Division I and Division II schools need meets to get into as well. They like coming to our meet because we are pretty good, particularly in the distance races.”
In the 3,000m run, junior Shane Sullivan placed second with a time of 8:36.43, while freshman Marin Pimentel took fifth with a time of 8:54.36.
Junior Max Brown placed in the top eight in two different events, the only Eagle to do so. He finished fourth in the mile at 4:19.22 and eighth in the 800m run with a time of 1:58.27.
In the 5,000m run, seniors Lukas Mees placed fourth at 15:12.33 and Michael Sisario finished fifth with a time of 15:17.18.
One of Emory’s few sprint scorers on the day, junior Benjamin Rogin took seventh with a time of 8.55 in the 60m hurdles, rounding out the track events for Emory.
In the field events, Emory had strong showings in the long and high jump events. Junior Charlie Hu placed third with a 1.80m high jump and Senior Kyle Veator took seventh in the long jump at 6.55m. For weight throw, sophomore Zachary Lembersky took seventh at 14.30m.
For the women’s field team, freshman Isabel Saridakis took third in the pole vault with a distance of 3.26m and sophomore Kaleena Jesson placed eighth with a distance of 2.96 meters. Nyla Lindo led the Eagles in the high jump at 1.52m, good enough for a second place finish.
“During this time of year it is difficult to get much quality training in because of weather conditions, but we have been really blessed [with good weather],” Curtin said. “I was pleased that kids came prepared and were ready to race.”
Emory returns to the Birmingham Crossplex (Ala.) Jan. 29 for the KMS Invitational.
kevin.james.kilgour@emory.edu | Kevin Kilgour (18B) is from Wichita, Kan., majoring in English and business administration with a concentration in marketing. This past summer, he worked as a communications and development intern at Global Growers Network. Some of his greatest sports accomplishments include predicting Butler’s 2010 Final Four run and leading PAL Group One Eight (gold is our fate) to an Oxford Olympics championship. One of his goals in life is to write Derrick Rose’s biography.
