The Emory track and field teams continued their indoor season this past weekend at the Tiger Indoor Invitational hosted by Sewanee: The University of the South (Tenn.). The women’s team earned a first place finish after a strong performance, and the men’s squad took fourth place overall.
Coach John Curtin was pleased with the performance of both teams, and explained how the meet’s track adds a new challenge.
“I felt pretty good about our weekend,” Curtin said. “We look at meets at the University of the South as developmental since they have a small 160 meter track, making it difficult to run really fast times. It can be an opportunity for some of our kids that don’t get a lot of opportunities to compete and to come through and show what they can do.”
Many Eagles took advantage of said chances on Saturday. Curtin told the Wheel that many members of the team were running in an effort to qualify for the UAA conference championships and finished with good results.
The women’s team had strong performers across the board. Freshman Dilys Osei finished first in the 55m hurdles with a time of 8.74, in addition to a second place finish in the 400m dash (1:01.07). The Eagles took the first six places in the 800m event, with junior Alexa Young setting the pace with a first place finish and a time of 2:27.24. Sophomore Gabrielle Rudolph won the mile run with a time of 5:30.38.
Two women’s relay teams also turned in solid showings. The distance medley team made up of sophomores Erica Fisher and Hanna Saadegh-Vaziri and freshmen Sarah Cardwell-Smith and Paige Lasslauer took first, and the 4x400m team of and juniors Elizabeth Magno and Alexa Young, sophomore Lindsay Wilson and freshman Radhika Shah came in second place.
Curtin was proud of the performance of the women’s team, and told the Wheel that “they really came through in a big way.” In addition to the track events, Curtin was pleased with the women’s performance in the field events, and shared with the Wheel that he believed sophomore Valerie Linck was the “star” of the meet.
“We were really impressed with Valerie Linck,” Curtin said. “She had an amazing personal record in the shot put, [with] over two feet of improvement, and improvement usually comes by inches or less.”
Linck’s personal best of 11.60m in the shot put earned third place, and she also placed fifth in the high jump. Freshman Anne Marie Simoneaux pole-vaulted 2.99m, the second best at the meet, and classmate Jordan Small placed third in the high jump at 1.60m.
Senior Alexandra Aiello took over the UAA lead in the triple jump with a fifth place effort of 10.77m. Aiello won the UAA Athlete of the Week in women’s indoor track for her performance. She joined fellow Emory sophomores Daniel Pietsch and Max Brown and seniors Spencer Koh, Max Hoberman and Julie Williamson as a winner during the indoor track season.
The men’s team finished in fourth despite several impressive individual performances. Sophomore Benjamin Rogin took third in the 55m hurdles and seventh in the 400m dash with times of 8.01 and 53.68, respectively. Sophomore Robert Wilhelm III and junior Brandon Cromer came in fourth and fifth in the 800m event with times of 2:03.31 and 2:04.98, respectively. Junior Brandon Cromer’s mile run time of 4:40.03 was the sixth fastest at the meet, and junior Kyle Veator placed 10th in the 200m dash with a time of 23.68.
In the field events, freshman Zachary Lembersky placed sixth in the weight throw, with a personal best of 13.48m. Senior Spencer Koh placed second in the pole vault with a height of 4.29m.
Curtin felt the team’s performance at Sewanee bodes well going forward. Next weekend the team will return to the Birmingham Crossplex for the Samford Invitational before the UAA championships at the end of the month. Curtin is pleased with the team’s progression at this point in the season, and believes the Samford Invitational is just what is needed to prepare for the championships.
“Samford is primarily a Division I event,” Curtin said. “It is a really strong event, which is what we need to get us ready for the UAA. The UAA is loaded this year, and it is among the strongest conferences in the country, so we are going to need to perform well.”
