The indoor track team finished up its season this past weekend at the IC4A/ECAC Championships in Boston, with some major finishes and more school records broken. The team looks to be in great standing as it starts its outdoor campaign. With new personal records, nationally ranked jumps and winning relay teams, Fordham seems prepared for even better performances in a packed outdoor season.
The weekend started on Saturday, where five Rams qualified for the finals events on Sunday. This included senior Anisa Arsenault in the 5,000 meter run, sophomore Mike Turi in the 3,000, senior Ryan Polo in the 1,000, senior Titi Fagade in the 500 and senior Sean Collins in the 500. In addition, two relay teams qualified for Sundayl. The men’s distance medley featured senior Brian Walter, juniors Jonathan Annelli and Lester Taylor and Collins, while the women’s 4×800 consisted of juniors Melissa Higgins, Mara Lieberman and Kristen Staurt, as well as Fagade.
The highlight of the day, however, was senior David Fajoyomi’s winning mark in the high jump. The height of 7’ 3 ¾” (223 cm) was not only first place, but was another school record for Fajoyomi. Additionally, his height places him sixth in the country for the high jump, and places him just three centimeters below the qualifying mark for the European Championship.
“Everything went perfect,” Fajoyomi said. “I felt confident and I was also well rested because of the missed meets, due to my previous hamstring injury.”
Sunday proved to be just as spectacular as Saturday. Fordham’s next win came from the women’s 4×800 relay team, one of the most productive pieces of the team this season. With a time of 8:50.08, the women led Yale and eight other teams by a wide margin of five seconds.
“We couldn’t have been happier with how the season concluded,” Higgins said. “Going into finals yesterday in fourth, it was nice to finish with such a decisive win over the other teams. We’ll be back for next season to defend our outdoor title as well.”
The men’s distance medley team, which qualified the day before, grabbed fifth place with a time of 9:58. The women’s distance medley team, consisting of sophomore Danielle Rowe and a triplet of seniors including Arsenault, Christina Vivinetto and Averie Sheppard also ran on Sunday. Their time of 11:51.50 earned them seventh place, but more importantly, a school record of .01 seconds.
Individually, Fagade competed in the 500 and took second overall with a time of 1:13.16, while Arsenault recorded a PR with a time of 17:05 in the 5000 meter, for 12th place. Collins placed eighth overall in the 500 meter run in 1:03.90, and Polo finished ninth in the 1,000 meter final in 2:33.07. Turi, the final competitor of the day, finished in 49th place in a very competitive 3000 meter run, with a time of 8:35.78.
Overall, the Rams had a stellar weekend and set a strong precedent that they hope to exceed in the upcoming outdoor season. “Even though everyone’s ready for a few days of rest, we all have our sights set on outdoor,” Arsenault said. “We spent most of the bus ride home talking about what we want to run in the next few months.”
The team has little downtime, though. The first outdoor meet will be in two weeks at the West Chester Invitational in Pennsylvania.
