By Tom Terzulli
Michael Peterson won the 800m at the Metropolitan Championship. (Courtesy of Fordham Athletics)
You have to go all the way back to May 15 2016, at the ECAC/IC4A Championships, to find the last team scored meet Fordham track took part in. The men finished 30th out of 46 teams and the women finished dead last at 13th. However, last week, at theMetropolitan Championship, the result was a lot better on both sides.
The men were fourth out of the 18 participating schools with 97 total points. Their score was good enough to get past Wagner (74.50), Fairleigh Dickinson (44.50), New Jersey Institute (42), Columbia (32), St. Peter’s (28), Stony Brook (18), LIU Post (7), NYU (6), LIU Brooklyn (6), St. Francis (5) and Marist (4). Rutgers took the whole thing with 179 points.
The pair of juniors Brian Cook and Thomas Slattery, along with first year runner Michael Petersen, was a large part of the Rams’ 97 total. Cook won the mile in 4:14.19. Slattery took the 5,000m, posting a 14:51.02 clip. That victory made two years in a row that a Fordham distance runner won the event at the Metro Championship. Finally, Peterson topped the 800m field, crossing the line in 1:53.25.
Later on, Cook and Peterson teamed up with juniors Fritz Heinrich and Louis Santelli on the winning 4×800 meter squad. The IC4A qualifying time of 7:45.60 was good for the final Ram victory on the men’s side.
Freshman Ryan Kutch came pretty close though. The Holtsville, NY native finished second in the 3000m with a time of 8:35.90. Santelli was third in the 800m, posting a time of 1:54.11 in his second race on the day. It was a third place finish as well for the distance medley team of Slattery, sophomore Patrick Dineen, and juniors Michael Campbell and Nik O’Brien (10:19.28).
Nine other Ram scorers rounded out the total. Heinrich (2:31.47) and Dineen (2:32.50) finished fifth and eight respectively, in the 3000m. Freshman Richard Webber put up a season best 22.32,while sophomore Jared Benn crossed in 22.39. The two finished fourth and fifth in the 200m respectivley. They would come right back in separate events with Webber finishing sixth (7.10) in the 60m and Benn grabbing fourth in the 500m with a season best time of 1:05.44.
Junior Ryan Riviere finished fifth in the pole vault, clearing 4.20 meters, and he tacked on a sixth place finish in the Heptathlon with 3920 points. O’Brien finished seventh in the mile (4:21.85). And finally, Benn, Campbell, Webber and sophomore Eddie Dehais secured seventh in the 4x400m relay with a time of 3:30.02.
The women finished a place behind the men in team competition, in fifth. Wagner (50), Fairleigh Dickinson (45), So. Conn. St. (41), LIU Post (22), Columbia (22), NYU (14), St. Peter’s (13), Marist (11.50), St. Francis , New Jersey Institute (10), LIU Brooklyn (6) and Iona (4) were behind, while the Red Storm of St. John’s were the team champions (142.50).
The team of freshman Sydney Snow, senior Shanna Heaney, sophomore Kate McCormack and junior Merissa Wright secured the 4x800m title with a time of 9:15.21. Snow and Wright were also top finishers in individual events. Snow finished second in the 1,000m with a time of 2:57.45., while Wright dazzled in the 800 meter run, also finishing second at 2:15.80.
10 other Rams chipped into the individual scoring. Freshman Kaia Corthell (2:20.58) and sophomore Leah Hickey (2:25.64), crossed the line fourth and seventh in the 800m. It was sixth and seventh in the 1000m for sophomore Laurel Fisher (3:03.23) and sophomore Blake Elwood (3:04.63). sophomore Abigail Taylor (season best 10:27.35) and senior Josephine Jacob-Dolan (10:35.64) also grabbed sixth and seventh in the 3,000 meter run.
To finish up the scoring, two-time school record holder, sophomore Mary Kate Kenny (25.19) finished fourth in the 200m dash. freshman Gabriella Gavalas took fourth in the triple jump at 11.11m. Finally, Freshman Gabrielle Schreib was fifth in the pentathlon with 3,030 points and Nkeka Pinheiro (7.85) finished seventh in the 60m.
Next up for Fordham track is the Valentine’s Day Classic on Feb 10 and 11 at Boston University.
