By Tom Terzulli
Junior Thomas Slattery took the bronze medal in the 5000m. (Courtesy of Fordham Athletics)
The big weekend finally arrived for Fordham Track and Field. Several runners competed at the New Balance Track and Field Center for Thursday Night At The Races. Meanwhile, all Rams who qualified were in action over the weekend at the 2017 ECAC/IC4A Indoor Track and Field Championship in Boston. The athletes did not disappoint, putting forward four scoring performances between the two squads on Sunday. Those solid performances catapulted the men’s team to a 19th place finish with 12 points and the women’s squad to a 36th place result, posting six points.
At the armory on Thursday night, eight Ram women finished the mile run, all of which were in the top 25. Sophomore Angelina Grebe led the pack, taking the bronze medal in 5:13.14. Fellow sophomore Blake Elwood (5th-5:16.41) and senior Josephine Jacob-Dolan (9th – 5:9.20) rounded out the top 10. Sophomore Maiya Larsen (11th – 5:21.43), freshman Isabel Huelskamp (15th – 5:30.41), Kelsey Coppinger (18th – 5:33.13), sophomore Julia Wiseman (19th-5:33.81) and sophomore Kieran Hanrahan (22nd – 5:36.26) were the other finishers.
On the men’s side, senior Adam Schwenzfeier and freshman Patrick Donahue finished eighth and ninth in the mile with times of 4:30.03 and 4:31.94, respectively.
With the weekend came the main event, a chance for the Rams to compete against some of the country’s best in the 2017 ECAC/IC4A Indoor Track and Field Championship.
The men had three runners get past the preliminaries on Saturday. Freshman Michael Petersen led the way, finishing second in the 500m with a time of 1:02.92. Junior Louis Santelli finished the 800m in 1:50.88, placing fifth. Jared Benn was the final qualifier on day one. The Sophomore placed eighth in the 400m in 48.67.
Other Saturday finishers included freshman Richard Webber in the 200m (31st-22.36), along with a pair of relays. In the 4x800m, the team of Peterson, Santelli, Junior Fritz Heinrich and Sophomore Sean Phillips secured 11th (7:43.92). While Benn, junior Nikolas O’Brien, sophomore Patrick Dineen and senior Devin Rocks picked up 20th in the distance medley, with a time of 10:07.07.
On Sunday, they converted on three of five scoring opportunities. Santelli and Peterson both put points on the board in their respective finals, Santelli (5th- 1:50.94) in the 800m and Peterson (7th- 1:03.55) in the 500m. While Junior Thomas Slattery put forth the top finish on the men’s side, earning a bronze medal in the 5000m with a time of 14:15.97. He’s itching to carry over this success into the spring season: “I couldn’t be happier. I probably haven’t had a season where I worked this hard before. I’m stoked for outdoor because my training crew and I have a great work ethic which will carry out into the spring,” he said.
To round out the day two events, Benn finished the 400m in 48.55, placing ninth and freshman Ryan Kutch grabbed 14th in the 3000m run (8:20.27).
The Fordham women were paced by a spectacular bronze medal finish in the 4x800m relay. With representatives from all grades, freshman Sydney Snow, senior Shanna Heaney, sophomore Kate McCormack and junior Merissa Wright first qualified with a second place finish in the prelims, posting a time of 8:55.33. They then secured the medal with an improved time of 8:55.04. “Our mindset was we have nothing to lose so lets make this last one, a fast one”, Wright said, “We were confident and excited to leave everything on the track since it was our last shot of the indoor 4×800 for the season.”
Sophomore Mary Kate Kenny was the lone Ram representative in individual events. She placed 25th in the 200m preliminaries in 25.28.
And with that, a successful indoor season has come to a close for the Fordham Rams. The teams get a couple of weeks of reprieve till they are back on the track. The outdoor season kicks off on March 24th with the Fred Hardy Invitational in Richmond, VA.
