Springfield, MA---The Sage Colleges’ women’s and men’s outdoor track and field teams competed for the first time in the program’s history as they were in action at the fourth annual Yellowjacket Invitational at American International College.
For Sage’s men’s team, which managed a 20th place finish in a meet that featured many Division I, II and III programs the day was filled with some exciting outcomes. The Gators picked up their points for the meet as freshman Eric Denny (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) took seventh place in the high jump with his performance of 1.83 meters. By day’s end Vermont won the team race with their 109.5 points, while Sage finished 20th in team scoring with 3 points. Denny also took 31st in the long jump with a performance of 5.94 meters.
Sophomore Juan Reyes-Alvarez (Latham, NY/Shaker) picked up 16th place 37:28.41 in the 10,000 meter run, while junior Josh Myers (Ballston Spa, NY/Ballston Spa) finished in 26th in the 5,000 meter run with his time of 17:49.30.
In the 800 meter run, rookie Jonathan McNeil (Bloomfield, CT/Greater Hartford Classic Magnet) added a 94th place finish in 2:28.32. In the 200 meter dash junior Anthony Crawford (Bronx, NY/Frederick Douglass Academy) posted a time of 25.21 to finish in 47th place. Sophomore Nicholas Haas added a 58th place finish in 27.18. Crawford also finished in 46th in the 100 meter dash in 12.43.
The Gators are posted a time of 47.82 in the 4 x 100 meter relay and finished in 16th place behind the efforts of Denny, Haas, McNeil, and Crawford.
For Sage’s women’s team, they did not finish in the team standings, but had a number of strong showings at their first meet. Freshman Julie Sterling (West Winfield, NY/Mount Markham) took 25th place in the discus throw with her performance on 17.31 meters and added a 37th place finish in the shot put (5.26 meters).
Junior Abimibola Ogunware (Springfield Gardens, NY/Hillcrest) finished in 38th place in the 100 and 200 meter dashes. She had a time of 13.96 in the 100 and a time of 28.4 in the 200 for the Gators.
Sophomore Ashley Maresca (Brant Lake, NY/North Warren Central) picked up 68th in the 1,500 meter run in 5:30.31.
Next up for the Gators is competition on April 12 at the Wesleyan University Invitational.