The Ithaca College men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams got off on the right foot to their season Saturday with a solid showing from many athletes, boasting 1st-place finishers at their first meet in the Athletics and Events Center this season.

For the women, it was a successful day in the relays.  In the 4×200, the Bombers B team edged out the A team by 0.14 seconds, and the A team in the 4×400 meter relay beat the Oneonta team by almost 5 seconds.

Senior Jennifer Randall won the 1,000-meter with a time of 2:59.73, four seconds ahead of the 2nd-place finisher, and sophomore Emilia Scheemaker won the triple jump for the Bombers with an 11.27 meter jump.

Adding to the team’s accomplishments in field events, senior Amanda Rissmeyer won the shot put with an 11.36 meter throw. Rissmeyer was accompanied in 2nd and 3rd place by two teammates, sophomores Corinne Taylor and Kristina Stockburger. Rissmeyer said she likes the comfort of having two good throwers on her team right behind her.

“We’re all incredibly supportive of each other,” she said. “We get each other pumped up; we pick each other up when somebody is not exactly feeling it. It’s fantastic.”

The men’s team also put in a strong showing. After a slow start, the Bombers A team, in the 4×200 relay, picked up the pace and beat the Oneonta team by almost three seconds.

“We ran tall, relaxed, and we focused on moving ahead, and we didn’t look back,” junior John Luis Damaskos, a member of the 4×200 team, said.

Damaskos said that this is definitely a boost for the team’s confidence, but they will continue to work hard. He also feels their great team chemistry helps lead them to success.

“We really build off each other, off each other’s strengths, and work with each other to get better,” he added.

Sophomore Mason Mann won a tightly contested 800-meter race with a time just under 2 minutes, beating out the 2nd place runner by less than a second, and senior Brian Maley continued his success in the long jump, winning that with a best jump of 6.66 meters.

One highlight of the meet was senior David Geary’s running.  Geary won the mile with a time of 4:22.65, winning by 2 seconds. Geary said that was the third fastest time he had ever run in the mile. He was happy with how the race went because he is still trying to make the adjustment from the cross country season to the indoor season, which poses many differences.

“It is a lot shorter and a lot faster paced,” he said. “It takes a little getting used to switching from one gear to the other.”

The Empire 8 and State tournaments will be held in the A&E Center, so men’s team Head Coach Jim Nichols said getting the athletes on their home track as soon as possible would be a good thing.

Being so early on in the season, Nichols also said that there isn’t one specific thing the team needs to improve on.

The team won’t have any official practices until Jan. 9 because it has the rest of the semester off to study until they come back from break.  This, Nichols said, will make for more individual work while they have some time off.

“It’s going to be a month where they are going to have to work on their own — work on their studies and academics and work on lifting and training on their own as we prepare for the indoor season when we come back in January,” he said.