The Ithaca College track and field teams had split competitions on Jan. 27 with half of the team attending the Cornell Robert J. Kane Invitational while the other athletes traveled to the Massasoit Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts.
At the Cornell invitational, freshman Sam Ives finished seventh in the 1,000-meter-run with a time of 2:45.15. In the pole vault, sophomore Joey Nally finished in eighth with a vault of 4.35 meters. During the 1-mile run, junior John Blake finished 12th out of 63 runners with a time of 4:29.68. Blake said that his strategy is what helped him race so well.
“I just tried to race with everyone on the track,” Blake said. “If you’re connected to people and you’re in the pack, you have to give yourself a chance to win. I tried to keep in touch with everybody until the last couple laps and then I let it all loose and gave it everything I had.”
For the women, Alexandria Rheaume finished fourth in the 60-meter dash while also finishing first out of 56 runners in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.85. Sophomore Jessica Competiello finished sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:02.56. Senior Taryn Cordani finished first in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:55.43 and was followed closely by fellow senior Denise Ibarra, who finished fourth with a time of 10:19.59.
Graduate student Katherine Pitman dominated the pole vault, as she won with a vault of 4.20 meters which was .4 meters ahead of the second place finisher. Senior Christina Rucinski finished second in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:44.77. Rucinski said that for her first meet back from winter break, she was happy with how she ran.
“I ran faster today than I did when I ran here in December,” Rucinski said. “It was nice knowing I went faster even though I felt worst, but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement.”
Success continued for the Bombers in Massachusetts as sophomore Daniel Harden-Marshall finished second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.17. Harden-Marshall also secured a first place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.52. Senior Gerardo Munoz Celada finished first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.92. In the 800-meter run, junior Daniel Hart won gold with a time of 1:59.89.
In the high jump, sophomore Robert Greenwald came in third for the Blue and Gold with a jump of 1.89 meters. Sophomore Harrison Buttrick finished second in the weight throw with a throw of 14.12 meters.
On the women’s side, sophomore Amanda Wetmore finished third in the 60-meter dash with a 8.03 time. In the 200-meter dash, senior Amber Edwards finished fourth out of 35 runners with a time of 27:28. Edwards also finished first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.06 and freshman Jaime Sheppard finished first for the Bombers in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:01.81. Junior Britney Swarthout came in third in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:21.90.
In the high jump, sophomore Estelle Yedynak came out on top with a jump of 1.59 meters. Junior Gianna Folz came in second in the triple jump with a jump of 10.07 meters. In the shot put, freshman Samantha Healy secured a first place finish for the South Hill squad with a throw of 11.40 meters.
The Bombers next meet is the Ithaca Bomber Invitational starting at 10 a.m. on Feb. 3 in the Athletics and Events Center.
