Whether they are competing close to home or across the country, the men’s track team has yet to encounter an arena that can slow them down.
At the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., senior Andrew Carey led Hopkins with a school record run in the 800 with a time of 1:50.95. Carey finished first in his heat and 14th overall in a field that included Division I runners. Carey broke the record he set in the 800 at the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 15.
While Carey certainly credits his coaches, Kim Standridge and Bobby Van Allen, for his success, he primarily praises his training partner, Tyler Saunders, who works at the Hopkins Medical Campus. Carey says that Saunders is “a pretty level-headed guy and is awesome to run with,” adding that he, Carey, has “adopted a lot of his training methods.”
Behind Carey, fellow senior Steve Hyland took home ninth with a time of 1:57.45.
As Carey and Hyland represented the Blue Jays on the West Coast, freshman Andrew Bartnett took care of business for Hopkins at the Millersville Metrics meet in Millersville, Pa.
Bartnett beat out Kevin Brady of Elizabethtown and 19 other competitors to take first place in the pole vault with a height of 4.55m.
Both Carey and Bartnett were named Centennial Conference Track and Field Athletes of the Week for their performances.
In addition to Bartnett at Millersville, senior Ryan Alvarez ran a 4:09.62 in the 1500 meter run to finish eighth, behind Lock Haven’s Kevin Conner.
For the distance runners, Hopkins’ highest finishers in the 5000 meter went 6-7-8 as senior David Ringwood posted a time of 15:54.84, freshman Akshay Alaghatta followed him in 15:56.35 and sophomore Ryan Schwartz filled out the top 10 for Hopkins in 16:00.64.
Next up, the Blue Jays will be hosting their only home meet of the season in the Hopkins/Loyola Invitational on Saturday. Hopkins will look to continue to build off of strong performances from Carey and Bartnett in their pursuit of a critical home victory on Saturday.
