The Hopkins men’s Track team had a rough day as the rain poured down torrentially in College Park on the 29th of March. The Blue Jays were only able to grab three top five finishes on the day as the team struggled to battle the inclement weather. “It was certainly tough to perform well at the Maryland Invitational,” sophomore Devin Conley said. “It wasn’t the ideal way to start off the outdoor portion of the season but we managed to do as well as we could given the circumstances.”
Despite the obstacles that the team faced throughout the meet, the Jays did manage to put together a few solid performances on the day. Senior Andrew Carey was outstanding at the Maryland Invitational, fresh of his NCAA All-American performance at the indoor championships. He led the way, winning the 800 meter race with a time of 1:53.89 in his 2014 debut on the outdoor track. He would eventually prove to be the highlight of the day for the Blue Jays. In addition to Carey’s big performance, fellow senior Julian Saliani finished eighth overall in the 800 with a time of 1:58.37. Saliani earned the Honorable Mention All-Centennial Conference designation for his performance during the indoor portion of the season. “The California meets are especially competitive, which will help our guys to really push themselves for better marks and times,” Conley said. “That being said, Carey performed very well in the 800 and placed only a couple of seconds behind his PR in the event.”
Senior Collin Rozanski also had a good day, finishing as the top Jay in both the 200 and 400 meter dashes, coming fourth with a time of 22.62 and fifth with a time of 49.79 respectively. Rozanski had an excellent indoor portion of the track season as he was named to the First Team All-Centennial Conference for the 400 meter dash. He performed well in the first outdoor meet of the year. Junior Justin Grant finished shortly behind Rozanski placing sixth in the 200 with a time of 23.44 seconds.
In the 3000 meter race, senior Ryan Alvarez was the top Hopkins athlete, finishing in 9:03.81 to come in eighth place. In the same race, sophomore Ryan Schwartz finished 10th with a time of 9:7.54. In the 1500, junior Andrew Ceruzzi was the fastest Jay, running a time of 4:07.59 to finish in ninth place.
Hopkins ran out a large group of freshmen in the field events as Jesse Poore (long jump), Andrew Bartnett (triple jump), Jonathan Dordai (shot put, discus) and John Stanton (javelin) made their Blue Jay debuts on the outdoor track. Bartnett put together a stellar indoor track season by setting several records in the triple jump and pole vault events for Hopkins. He continued his success in the ebut of the outdoor season at College Park on Saturday.
The Hopkins track & field programs will head west next week, as certain athletes will compete at the Stanford Invitational and the San Francisco State Distance Carnival on April 4 and 5.
