This past Friday, the men and women of the Hopkins track and field team had a home meet at the Johns Hopkins Invitational. Numerous teams from every division arrived in Baltimore for the Blue Jays’ first and only home meet of the year.
Taking advantage of being at home, the Jays posted personal bests and numerous leading Centennial Conference times. The Jays were led by their mid-distance squad, with both the men and women finishing in top positions in the 1500-meter race.
The Jays had 16 women on the start of the 1500-meter race. Five of them captured top eight finishes and posted five of the six top Centennial Conference times.
Sophomore Felicia Koerner led most of the race until she was outrun by University of Maryland senior Alexa Squirini at the very end. Koerner would cross the line in 4:32 to take second, followed by sophomore Tasha Freed in third and junior Caroline Smith in fourth, who ran 4:38 and 4:40, respectively. Notably, Freed beat her previous personal best by over 16 seconds.
Sophomore Gina D’Addario and freshman Rebecca Grusby rounded out the top eight finishers of the race. The Jays’ impressive results in the 1500 meter has Hopkins all over the D-III leaderboard. Koerner’s time is ranked second in the division. Meanwhile Freed, Smith and D’Addario are ranked 12th, 23rd and 24th, respectively.
Meanwhile, the men had 13 Blue Jays competing in the 1500-meter race. They were led by sophomore Scott Pourshalchi, who finished first overall in a field of 39 runners.
“Being at home definitely contributed to a great race,” Pourshalchi said. “There was so much energy and excitement.”
He was accompanied by 13 of his teammates and also a rabbit who paced about three-quarters of the race. With 400 meters to go, the rabbit stepped off the track and Pourshalchi knew the win was within reach.
“I probably realized I was going to win with 400 to go,” the sophomore said. “I had been so focused on the rabbit that when he dropped I did not even realize no one else was near us. I did not expect the win, because there is always really good competition, but it was a nice surprise.”
Pourshalchi crossed the line in first with a new personal best time of 3:54, which ranks fourth in the Centennial and ninth in D-III. Joining him under the four-minute mark was freshman Ted Oh who finished in 3:59. Junior Brandon Fielder just missed breaking four minutes, crossing the line at 4:00.13.
The Jays had a number of other noticeable performances on the track. Senior Shannon Martello had a breakthrough performance in the 800-meter run, clocking 2:18 and improving on her personal best by over three seconds — not an easy task in a two-lap race.
In the distance events, the women placed three runners in the top five in the 5,000-meter run, led by sophomore Ellie Clawson, who took second in the event and now ranks fourth in the Centennial for the event. In the relay, the 4x400-meter squad of sophomore Hannah Miller, junior Lauren Roberts, freshman Kenz Wilkinson and senior Lindsay Cheu finished second.
As for the men, sophomore Liam Wall led the distance crew in the 5,000-meter race, where he placed second behind American University’s Alaeldin Tirba. In the steeplechase, junior Marshall Demaree and freshman Andrew King took second and third. Demaree’s time of 9:47 was the best by a Hopkins athlete this season and ranks fourth in the Centennial.
The performances on the field were equally as exciting for the Jays. Sophomore Benjamin Huang took the title in the pole vault, while junior Matt Fischetti took third. Senior Mitchell Keller threw the shot put a distance of 13.99 meters, the best by a Jay this season, for a seventh place finish. His throw ranks seventh in program history and fourth in the Centennial.
“We were overall really happy with the meet,” Pourshalchi said. “We did a great job showing our team spirit and had a lot of great performances.”
While the Jays enjoyed the advantage of running on their home track and the advantage of limited travel, senior Andrew Bartnett did not get to enjoy the convenience of competing at home. While the rest of the Jays traveled a mere mile to their meet, Bartnett travelled 3,000 miles to compete in the decathlon at the Mt. SAC Relays/CA Invitational Multi Events.
After one day of competition, Bartnett stood in ninth, but after taking first in both the pole vault and the javelin on day two, the senior jumped to fourth, finishing with a total of 6625 points. For these efforts, Bartnett was honored as the Centennial Conference Field Athlete of the Week.
