The Hopkins track teams were all over the map this past weekend. Some Blue Jays flew off to Lewisburg, Pa. for Bucknell University’s Bison Outdoor Classic and Emmitsburg, Md. for the Mount Multis, while some stayed home for the Hopkins/Loyola Invitational, as both the men and women produced multiple winners.
At the Mount Multis, freshman Justin Canedy took home first in the decathlon with a dominant performance, as the Ohio native took first in six of the 10 events and finished in the top four in the rest. His score of 6,340 points was 1,737 points better than the second-place finisher and was good enough for fourth in the country as well. For his performance, Canedy was named the Centennial Conference Men’s Field Athlete of the Week.
For the women who traveled to Emmitsburg, four Blue Jays placed in the top six of the heptathlon, with alum Jenn Su, who ran unattached, taking first place overall. Su took top-three finishes in all seven events, including three first-place finishes. Senior Maya Hammonds took third place, similarly dominant in her events with six of seven top-three finishes. Sophomore Annie Gutierrez and senior Cat Wain rounded out the fourth- and sixth-place spots for Hopkins respectively. For her efforts Hammonds was awarded the Centennial Conference Women’s Field Athlete of the Week award.
The Blue Jays also had a great showing by both teams at the Hopkins/Loyola Invitational, combining for seven first-place finishes, as the men finished in second with 131.5 points and the women finished in third with 95 points.
Four of the men were able to finish on top in their event, including freshmen Nathaniel Amoah and Zack Ellis. Amoah ran the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.05, and Ellis competed in the javelin with a 50.22-meter throw. Another freshman, Kyle Battles, also made the podium in the javelin toss, placing third with a toss of 47.81 meters.
Junior Matthew Su also was a top dog on the day, as he took the gold in the long jump with a 7.27-meter leap, which stands at fourth in the country. Freshman Ethan Bartlett wasn’t far behind his teammate, as he took sixth with a 6.49-meter finish to add to his third-place finish in the triple jump. Rounding out the first-place finishes was senior Ben Huang, who was able to clear 4.53 meters in the pole vault.
Several other Blue Jays had noteworthy finishes as well. Alex Mollick had a busy day, finishing in the top three in three separate events. He placed third in the 100-meter dash and second in the 200-meter dash, in addition to combining with freshman Alex Dixon, Amoah and sophomore Jonathon Brown to take silver in the 4x400. Dixon also took home bronze with a 1:51.36 finish in the 800-meter dash. Sophomore Garrett Pitt took home third in the steeplechase; senior Liam Wall and junior Jacob Meyer took third and fourth, respectively, in the 1,500; and sophomore Will Howe barely missed the podium with a fourth-place 5K performance.
Not to be outdone, the women’s team placed three on top of the podium, including sophomore Veronica Montane, who finished first in both the javelin and the triple jump. Freshman Cherease Lamm, less than a meter short of first in the triple, took second. Senior Shaina Palmer and sophomore Ava Kelley were the other top dogs in their respective events, each earning their first career first-place finishes in the 1,500 and the steeple chase, respectively.
Many other Hopkins athletes had impressive performances in front of the home crowd, including freshman Chinaza Nwankpa’s fifth-place 200-meter dash finish and sophomore Alexandra Damron’s fourth-place 400-meter dash finish. Sophomore Mikayla Bisignani took third and fifth in the discus and shotput, respectively, and Gutierrez, junior Sophia Cortazzo and Wain placed third, fourth and sixth in the pole vault, respectively.
The last stop on the Hopkins tour was the Bucknell Outdoor Classic as both teams competed against stiff opposition in the form of several Division-I and Division-II teams. Unphased by the competition, many Blue Jays were able to record personal bests in their events.
For senior Tasha Freed, not only did she beat her own record, but she also topped the school record in the steeplechase, making her the Centennial Conference Women’s Track Co-Athlete of the Week. Junior Caelyn Reilly had the top finish of the day, finishing fourth in the 10K, and fellow junior Sam Levy and senior Emily Stahl beat their personal records (PRs) in the 5K. In the 1,500-meter four different Hopkins runners topped their PRs, with sophomores Therese Olshanski and Ariel Keklak and seniors Gina D’Addario and Erin Brush all topping their old records.
Sophomore Vipul Bhat came in eighth in the 1,500-meter while senior Kevin Peters’ 4:00.17 finish beat his own PR. Junior Andrew King notched a PR in the steeplechase; senior Jeff Braun took down his old best in the 5K; and four different Jays — sophomores Patrick Dye and Jared Pangallozzi and seniors Alex Doran and Ollie Hickson — recorded PRs in the 5K.
With a busy weekend in the rearview mirror and plenty to be proud of, Dye is happy with the team’s performance and thinks that the key has been preparation and coaching.
“The team has been performing really well recently, and it just goes to show that all the hard work we’ve been putting in the past couple of months is showing,” Dye said. “Our coaches are setting us up perfectly to peak during Championship season.”
King agreed with Dye and believes that the weekend was a success for the team as a whole.
“We had a lot of PRs this weekend which made everyone... really happy. This weekend is a good one for us every year. The home meet is very exciting because of the support we get from friends, family and alums. And the trip to Bucknell usually results in some fast times due to the competition.”
Hopkins will next compete at the Widener University Invitational in Chester, Pa. starting Friday, April 19.
