Last weekend both the men’s and women’s track teams raced to great success at the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championships for indoor track and field at Rochester Institute of Technology.
The women’s team placed second out of nine participating teams. The team took three first place finishes junior Jacqueline Cinella in the 800-meter run, sophomore Hillary Snyder in the 1000-meter and the in the 4×400 meter relay.
‘I am really proud of the way the team competed this weekend,” captain and senior Heather Graham said. ‘People stepped it up and really gave their races, jumps, and throws everything they had. We had a lot of people finish better than their seeds and people who were seeded outside of scoring break into the top eight. We have had a great season and everyone really left it all on the track.”
The men’s team finished fifth out of nine schools, with sophomore Will McMunigal being named the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Field Event Athlete of the Meet.
The team finished just a point-and-a-half behind host school RIT and trailed third-place Ithaca College by eight points.
McMunigal won the pentathlon at last week’s NYSCTC Pentathlon meet at Ithaca, before winning the long jump on Friday night and finishing third place in the high jump.
‘The conference meet was one of the most competitive meets I’ve been a part of,” McMunigal said. ‘We would have liked to finish a little higher in the team rankings, but the competition within the top five spots really brought out the best performances in a lot of our guys. Knowing how close it was going to be, our coaches really stressed the importance of scoring in each event, and I think that motivated us.”
The Yellowjackets look to keep their drive up on the road ahead.
‘Overall, the indoor season has gone really well. We’ve had opportunities to compete in big meets and in great facilities,” McMunigal said. ‘The key thing is to improve week-to-week and we have done this so far. We want this to continue going into ECACs and hopefully even Nationals.”
Also finishing well for the men was junior A.J. Lee, who won the 500 meter. Second place finishers included senior Ethan Kaplan in the weight throw, sophomore Andrew Fleisher in the mile run and sophomore Greg Hartnett in the 800 meter.
With NYSCTC behind them, both teams head to the ECAC Championships next weekend in Northampton, Mass.
Clark is a member of the class of 2012.
