Track team springs into new season with speed

By: Mike Yuan

Posted: 4/3/08

The men's and women's track and field teams opened up their outdoor seasons this past weekend with split-squad action that divided the team in three. On Friday and Saturday, four distance runners competed at the Raleigh Relays hosted by N.C. State.

On Saturday, the rest of the team split in two, with half the team competing at the Terrapin Invitational hosted by the University of Maryland and the other half traveling just up the road to race at the Goucher College Classic. The weekend proved to be a true test as the Jays went up against some tough Division-I competition.

The Hopkins contingent who represented the Jays in North Carolina included senior Patrick Brandon, sophomores Graham Belton and David Sigmon and junior Emma Hiza. Brandon and Hiza both competed in the 10,000 meter run.

Brandon, the school record-holder in the event, posted a time of 32:16.99 to finish 19th in the event, while Hiza took 10th place, completing the 25-lap race in 41:01.36. In the 5,000 meter run, Belton crossed the line in 15:57.57, while Sigmon finished the race in 16:12.60, placing them fifth and 14th respectively in the heat.

The two came back on Saturday for the 1,500, in which Belton's time of 4:13.54 earned him 40th place. Sigmon wasn't too far behind, finishing 52nd with a time of 4:20.31.

Saturday's action in College Park saw the return of freshman Steve Tobochnik, who was sidelined all of the indoor season due to illness. Tobochnik, who was one of the top finishers for the Jays in the cross country season, showed no signs of rust as he finished fourth in the 5,000 meter run, just shy of the freshman record held by Belton.

"It felt good to finally get out there and race again," Tobochnik said. "It was a good first race back, and [assistant coach] Dave [Berdan] said it was a good place to start from. I feel like I can improve on my time in the next few races."

Senior Tristan Thomas led the way for the Jays on the sprinting side, finishing seventh in the 100 meter dash after placing fourth in the preliminaries. His final time was 11.24 seconds, while his time out of the preliminaries was 10.99 seconds.

Thomas also had a strong showing to help the 4x100-meter relay team of himself, senior Chris Cottrell, and sophomores James Walker and Pierre Hage. The group earned a fourth-place finish with a time of 43.87.

Sophomore Noah Jampol posted a time of 4:10.40 in the 1500 meter run, earning the 20th place spot.

"It felt good," said Jampol on his performance. "It's still early, and I just wanted to see what kind of shape I was in, so I was pretty happy with what I ran, given the cold and wind."

In the field, junior Adam Waddell continued his strong showing from the indoor season, securing a second place finish in the pole vault with a final vault of 4.57 meters. Junior Peter Li's 13.93 meter throw in the shot put and 41.41 meter throw in the discus were good for tenth and seventh place in those events.

On the women's side, the Jays delivered strong performances from juniors Paula Osborn and Jordan Ireton, as well as freshman Anita Mikkilineni.

Osborn had a strong showing in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes, putting up times of 12.86 and 26.34, good for 15th and 16th place.

Ireton finished in 11th place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.86. Mikkilineni competed in the 100 and 400 meter hurdles, finishing in 16.55 and 1:09.75 to take 15th and 12th place in the events.

All three came back in the 4x100 meter relay to join senior Jessica Reeves in running a time of 51.62, good for seventh place. In the field, senior Becky Lossing tied for third in the high jump with a leap of 1.52 meters. Fellow senior Chantel Priolo took seventh in the javelin throw with a toss of 32.85m.

On the distance side, the Jays had the 25th and 28th place finishes in the 1500 meter run, with junior Rachel Hogen running 5:00.73 and sophomore Mira Patel running 5:03.72. Freshmen Christina Valerio and Megan Brower finished 16th and 19th in the 5000 meter run, with times of 19:43.48 and 20:10.25.

At Goucher, the men were led by strong performances out of freshmen Derek Cheng and Kenny Seidl, and sophomore Chris De Laigelisa. Cheng took first in the 3000 meter run in a time of 9:21.25. Seidl earned fifth place finishes in both the 100 and 200 meter dash, running times of 11.69 and 23.67.

De Laigelisa's time of 52.78 earned him a second place finish in the 400 meter dash, while his 24.09 in the 200 meter dash was good for sixth place.

On the women's side, senior Kelly Gonzalez took fifth place in the 800 meter run, running a 2:33.28. Senior Jess Chin was the top finisher in the 1500 meter run, running 5:16.72 and finishing in ninth place.

Freshman Sharon Green and senior Allyson Seger both earned second place finishes. Green took second in the 10,000 meter run with her time of 44:51.11, and Seger ran 13:33.14 in the 3000 meter steeplechase.

"Last year, I ran in New York Road Runners races that were much farther distances than high school track meets for fun," said Green. "I couldn't wait to run the 10,000 in college. After the race, I was just exhausted from racing for nearly 45 minutes. I'm looking forward to running it again!"

Both the men and women will continue competition this Saturday as they travel to Allentown, Penn. to compete in the Muhlenberg Invitational.