Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
The Ramapo Roadrunners men and women’s track teams hosted the Ramapo College Indoor Select track meet on Saturday at the New Balance Armory Track and Field Center in New York City.
Both Ramapo teams had success at the event, as the men’s team finished second overall with 79 points, and the women’s team tied for fourth place with 47 points.
At the meet, 19 different colleges were represented, as the men and women’s teams from each school competed against one another in 16 different ranked events. Texas A&M Kingsville took first in both the men and women’s with 109 and 82 points respectively.
Other schools at the meet included regional opponents like Rowan, Stockton and Stevens Institute of Technology, as well as teams from across the nation such as Virginia Union University, Wheaton College and TAMU Kingsville.
Several Roadrunners had individual success at the meet, including freshman Jeremy Hernandez who won the 800-meter race with a time of 1:50.83. The time set a new record at the NY Armory for the fastest 800-meter race by a Division III athlete.
Senior Peter Tuohy and junior Paul Juelis also had personal best and Eastern College Athletic Conference qualifying times in the 800-meter race with times of 1:54.71 and 1:55.23 respectively. They earned fourth and fifth place in the race behind Hernandez, sophomore Mical Idziak of TAMU Kingsville and senior Kyle Edwards of Lincoln University.
Senior Billy Howell ran a new personal best to win the 5,000-meter race for the Roadrunners as he finished first in the race with a time of 15:28.88.
The men’s distance medley team of Hernandez, Tuohy, Juelis and freshman Aaron Wood finished at 10:20.42 to earn a first place finish for the Roadrunners in the event. The team was just .07 away from the current school record.
Despite the entire men’s team’s collective effort, they finished 30 points behind TAMU Kingsville in the final standings.
Members of the Ramapo women’s team also had impressive individual performances, though as a whole, the team finished the day in a three-way tie for fourth place with Rowan and John Hopkins University.
Freshman Paris Hughes finished fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:19.01, a new personal best and an ECAC qualifying time.
Sophomore Mariah Blanton finished the 200-meter dash in ninth place with a personal best time of 26.42, which was also good for an ECAC qualification.
The roadrunners earned the third, fourth and fifth place finishes in the pole vault as junior Emily Shipley and seniors Brittany DalCais and Danielle Wankmuller all cleared 3.20 meters. Shipley and DalCais went on the clear 3.50 meters, as well.
The next event for both Ramapo teams will be on Feb. 13, when the Roadrunners travel to Massachusetts for the Boston University Valentine Invitational.
