On Friday and Saturday, eight members of the Ramapo College men’s indoor track and field team and six members of the Ramapo College women’s indoor track and field team competed at the All-Atlantic Region Indoor Track & Field Championships held at the New York Armory.
Cheickna Traore won the 400m dash with a meet record time of 47.87 seconds. He currently holds the No. 1 time in the 400m dash, while he is No. 3 in the 200m dash and No. 5 in the 60m dash. Traore has also been named the Men’s Indoor Track & Field G. Larry James Most Outstanding Athlete of the Year and was named New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) First Team All-Conference earlier in the week.
This is the second straight season Traore has been honored with this major award during the indoor season. He defended his titles from a year ago in the 60m and 200m events and posted a NJAC Championship Meet Record time of 21.35 seconds in the 200m dash.
Traore’s winning time in the 60m race (6.81 seconds) was one one-hundredths of a second off his own NJAC Championship record time. He currently holds the third-fastest time in NCAA Division III (21.27 seconds) in the 200m dash and fifth-fastest time in the 60m dash (6.76 seconds). Both are No. 1 in the NCAA Metro Region this season.
The 4×400 men’s relay team finished seventh overall with a combined time of 3:26.70. The team was made up of Terrell Lockett, Kenyon Fenderson, Saim Syed and Ryan Pena.
Three Roadrunners competed in the 800m race as Max Dubac posted a time of 1:56.81 for an 11th-place finish. Pena clocked in at 1:56.86 to finish 12th while Syed clocked in at 2:03.92 to finish in 31st place. Fenderson posted a time of 7.14 seconds in the 60m dash and placed 23rd overall.
In the field, Tanner Christie recorded a mark of 13.2m in the shot put to place 20th while Zach Hartung recorded a mark of 12.76m to finish in 37th place.
As for the women, Suzanne Zaugg crushed the school record in the 3k race as she brought home a time of 10:22.03 and finished in tenth place overall. Zaugg broke a record set in 2017 by over five seconds. She was also named to NJAC Honorable Mention All-Conference earlier in the week.
In the 60m dash prelims, Gbarper Dwah posted a time of 7.74 seconds and finished second to qualify for the finals. Dwah, currently has the seventh-best time in the 60m dash in all of NCAA Division III this season. Prior to the meet, Dwah was named the NJAC Women’s Indoor Track & Field Outstanding Track Athlete.
In the 200m dash, Rebecca Kneppel grabbed a 10th-place finish as she posted a time of 25.73 seconds while Meredith Yaskovic posted a time of 26.04 seconds to finish in 16th place overall. In the mile run, Zoey Cassavell clocked in at 5:21.22 as she placed 24th overall.
The 4x400m relay team grabbed a sixth-place finish when they combined for a time of 4:00.65. The team was made up of Barbara Exilus, Kneppel, Yaskovic and Dwah.
Next on the track and field teams’ schedules are seeing the qualifications for the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships, which are set to take place March 10 and 11 in Birmingham, Alabama.
twaschek@ramapo.edu
Featured photos courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
