Five members from both of the men’s and women’s track and field teams on Friday traveled to Boston to compete in the David Hemery Valentine Invitational hosted by Boston University.
To no one’s surprise, freshman Dale Leonard once again performed phenomenally, breaking her own indoor mile record. Finishing at 4:54.99, she placed second in the heat. Out of the 15 competitors, there were five freshmen, and Leonard was the top.
Her previous record was 4:57.05, which was already lowered from her previous record of 5:05.59 from the opening season. With each meet, Leonard proves to be an amazing athlete for the Roadrunners.
“Dale is off to a great start of what looks to be a very exciting career here at Ramapo College,” said head coach Justina Cassavell. “She is a very talented athlete who has a great work ethic. I feel very confident she will continue to break records and compete at the national level for years to come.”
Senior Suzanne Zaugg finished at 5:19.52, placing 10th in her heat. Junior Zoey Cassavell clocked in at 5:32.57.
Juniors Barbara Exilus and Rebecca Kneppel ran the 400m and 200m dashes. In the 400m, the girls finished at 1:03.23 and 59.41, respectively. In the 200m, Kneppel placed fourth in her heat at 26.25 seconds, while Exilus finished at 28.65 seconds.
“We have a good core of student athletes,” Justina Cassavell said. “We are looking forward to watching them progress in the next few months.”
For the men, sophomore Brandon Balcacer participated in the 60m dash, clocking in at 7.10 seconds. In the 200m dash, he set a new personal best of 22.20 seconds.
Junior Terrell Lockett also set a personal best in this competition, finishing at 22.68 seconds in the 200m dash. He also ran the 400m dash, finishing with a time of 51.08 seconds.
Senior Anthony Bertollo and sophomore Ryan Pena competed in the 800m in their own heats, Pena placing fourth with a time of 1:56.43 and Bertollo at 2:02.36.
The following day, they competed at the Big Apple Invitational in Staten Island, New York. Freshman Mike Okafor-Brown continued the streak of setting personal records, finishing the 60m dash in 7.38 seconds and the 200m dash in 23.74 seconds.
Recording another two personal best records was sophomore Matt Suero, who clocked in at 53.22 seconds in the 400m and 23.56 seconds in the 200m.
Freshman Logan Natale also ran the 200m and 400m, finishing in 23.77 seconds and 53.17 seconds, respectively. Sophomore Colin Unis clocked in at 54.31 seconds in the 400m.
Junior Ian McCauley finished with a time of 9:18.30 in the 3k and junior Michael Mohr ran the mile in 4:42.72.
Junior Ryan Scully placed seventh in the 1k after finishing at 2:42.17. In the 800m, sophomore Saim Syed clocked in at 2:00.85.
Senior Sebastian Pross threw a mark of 14.59m in the weight throw, earning him 15th place.
Both teams will compete next at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island for the 2023-2024 NJAC Indoor Track & Field Championships. Good luck Roadrunners!
ajones11@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
