Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics.
The Ramapo men’s indoor track and field team opened the season in style on Saturday, Dec. 4 at the TCNJ Winter Open at The Armory in New York City. Multiple Roadrunners beat school records en route to a successful night for the school. At this event, Ramapo competed against National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and III teams.
The most notable record set by Ramapo at the Open was in the 300 meter dash. Middle distance runner Cheickna Traore broke his previous NCAA DIII record, as well as the school record, when he finished his dash after just 34.10 seconds. Traore finished in second place and his name is once again in the Ramapo record books.
Moving onto the 600 meter dash, it was another record-breaking performance, this time by senior middle distance runner Max Dubac. Dubac — who finished eighth overall out of 25 runners — ended up with a time of 1:23.14, another school record.
In the 5k race, senior distance runner Steven Fiumefreddo ended up with another Ramapo record after he finished the race with a time of 14:56.18, good enough for first place overall. Slightly behind Fiumefreddo was Jason Mercado, who finished third overall in the race after clocking a 15:57.30 time. Coming in soon after Mercado was Ramapo’s third top-five finisher in Nicholas DeMarco. When he crossed the finish line, the clock read 16:07.24 and he ended up finishing fifth in the entire race.
Justin Martone was able to complete the 60 meter hurdles with a time of just 9.12 seconds, which was good enough for fifth overall at the competition and eighth all-time in Ramapo history. In the mile run, Matt Cortez finished his distance with a time of 4:39.55. Jordan Potterton also had a successful night, finishing in second place in the triple jump with a mark of 13.46 meters. He also placed seventh in the long jump with a final distance of 6.51 meters. Potterton’s 13.46 meters in the triple jump ended up being fourth all-time for Ramapo, while his long jump distance placed him seventh all-time in the school’s history.
In the high jump, Connor Belica ended up finishing seventh overall after he cleared a height of 1.78 meters. That number placed him 10th all-time for Ramapo. Wrapping up the meet, the 4×400-meter relay team placed fourth with a time of 3:26.48.
Ramapo will look to follow up this historic day after winter break when the team returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 22. They will travel back to The Armory in NYC for the TCNJ Indoor Invitational. The meet is scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m..
bschmid@ramapo.edu
