April 18, 2009
Complete Results
Leonia, N.J. - The Fordham University outdoor track & field teams had a repeat performance at the 2009 Metropolitan Championships, held at the Overpeck Park Sportsplex in Leonia, New Jersey. The Fordham men captured their second consecutive Metropolitan Championship team title, while the women matched their performance from 2008, taking second overall.
The Fordham men won the team championship with a score of 240 points, while the women were second with 129 points, trailing only St. John's (222).
Another repeat performance came from senior Matt DiBuono, as he captured Athlete of the Meet honors for the second straight year, winning three field event titles: the hammer throw, discus throw, and shot put. In the hammer throw, DiBuono again bettered his school record with a toss of over 213' (65.04m), which is top in the Atlantic 10 this season. He also took the discus throw with a mark of 45.55 meters and the shot put with a distance of 14.64 meters.
Joining DiBuono with multiple wins on the day, seniors Melissa Salerno and Brigid Moriarty each captured two track event wins. Salerno won the 800 meters in 2:14.01, and then won the 1,500 meters in 4:40.23. Moriarty won both distance events, taking the 5,000 meters in 19:33.77, and the 10,000 meters in a season-best time of 39:31.15.
Also setting a school record for the women was Jeana Fletcher, who placed fourth in the shot put with a toss of 12.00m (39' 4.5"), breaking the former school record of 37' 3.75" set by Kerstin Greene in 2007.
Fordham had four other individual event wins on the day. Sophomore
Brian Schmidt made it a Fordham sweep in the 800 meters, winning the event in a season-best time of 1:53.35, while senior
Tim Hartnett completed the 10,000 meter sweep with a win in 33:14.80. Graduate student
Jason Grant won the triple jump event with a leap of 13.91 meters, while freshman
Blair Hassell won the women's javelin throw with a throw of 36.54 meters.
The Rams also had 10 athletes finish in either second or third place in their event. Tom Finnerty was second in the 1,500 meters (3:54.47), while Brian Riley was third in the 5,000 meters in 15:30.64. Kerri Gallagher was third in the women's 800 meters (2:15.68) with Tim Hutchinson placing third in the men's 800 meters in 1:54.58. Kevin Fitzgerald was third in the men's 3000 meter steeplechase (9:54.25) with Ken Baron (3.98m) and Maggie McGowan (2.89m) both taking third in the men's and women's pole vault, respectively. Grant (2nd - HJ - 2.00m), Vincent Servello (3rd - TJ - 12.95m), and Chris Kozlowski (2nd - SP - 14.28m) rounded out the top three finishes for the Rams.
Other top performers for Fordham included Augustus Gleason, who scored in four different events (5th - 110 H, 5th - HJ, 5th - LJ, 5th - PV), and Servello, who scored in a team-best five events (6th - 110 H, 6th - HJ, 4th - PV, 6th - LJ, 3rd, - TJ).
In the relays, the men's 4x800 relay won their event in 7:50.12, while the 4x100 (43.42) and 4x400 (3:18.83) relays were both second in season-best times. For the women, the 4x800 relay was second in 9:19.23, while the 4x100 (49.87) was third and the 4x400 (4:01.31) was fourth, both in season-best times.
The Fordham track and field teams will next be in action on April 23-25, as they compete at the Penn Relays, held at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Men's Team Scores
Rank - Team Name - Score
1 - Fordham - 240, 2 - Long Island - 118, 3 - So. Conn. St. - 107, 4 - FDU - 77, 5 - NYU - 65, 6 - Marist - 57, 7 - St. Francis (N.Y.) - 56, 8 - Wagner - 39, 9 - Iona - 25
Women's Team Scores
Rank - Team Name - Score
1 - St. John's - 222, 2 - Fordham - 129, 3 - Long Island - 110, 4 - So. Conn. St. - 66, 5 - FDU - 65, 6 - Wagner - 62.5, 7 - Iona - 51, 8 - Marist - 38.5, 9 - St. Francis (N.Y.) 36, 10 - NYU - 26
