Results
Kingston, R.I. - (Feb. 17, 2012) - The opening day of the 2012 Atlantic 10 Indoor Track & Field Championship is in the books at Rhode Island's Mackal Fieldhouse in Kingston, Rhode Island. After day one, the Fordham men's team sits in seventh place out of 10 teams with 10.5 points, while the women are 11th out of 12 teams with four points.
While the vast majority of finals are on Saturday, Fordham did score in two events in both the men's and women's competition on Friday. On the men's side, Keegan Talty tied for third place in the pole vault, clearing 14' 9", while the men's distance medley relay team took home fourth place in 10:13.61.
In the women's competition, it was Anisa Arsenault and Elisabeth Warren scoring for the Rams. Arsenault placed sixth in the 5,000 meter run in a career-best time of 17:17.66, which was good for an ECAC Championship qualifying time, later this season. Warren got Fordham on the board in the long jump competition, as she placed eighth with a distance of 17' 10 1/4". The women's distance medley relay team just missed scoring, as the team took ninth in a season-best time of 12:11.12.
Among the rest of the events on day one, Fordham had eight qualifiers for tomorrow's finals.
The first Fordham competitor of the day was Sam Houston in the men's heptathlon. Through the opening four events, Houston set himself up well for day two in third place with 2,882 points, trailing Charlotte's Jake Wainwright by 91 points (2,973). Houston won the shot put with a career-best mark of 39' 3 1/4", followed by a second place finish in the high jump (6' 7" - career best), a third place finish in the long jump (21' 6"), and a fifth place finish in the 60 meter dash (7.37 - career best).
In the 60 meter hurdles, Fordham had one qualifier for Saturday's finals in sophomore Sean Collins. He qualified seventh in 8.47 seconds. Daniel Clemens finished 14th overall in the men's trials (9.10), while Averie Sheppard and Courtnay Newman were 16th (9.55) and 17th (9.56), respectively in the women's trials.
The 60 meter dash and 200 meter dash saw four men's competitors for Fordham, but only three finished as David Fajoyomi was called for a false start in his heat of the 60 meters. Lourenzo Smith was the Rams' top finisher in the 60 meters in 7.10 seconds, while Frank Massaro was 18th in 7.45 seconds, as well as 16th in the 200 meter dash (23.79).
The next time trial was the 400 meters, where the Rams were unable to get a qualifier into Saturday's finals. Collins was the top finisher on the men's side in 12th place (51.38) followed by Clemens in 16th, while Elisabeth Warren was the top women's finisher in 14th place (58.86).
The same was not true in the 500 meter event, as Fordham had four athletes qualify for the finals, two on each side.
Sean Atkinson qualified third in the men's event in 1:04.89, while
Nick Delligatti was sixth in 1:05.38. On the women's side, Titi Fagade also qualified third in 1:16.44, while Kelly Connolly was ninth in 1:17.73. Melissa Higgins fell just short of the final in tenth place in 1:17.98.
In the 800 meters,
John Cosgrove was the lone Saturday qualifier, placing third in 1:55.53.
Michael Rossi took 14th overall in 1:58.47, while Ashley Davis (2:22.64) and Kellen Fitzgerald (2:24.65) were 20th and 23rd, respectively in the women's event.
The 1,000 meters saw only just two Rams' entries, but both were strong ones, as Ryan Polo and Kevin Fitzgerald posted the top two times in the trials. Polo edged Fitzgerald by .02 for the top spot at 2:28.72, compared to Fitzgerald's 2:28.74.
In addition to Arsenault, Nick Synan was 20th overall in the men's 5,000 meters with a time of 15:58.31.
In other field events, Austin Ruiz just missed scoring in the weight throw, placing ninth with a toss of 41' 2 1/2", while Smith was 11th in the long jump (21' 4 3/4"). In the women's weight throw, Blair Hassell finished 19th with a career-best throw of 39' 10 3/4" with Lindsay Ritchie taking 21st with a mark of 32' 9 1/2". Hailey Cox was the final field competitor, placing 22nd in the long jump (15' 2 3/4").
Day two of the Atlantic 10 Championship begins at 9:00 AM on Saturday.
