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Bronx, N.Y. – Friday night had a special kickoff to the 2016-17 track and field season as Fordham honored one of its all-time greats with a banner unveiling ceremony for two-time Olympic gold medalist and NCAA champion, Tom Courtney, FCRH '55.
Courtney started his stellar career with a win at the IC4A Championship in the 1000-yard run in 1954. A year later, Courtney won the NCAA title in the 880-yard competition and anchored the world record setting 2-mile relay team with classmates Terrance Foley, Frank Tarsney and Bill Perischetty. He took the gold in the 800 meter run at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, setting an Olympic Record in the process and then
later won his second gold medal in the 4x400 meter relay.
Courtney was inducted into the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame in 1971.
"I want to thank Artie O'Connor and all the past runners and all today's runners here." said Courtney. "I know there are some very good runners here and I look forward to see you try some of your things today. Fordham has been a great part of my life and I have great memories from it."
Following the banner unveiling the Fordham men's and women's track teams hosted the Fordham Season Opener, a six team compliance meet.
Fordham had six wins tonight. Event winners included
Richard Webber in the 60 meter dash (7.02) and 200 meter dash (23.16),
Louis Santelli in the 800 meter run (1:55.15),
Sean Phillips in the 1000 meter run (2:32.89), Fordham's "A" 4x400 men's relay team and
Mary Kate Kenny in the women's 200 meter dash (25.90).
Other top performers were
Griffin Bilicic, who finished fourth in the 200 meter dash (23.64),
Jared Benn and
Eddie Dehais, who finished second and fourth in the 500 meter dash with times of 1:05.93 and 1:08.36, respectively,
Michael Petersen, who was second in the 800 meter run (1:55.56),
Patrick Dineen who was third in the 1000 meter run (2:38.22) and
Fritz Heinrich, who finished fourth in the mile run with a time of 4:29.78.
Top performers on the women's side included,
Nkeka Pinheiro, who finished fifth in the 60 meter dash (7.98) and fourth in the 200 meter dash (26.15),
Morgan Menzzasalma and
Christina Perrier, who finished second and fourth in the 500 meter dash with times of 1:17.98 and 1:20.74 respectively and
Merissa Wright and
Aidan Moroz who finished second and fifth in the 800 meter run with times of 2:18.82 and 2:22.24 respectively. In the 1000 meter run,
Sydney Snow,
Kaia Corthell and
Laurel Fisher all finished in the top five with times of 3:04.90, 3:07.67 and 3:09.36,
Katarzyna Krzyzanowski took 4
th in the mile run (5:28.02),
Maiya Larsen and Isabel Huelskamp finished back to back at fifth and sixth place in the 3000 meter run with respective times of 11:09:39 and 11:13.53 and
Gabrielle Schreib (3
rd – 9:57) and
Kylie Farrell (5
th – 9.73) finished in the top five in the 60 meter hurdles.
Also finishing well for the Ram women were
Neve Devine who took second in the high jump (1.55m),
Gabriella Gavalas who took 4
th in both the long jump (5.29m) and triple jump (10.69m) and
Alina Kwiatkowski who took fifth in the high jump (1.45m) and shot put (9.37m) and the "A" 4x400 relay team.
The Rams return to action on January 6 at the Wagner Invitational at the OBP Track and Field Complex in Staten Island, N.Y. Events begin at 12 p.m.
