Track & Field Finishes Big at Metropolitan Championship

Scores | Results
 
Staten Island, N.Y. – (February 1, 2019) – While most of the Tri-State area was still dealing with extreme cold temperatures, the Fordham track & field team was on fire on Friday at the 2019 Metropolitan Indoor Championships, held at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island.  The Rams saw both the men's and women's teams finish in the top three at the Championship with the men in second and the women in third.  Both competitions had 15 teams.
 
For the men, it was their highest finish in recent memory, besting a third place team finish in 2018, 2013, and 2012, while for the women, the third place finish was their best since a third place finish in 2014 and 2015.  Individually, Fordham also had six Metropolitan event champions, eight runner-up finishes, and one new ECAC qualifier.
 
In the men's competition, Rutgers earned the team title with 219.5 points, followed by Fordham with 100, and Manhattan with 99.

 
The Rams had three men's event champions, beginning with Ryan Kutch in the 5,000 meter run, as he posted a time of 15:24.11.  Later, Nicholas Raefski won the 3,000 meter event in a time of 8:35.82, as the Rams finished 1-2 in the event with Brandon Hall in second (8:41.22).  The final men's champion was Andrew Byrne in the heptathlon with a score of 4,458 points.  Byrne was first in four of the seven events, including the long jump (20' 5 ¾"), pole vault (12' 1 ½"), high jump (6' 6"), and 1000 meter run (2:55.49), while being second in the shot put (32' 7 ¾") and third in the 60 meter dash (7.54) and 60 meter hurdles (9.66).

 
Aside from Hall, Fordham had three other runner-up finishes.  Nikolas Reardon grabbed second in the triple jump at 47' ¼", with Sean Sullivan also doing so in the mile run in 4:15.27.  Both would also add to the team score in one other event.  Reardon was fifth in the long jump, posting a season-best mark of 23' 2 ¾", while Sullivan joined Jared Benn, Sean Phillips, and Kutch on the distance medley relay that took third in 10:19.85.
 
Then with a chance at second in the team standings, the 4x400 relay team of Kyle Mack, Arthur Gooden Jr., Jack Keegan, and Andre Guthrie, Jr., closed out the meet with a second place finish in 3:21.70 to reach the 100 point mark for the team.  Gooden and Mack also scored individually with Gooden taking fifth in the 500 meter run (1:05.50) and Mack finishing seventh in the 400 meter dash (50.79).
 
Other performers to score were Ryan McGraw in the long jump (6^th – 22' 5 ¾), Connor McKeown in the heptathlon (4^th – 2,777 points), Zalen Nelson (6^th – 1:57.53) and Jordan Milite (7^th – 2:00.02) in the 800 meter run, Patrick Dineen (5^th – 2:32.17) and Christopher Strzelinski (8^th – 2:33.15) in the 1000 meters, Patrick Donahue in the 3000 meters (8^th – 9:03.54), and the 4x800 relay team of Jeremiah LaDuca, Strzelinski, Dineen, and Nelson (5^th – 8:08.22).
 
In the women's competition, it was a three-way race for the top spot, which eventually went to Rutgers with 131 points, followed by St. John's in second (123) and Fordham in third (114).
 
Like the men, the Fordham women had three event champions, led by Aidan Moroz, who was a two-time winner on Friday.  She started by winning the 800 meter run in a season-best time of 2:13.95 and then joined Sydney Snow, Dana Beggins, and Kate McCormack to take first in the 4x800 relay in 9:18.56.  Snow and McCormack also scored individually, as McCormack took second behind Moroz in the 800 meters in 2:17.69, with taking fifth in the 1000 meter run in 3:04.08.  The third event champion for the Fordham women was Katarzyna Krzyzanowski, who took first in the 3,000 meter run in a season-best time of 10:00.84.

 
Besides McCormack, the Rams had three other runner-up finishes.  Kathryn Kelly placed second in the long jump, as she qualified for the ECAC Championship with a distance of 18' 7 ¼", while also taking fifth in the 60 meter dash (7.74), the 200 meter dash (25.23), and the 4x400 relay with Sarinnagh Budris, Gabrielle Schreib, and Brielle Lewis (4:05.04).
 
Angelina Grebe and Laurel Fisher also had second place finishes for Fordham, as Grebe was second in the 5,000 meter run in a season-best time of 17:30.17, while Fisher took silver in the mile run in 5:09.47.  The duo also scored as a part of the distance medley relay with Dominique Valentine and Sarah Daniels, which took third in 12:21.64.
 
Other scoring performances came from Neve Devine in the high jump (4^th – 5' 1"), Germaine Harbaugh in the 5,000 meters (4^th – 18:33.65), Daniels in the mile run (5^th – 5:16.61), Valentine in the 400 meter dash (6^th - 57.95), Budris in the 500 meters (7^th – 1:16.78), Blake Elwood in the 1000 meters (6^th – 3:06.34), Abigail Taylor (4^th – 10:19.05) and Bridget Alex (6^th – 10:32.15) in the 3,000 meter run.
 
The Rams will next be in action at the Valentine Classic, hosted by Boston University, February 8-9.