Track and field competes at River Hawk Invitational
Love, Chan takes gold for Binghamton in non-scoring event.
Over the weekend, the Binghamton men’s and women’s track teams competed in the River Hawk Invitational hosted by UMass Lowell in Boston, Massachusetts. Despite there being no team points, the Bearcats earned eight combined podium finishes, including two first-place finishes.
“It’s been kind of up and down,” Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson said. “There were some really good performances and a good number of good performances, but I think it was okay.”
After earning two first place finishes in the past two events, junior Jenna Chan continued her successful start to the season with another win. The Bearcat took gold in the 60-meter hurdles, clocking 8.75 seconds. In addition, Chan competed in the 200-meter dash, placing fifth with a time of 25.25.
“[Chan’s] time in the [60] hurdles was average for her, but she ran a really good 200,” Thompson said. “So she had a good day. Winning the hurdles was great, but I’m sure she would have liked to run faster than that.”
On the women’s side, senior Carolyn Burnell and graduate student Stephanie Cassens were also runners-up. Burnell ran the 3000 meters in 10:04.68 and Cassens competed in the 1000 meters with a time of 2:54.38. Cassens’ time in the 1000 places her third all-time in BU program history, right behind recent graduate Emily Mackay.
“It was the first time [Cassens] ever ran the 1000,” Thompson said. “It’s the furthest she’s ever raced, so it was a great performance for her. Since she had never run this far in competition, she was a little unsure of how it would go, but she ran very well. I think it was the number three time of all time for us, so it was a great race.”
The men’s team featured junior Brandon Love who took first place in the pole vault. His clearance of 15-07.00 feet earned him the only individual victory for the men’s team. Junior Marcus Johnson took second in the triple jump with a leap of 46-09.00 feet and graduate student Jake Restivo was third in the long jump with a leap of 22-05.25 feet.
“[Love] became consistent in the pole vault, which is important because that’s when the big performances come,” Thompson said. “You perform consistently and then that’s usually when people come up with a big one, and I think he’s ready to do that.”
Additionally, sophomore Jaston Ormsby and junior Josh Stone both registered personal bests in their events. Ormsby took second in the shot put with a throw of 56-05.00 feet, and Stone earned the bronze in the 3000, with a time of 8:22.75.
“They’re going to need a few more weeks to be ready to compete at conference,” Thompson said. “I’m happy with where some people are, and others aren’t doing quite as well as we want them to or as they’d like themselves to be. It will be interesting to see how the next two weeks go. Conference is in three weeks, so it’s actually coming pretty quickly so we’ll see.”
The America East (AE) Championships are scheduled to take place from Saturday 18th February to Sunday 19th February. Until then, the Bearcats have two weeks of competition, starting this weekend.
“Just the usual stuff this time of year,” Thompson said. “This time of year, we push them a little harder in practice this coming week and then start pulling back so they’re well rested going into the conference meet.”
Binghamton competes again this Saturday, February 4 at the Penn State National Open and Kane Invitational. Both events are scheduled to start at 10am
