At the start of February, the Elizabethtown College Blue Jays track and field teams traveled to Reading, Pennsylvania. for the fourth event of their season: the Alvernia Plex Shootout.
On the field, the Blue Jays reached new heights in jump-based events. Etown sophomore Kate Bendall and first-year Kirsten Navich outperformed athletes from Muhlenberg and York in the women’s triple jump. Navich achieved fourth place with a score of 10.08 meters, and Bendall scored 0.04 meters below second place with a score of 10.64 meters.
More competitors were present in the men’s events, but the Blue Jays did not falter. Etown first-year Lucas Beaver got a score of 11.64 meters in the triple jump; a score only beaten by three other athletes in the entire event. Beaver did similarly well in the long jump, again placing in fourth with a score of 6.07 meters.
Of course, it was not only the first-year students who outperformed most others on the field. During the women’s shot-put event, Etown senior Mylea Neidig placed third with a score of 11.10 meters. This performance landed considerably close to first and second place’s scores of 12.04 meters and 11.70 meters, respectively.
Meanwhile, while the Blue Jays’ best score in the men’s shot put only achieved 13th place, they came back swinging in the men’s weight toss. Etown senior Aspen Stahl-Emig and Etown sophomore Joseph Walko achieved sixth and fifth place scores of 13.54 meters and 14.07 meters, respectively.
On the track, while Etown athletes were not present for the first few events, their eventual performance matched their teammates on the field. During preliminary rounds for the four 60-meter races, four Blue Jay athletes qualified for finals. Etown senior Adam Carmo got sixth in the men’s 60-meter hurdle, junior Matthew Lamb achieved fifth in the men’s 60-meter race, and sophomores Bendall and Caleigh Bold finished in seventh and eighth place, respectively.
During those finals, the standings essentially stayed the same for the Blue Jays at the end. Lamb, Bendall and Bold achieved fifth, seventh and eighth place in their respective events. Meanwhile, Carmo pushed ahead of the competition and went from fifth to fourth place with a time of 8:83 seconds, just 0.01 seconds behind third place.
Before those finals occurred, the Blue Jays were doing even better during the women’s one-mile event. Etown senior Maureen Bosak competed in the event’s first heat and started the race neck-and-neck with most of the other racers. Two minutes into the event, Dickinson College senior Amiyah Priebe established a strong lead, with Bosak, Dickinson first-year Sophia Kovatsis and York senior Lindsay Fry not far behind. Priebe’s lead seemed unbreakable, but Bosak eventually developed a slight lead ahead of Fry and Kovatsis. As the event reached its final lap, Bosak closed some distance between themselves and Priebe. While it was not enough to overtake Priebe, Bosak’s efforts earned them second place—in their heat and the whole competition—with a time of 5:29.95.
Other Etown athletes performed just as well on the track. Sophomore Trevor Albright placed 0.11 seconds behind first place in the men’s 400-meter race, Bold got a time of 27.49 seconds in the women’s 200-meter race and a team consisting of Bendall, Bold and Etown seniors Sophie Shadle and Melissa Patton achieved a time of 1:51.23 in the women’s 200-meter relay.
By the end of the event, the Blue Jays men’s team achieved fifth place with a score of 51 points and the women’s team achieved third place with 55 points. The next event for these teams will be at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston, Maryland, on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14.
