Elizabethtown College’s men’s and women’s track and field team had a fantastic showing in not one meet this past weekend, but two.
The Jays headed to the Widener Field Meet on Thursday, Jan. 31. The lone participant from Etown on the first day, sophomore Joe Bayona, entered into the first day of the heptathlon at the Schwartz Center at Widener University. Bayona competed in the first four of his seven events: the 55m dash, long jump, high jump and shot put. After the first day, Bayona picked up a total of 1,609 points.
On the second day, Bayona competed in his final three events: pole vault, 55m hurdles, and 1000m, finishing 13 points short of the MAC qualifying standard of 3,000 points, but still good enough for a fifth place finish.
Saturday, the Jays headed to Haverford College for the Seamus McElligott Invitational for their second meet of the weekend, where a number of Jays climbed into the school’s indoor top ten list.
On the field, senior jumper Jenna Niedermayer, who holds indoor and outdoor school records in the long and triple jumps, won Rookie of the Year at MAC Indoors in 2010 and is the two-time reigning MAC Field Athlete of the Year at the conference indoor meet. She also bested the competition in both the high jump and triple jump, moving into a fourth place tie for Etown’s high jump record.
Junior thrower Lucas Dayhoff set a new personal and school record in the shot put for the second week in a row. With a distance of 50’6-1/4” (15.40m), Dayhoff secured his first place and school record by out-distancing second-place finisher Dickinson College’s Casey Caslin by nearly 7.5 feet. Dayhoff’s throw vaulted him to 27th in the NCAA Division III this season. Dayhoff said, “It feels amazing to break the school record for the second straight week. I broke my record three times this weekend, once at Widener and twice at Haverford. I was feeling great going into the meet and just let loose for my personal record. It’s great to get far marks now because I am nowhere near my peak. We are still lifting heavy so I’m excited with how far I could throw fresh. This goes the same for the team because we are all still training hard, so when we compete in three weeks we will be so much better.”
The women’s throwers also had a good weekend with first-year Diarra Molock and junior Eileen Kroszner ending with sixth and eighth place finishes respectively in the shot put.
On the track, Etown grabbed a few more top ten records. First-year Rachel Carr smashed her PR with a new best time of 2:19.18 and ended third of 43 entries. She rocketed herself eight spots to second on the top ten.
Junior Traci Tempone, 2012 NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships qualifier, beat out the competition for first place in the 5k, including Division I Villanova University’s Meghan Smith. Tempone said of the running for the Blue Jays, “Etown gives us the opportunities to compete against DI schools, and although we don’t have the pacers and the nice facilities, it shows us that we can still compete and do well.”
The Blue Jay sprinters made strong efforts in the competition as well. Senior Pam Jaraczewski had the ninth quickest time in the 60m at 8.63. First year Mary Clyne ran a 9.03 to improve her PR by just over a tenth of a second, while junior Jackie Zylka finished in 9.13. On the men’s side, junior Kevin Aspril and senior Luke Rotenberger competed in the 60m, with times of 7.64 and 7.73, respectively. Senior Ashley Lockwood’s 1:04.48 in the 400m placed her in eighth, while first-year Lindsey Pekurny finished in tenth with a PR of 1:04.91.
The women’s 4x400m team, made up of Lockwood, Carr, sophomore Amelia Tearnan and sophomore Ashley Underkofler, ran the third best time in the meet, and the eighth best time in school history. Lockwood said, “This 4×400 team is an amazing group of girls with the raw talent and potential to do very well at MACs [Middle Atlantic Conference]. We are working hard every day to be the ones standing on the podium at the end of the month and can’t wait for the next meet.”
Next Saturday, Etown will be headed to Susquehanna University for the Susquehanna Invitational. The Jays will return the following week before heading to Lehigh University for the MAC Indoor Championships on Feb. 23.