Photo: Megan White
Thursday, April 26 and Friday, April 27, the Elizabethtown College track and field teams participated in this year’s Penn Relays at Franklin Field.
Thursday, senior Maria Anderson ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the women’s team. According to the Penn Relays website, she placed 26th with a time of 10:56.39 and nearly broke records for the team.
The current record time for Etown is 10:55.47, which was earned by 2010 graduate Megan VanDenHengel Larson. Anderson is the first Blue Jay to finish in under 11 minutes since then, according to athletic.net.
The list suggests the closest anyone came to finishing under 11 minutes before Anderson was Megan Tursi in 2014, who was a senior at that time. She came just shy of 11 minutes, at 11:00.62.
Senior Brenna McNamee ran the 10,000-meter race, in which she earned 15th place with a time of 39:51.88. She now holds the 13th best time for the female Blue Jay team in the 10,000-meter race.
Saturday, the women’s team returned home for the Blue Jay Tune Up, in which the Jays placed first out of 11 teams. Senior Lia Chak brought home a victory with the 400-meter event, finishing off with a time of 1:00.58.
Elizabethtown Athletics says four other Blue Jay team members, including seniors Alexa Feduchak, Kelsey Brady and Alyssa Taylor and sophomore Courtney Gelb, also won events for the Jays. Feduchak won the hammer throw, Gelb won the 5,000-meter race, Brady won the 800-meter race and Taylor won the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Friday, members of the men’s team represented Etown at the Penn Relays by running in the 4×400-meter Pop Haddleton MAC race.
Stevenson University came out on top with a time of 3:19.93, according to the Penn Relays website. The Blue Jays followed behind by just a few seconds, earning sixth place with a time of 3:23.99.
The Blue Jays in this race were seniors Mitch Schlegel, Nick Winch and Tom Fitzgerald and junior James Teal.
Schlegel made the quickest time of all four athletes at 48.83, while the other runners earned times 50.68, 52.18 and 52.32, respectively.
The men’s team also took first out of 11 teams in the Blue Jay Tune Up. The men’s team won eight events, including the hammer throw, the 100-meter, the 200-meter, the 400-meter, the 800-meter, the 1500-meter, the 4×100-meter and the 4×400-meter, according to Elizabethtown Athletics.
Schlegel and first-year Ean Mann each had wins in three separate events. Mann won in both the 100-meter and the 200-meter races with respective times of 10.96 and 22.28. He and Schlegel worked with their team to win the 4×100-meter relay with a time of 43.27. In addition, Schlegel won the 400-meter race at 49.29 and the 4×400-meter at 3:33.03.
The men’s and women’s track and field teams will be back for the 2018 Landmark Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships this weekend, May 5 and May 6, at the College.
