Photo courtesy of Etown Athletics @ etownbluejays.com
Saturday, April 7 Elizabethtown College’s men’s and women’s track and field teams participated in the Millersville Metrics meet at Millersville University. The men’s team finished with 81 points, coming in second out of 19 teams. The women’s team finished third out of 19 teams with 52 points.
First-year Ean Mann and senior Mitch Schlegel led the men’s Jays to their second-place finish, each winning an event for Etown. Mann took first in the 100-meter race and Schlegel finished first in the 200-meter race.
Mann and Schlegel also contributed to Etown’s first-place finish in the 4×100-meter relay along with senior Bradley Vasilik and first-year A.J. Calabrese. Schlegel anchored the 4×400-meter relay for his third first-place finish of the meet with senior teammate Tommy Fitzgerald, junior Nick Winch and sophomore James Teal. In addition to the first-place relay finish, Fitzgerald also had a strong performance in the 800-meter race in which he placed second.
The Jays finished second to Messiah College, which outscored Etown by only 14.5 points. On the women’s side, first-year Kaitlin Donahue won the first outdoor track event of her career. She finished the 10,000-meter race in 41:38.17, making her one of only two runners to finish the race in under 42:00. Junior Emily Nelson took third place in the event with a time of 42:28.32.
Senior Maria Anderson also brought home a first-place finish for the team in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Anderson finished the event in 11:20.12, 15 seconds faster than Messiah sophomore Leanne Weaver.
The Blue Jays took second in the 4×400-meter relay, finishing nine seconds behind Bloomsburg University. The relay included seniors Kelsey Brady, Lia Chak and Kelsey Bentz and graduate student Alexis Groce, who earned eight points for the team. Chak, sophomores Ashleigh Denault and Jordan Sobolesky and junior Christina Ippolito competed in the 4×100-meter relay for Etown and finished in fifth with a time of 53.30.
The women also had three athletes earn top-ten all-time performances. Sophomore Natalie Nye pole vaulted 3.00-meters, which puts her in sixth place on the top ten all-time performance list. Senior Karly Deam was right behind her with a 2.85-meter vault, moving her into the seventh-place position. Also in a new position on the list is junior Abby Drumheller, who is now ranked eighth in the discus throw with 30.15 meters.
The men’s and women’s teams will compete in the Messiah Invitational at Messiah College Friday, April 13 and Saturday, April 14. Also on Saturday, the teams will compete at Bucknell University in the Bucknell Outdoor Classic.
