Outdoor track team has a strong start at the Blizzard Buster

The men’s and women’s track teams opened their outdoor season with Miami’s Blizzard Buster this week. Both teams had impressive performances from multiple athletes.

On the women’s team, sophomore Lucca Agate took second in both the 100m and 200m dashes with times of 12.42 seconds and 25.22 seconds respectively. The RedHawks took victories in both the 1500 and 3000 meter runs.

Senior Emily Akin ran first in the 1500 with a time of 4:31.21. Junior Carmen Riano ran a 16:18.39 in the 5k with sophomore Ava Nuttall right behind her taking second place.

First-year Taylor Manley had an impressive day in the field, taking first in the triple jump with 11.81m and third in long jump with a jump of 5.52m. First-year Elle Miller took second in long jump, jumping just .05m further than Manley.

Other top performers on the women’s team included first-year Abby Suszek winning the 400m dash, sophomore Marta Cepeda Pérez taking the victory in the 400m hurdles and first-year Ella Rigel walking away with a second place finish in the hammer throw.

The 4x400m and 4x800m relay teams also both took first place.

For the men, sophomore Anthony Vlatko won the 800m with a time of 1:52.79. The distance runners had a great day, taking first place finishes in 1500, 3000 and 5000 meter races. Junior Andrew Schoff pulled a narrow victory in the 1500m run, beating the second place runner by less than half a second.

Senior Alex Tam took first place in the 3k with a time of 8:29.58. Junior Obsaa Feda and sophomore Mhalicki Bronson got first and second place respectively in the 5k.

Junior Ryan Smith led the field team, placing third in the hammer throw, second in javelin and first in both shot put (16.82m) and discus (53.56m).

Other top competitors on the men’s team were sophomore Jacob Ranker winning both the 100m dash and the 400m hurdles and first-year Dominick Stockle taking the victory in long jump. The 4x100m, 4x400m and 4x800m relay teams all took first place finishes as well.

The track team will continue their season in two weeks at the University of Cincinnati for the Oliver Nikoloff Invitational. The two-day meet will begin on Friday, April 1.

@baileyalthauser