The Binghamton men’s and women’s track and field teams had strong showings in both the Penn State National Open and the Cornell Kane Invitational over the weekend. Neither meet had team scoring, but many Bearcats placed in various individual competitions.
“[We were] just looking for improvement from the team as a whole,” said BU head coach Mike Thompson.
At Penn State, sophomore Matt Baker finished in first place in the triple jump event (48-0 ½), while the top performance from the women was graduate student Keishorea Armstrong, who finished second in the long jump event (19-10 ¾).
Other notable performances at the Penn State National Open came from graduate student Eric Holt, sophomore Dan Schaffer and senior Allison Davis. Holt and Schaffer finished in third place and fourth place, respectively, in the mile invitational. They finished within one-hundredth of a second of each other, with Holt recording a time of 4:07.46 and Schaffer a time of 4:07.47. Davis finished in fourth place in the women’s 3,000-meter event with a time of 9:54.23.
Thompson made it clear that the Penn State meet was an important one for the team, as he mentioned last week that a few of the best athletes on both teams were sitting in order to rest for this past weekend’s events.
“The group we took to PSU, which would be the best, the top people on our team, did better than I even would have hoped for,” Thompson said. “So it worked out really well.”
The Bearcats didn’t overlook the opportunity at the Cornell Kane Invitational this weekend either. Sophomore Elly Scherer won the women’s 60-meter hurdles and junior Shamar Powell took first in the men’s 1,000-meter race with a time of 2:31.41.
The men’s team also had a trio of second-place finishes. Sophomore Grayson Hoteling came in second in the men’s 1,000-meter event with a time of 2:32.11, junior Nate Gerhardt was runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles and senior Travis Fountain narrowly missed first place in the pole vault (16-0 ¾).
For the women, sophomore Janelle Williams and freshman Hallie Buddendeck finished in second place and third place in the women’s 60-meter race, respectively. Senior Rasheedah Shardow was the runner-up in the women’s 60-meter hurdles as well, rounding out a strong showing from the women’s side at the Cornell Kane Invitational.
After another successful weekend for both teams, the Bearcats have given themselves some momentum heading into the second half of the indoor season. Thompson was pleased with the results of both meets, as well as how his athletes have performed so far this season.
“I think most people are at or a little better than I had hoped for this time of the year,” Thompson said. “The results for the two meets this weekend were fantastic for the most part. It was a very good weekend.”
Next on the schedule for the Bearcats is the Sykes and Sabock Challenge at Penn State. The event is scheduled for this Friday and Saturday.