By Akshay Kriplani Staff writer
The Susquehanna men’s and women’s track and field teams both finished strong but came up short of a conference title at the Landmark Conference Championship in Selinsgrove on Feb. 25.
The women’s track and field team took home a third-place finish, while the men’s team took home a second-place finish.
On the women’s side, Elizabethtown came in first and took home the conference championship with 165.5 points.
Moravian came in second place with 161.5 points, while Susquehanna came in third with 91 points. In fourth place was Catholic with 54 points followed by Goucher with 34 and Juniata with 20 points.
Senior sprinter Jasmine Mitchell and freshman sprinter Samantha Reed both won individual titles as well as earning a first place finish as part of Susquehanna’s 4×200 relay team.
Mitchell won the 60-meter dash with a new conference record of 7.81 seconds.
Reed won the 200-meter dash finishing with a time 26.60. The team of Mitchell, Reed and seniors Carlye McQueen and Hannah Perkins won the 4×200 relay with a time of 1:48.75.
In the field events, sophomore Sarah Rinaldi took third place in both the long and triple jumps and tied for second place in high jump.
Reed won Rookie of the Year while Rinaldi won Co-Female Field Athlete of the Year.
On the men’s side, Susquehanna came in second place behind Moravian, which scored 152 points at the meet. Susquehanna followed with 115 points.
Elizabethtown came in third with 112 points, followed by Juniata with 65 points, Catholic with 60 and Goucher with 22 points.
Freshman Chris Petraskie and senior Matthew Gass both set new conference records at the meet.
Petraskie broke the conference record in high jump, clearing a height of 6’ 8”.
Gass became the first Landmark athlete to beat the 50 second mark in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.98. Gass nearly pulled of another victory in the 200-meter race, finishing just .02 seconds behind the first place runner.
Senior Armond Owens finished in second by a margin of .003 in the 60-meter dash after a close inspection of the race.
In the field events, junior Joshua Brown was second in the shot put.
Petraskie won the Male Field Athlete of the Year and Gass was named Co-Male Track Athlete of the Year.
“The coaching staff could not have been any happier with the way the men and women competed,” Head Coach Marty Owens said.
“You hope that everybody competes at their highest level at the championship meet and when you look at the number of personal-best or season-best that were set that day, the athletes have their best efforts. And to come away with four of the six individual honors, it is very difficult to complain about their efforts.”
Both teams will now gear up to get ready for the outdoor season. First, both teams will compete at the Roanoke Last Chance Qualifier on March 4.
