By Rachael Cataldo, Asst, Sports Editor
The Susquehanna women and men’s track and field teams both displayed a strong showing when they competed at the Greyhound Invitational at Moravian in Bethlehem, Pa. on Saturday, April 20.
For the women’s team, sophomore multi Sara Arbogast, freshman runner Megan Emlet, sophomore runner Kate Ross and junior runner Alexa Pietrini finished the 4x100meter relay in 51.87 seconds to place fifth out of 10 competing teams.
This performance ranked the River Hawks’ 4×100 relay team third in theLandmark Conference.
“I’m really proud of my relay team, mostly because it was our first time running that event and most of us don’t focus on sprints,” Ross said. “We will need to work on doing blind handoffs so we can make the race go smoother, and hopefully get faster,” Ross continued.
Arbogast clocked a 59.68 in the 400-meter dash and earned a third place finish.
Arbogast also had a third place finish in the triple jump with a distance of 10.85 meters, which is first in the conference. Senior jumper Sarah Rinaldi finished with a distance of 9.64 meters. Emlet finished with a distance of 9.59 meters and junior jumper Maya Khanna recorded a distance of 9.47 meters.
Senior thrower Tylinn Bitner took sixth in the hammer throw event with a distance of 33.97 meters.
Bitner also had a 12th place finish in the discus with a throw of 24.21 meters and a 15th place finish in the shot put with a throw of 8.25 meters.
Sophomore thrower Kristen Blair finished in 11th place in the javelin event with a throw of 28.22 meters. Freshman thrower Jenna Juntunen place 10th in the shotput event, totaling 9.48 meters on her throw.
For the men’s team, junior jumper Chris Petraskie recorded a fourth place finish out of 30 jumpers in the long jump with a distance of 6.65 meters.
Petraskie also had a fifth place finish in the high jump with a score of 1.90 meters. Petraskie is ranked first in the Landmark Conference for both events.
In addition, Petraskie was recently named as the men’s Landmark Field Athlete of the Week.
He will look to improve on those scores one more time this upcoming weekend before the Landmark Conference Championships.
Junior thrower Dylan Heisey took sixth place in the discus event and fifth place in the hammer throw event, recording distances of 42.69 meters and 45.95 meters respectively.
Freshman pole vaulter Keefer Goodspeed recorded a personal best in the pole vault event and reached a height of 4.11 meters to finish in fourth place at the invitational.
Junior runner Andrew DeBastiani, freshmen runners Jonathon White and Trent McGuire and junior runner Danial Shelton earned a fifth place finish in the 4×100-meter relay with a time of 44.17 seconds.
Sophomore runner Lenny Bolinsky and senior runner Ciaran Fisher finished the 1500-meter run in 4:28.80 and 4:30.99 respectively.
“The men’s team would really like to break into the top two teams in the conference to compete for a championship,” Bolinsky said. “As far as individual goals, I would like to break 4:15 in the 1500-meter,” he continued.
Freshman runner Jack Warehime finished the 800-meter run in a little over two minutes to place 24th out of 50 competing runners.
The women and men’s track and field teams travel for the Maroon and Gold Invitational at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27 in Bloomsburg, Pa.
“I’m really looking forward to competing at Bloomsburg because the meet would serve as a great tune-up to get ready for Landmarks and make sure that the team is where it should be to be able to compete at our fullest potential,” Bolinsky said.
Following the Maroon and Gold Invitational, both the men’s and women’s track and field teams will begin their preparation for the Landmark Conference Championships.
The outdoor championships will begin at noon on Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5 in Baltimore, Md.
The women’s team and men’s team were both ranked to finish third in Landmark Championships, according to their preseason poll. Moravian and Elizabethtown are ranked first and second, respectively.