Senior Curry Knox won three individual events en route to being honored with the Katie Almeter Most Valuable Player award, and sophomore Dan Gleason ran a 4:16.96 mile to finish first as both the men’s and women’s track and field teams captured first place at the Class of ’32 Invitational last Saturday.

The women’s team finished with 105 points, 26 more than second-place Binghampton in the 15-team meet. Knox won every race she entered, finishing the 60-meter hurdles in 9.07, the 60-meter dash in 7.78 and the 200-meter dash in 26.59.

“I feel like I’ve gotten stronger over my four years here,” Knox said. “I was abroad last fall, which is when we do a lot of preseason training to get prepared. The previous two years, I played on the women’s soccer team, so it was a different mentality and different sport. This is the first year that I’ve been able to focus on track without distractions.”

First-year Kendall Lyons won the 1,000-meter run with a Sanford Field House record time of 3:03.61, and junior Sarah Chabal leaped 5.01 meters to take first place in the long jump.

“As a team, we all just want to improve our times, and achieve personal bests as the Patriot Leagues are coming,” Knox said. “We’re looking pretty good, especially compared to last year at this time.”

Sophomore sprinter Michelle Miller continued her solid season, placing third in the 400-meter dash and sixth in the 60-meter dash. Senior Ashley Mecone finished .02 seconds ahead of Miller in the 60-meter dash to grab fifth place. In addition, Colgate grabbed a pair of second-place finishes in the distance medley relay and the 4×400 relay.

The Raiders have two more meets-the Syracuse Invitational on Saturday and the Lafayette/Rider Invitational on February 13-to gear up before the Patriot League Championships on February 21 and 22.

Led by a solid crew of middle distance runners, the men’s team earned 76 points to edge out runner-up Cortland by eight points. Keying the victory were three Raiders who ran sub-4:30 miles, including Gleason, who set a personal record with his 4:16.96 mile time. Junior Jeremy Fisher clocked a 4:24:84 to finish third and sophomore Ed Boulat clocked a 4:28.64 to place seventh.

Colgate produced three top-five finishers in the 800-meter run, including sophomore Jon Knowlton, who took second place with a 1:55.79. First-year Tim Metivier was third (1:58.00) and Andrew Smith was fifth (1:59.95).

“This weekend definitely answered a lot of questions about if we could score big points in the individual events at Patriots,” Boulat said. “Dan Gleason and Jon Knowlton ran some fast times, and they will be in good position to score come championship time.”

The Raiders flaunted their youth in the sprinting events, with first-year Graham Tooker placing third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.77. Classmate Alex Coco took fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.68.

“There is really no limit to how good we could be next year,” Boulat said. “It’s all going to come down to getting the right people healthy and getting this year’s freshmen and sophomores the experience needed to compete at that level next year.”

In the relays, Colgate won the 4×400 with a time of 3:23.79, which is currently the fourth-fastest time in the Patriot League this year. The distance medley relay claimed the top spot in the distance medley relay with a time of 10:29.48. The relay teams continued their success despite the absence of junior Lyle Tolli, who was Colgate’s top distance runner as a sophomore when he advanced to the NCAA Regional Championship last May.

“With [Lyle Tolli] healthy and running at the level we all know he is capable of, we are a top-3 overall Patriot League finisher, and have potentially NCAA Championship qualifying relays,” Boulat said.

The team will hit the road the next three weeks, beginning with a meet this Saturday against Syracuse and Yale.