Hanlon and Germain Lead Track Teams at PLCs

Last weekend, the men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the Patriot League Championships at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

The women received an outstanding performance from senior Lisa Germain, who captured the long jump championship with a jump of 18’9″. This jump was Germain’s second-best career jump and beat the runner-up by over a foot.

Last Sunday, during the second day of competition, the women had a pair of top-three finishes. First-year Rita Santibanez took third-place in the shot put with a throw of 45’5 3/4″, the third-best throw of her career. Colgate also picked up a significant amount of points in two other races. In the 500-meter dash, junior Nicole Christoforo finished in third-place with a time of 1:19.03. Her time ranks seventh all-time in the Colgate record books.

Overall, despite these performances, the Colgate women finished in seventh place while the Bucknell Bison took home the crown.

“Obviously Lisa Germain’s first-place in the long jump was a surprise, as she had been nursing an injured hamstring for nearly a month,” head women’s coach Laura Nardelli said.”Rita Santibanez was [also] impressive to take third place in the shot as only a freshman. Nearly every other athlete competing made improvements on their times from this season; theteam will continue to build on our improving fitness for the next month, and our outdoor season opens with a quadrangular meet at Navy on March 25.”

On the men’s side, Colgate was led by junior Mike Hanlon’s nail-biting win in the 5,000-meter race. Hanlon, who was named to the all-Patriot League first team, won the race by a mere second over Lehigh’s Rob Hampson.

“Mike ran a strategic race with a first mile at 5:00, the second mile in 4:36 and, with 1,000 meters to go as planned, Mike took over the lead, finished the third mile in 4:32 and finished his last 200 meters in 30 seconds,” described head men’s coach Art McKinnon.

On the last day of competition, Colgate grabbed four top-five finishes. Hanlon earned six points for the Raiders as he took third in the 3,000-meter race. Sophomore Thomas Dilworth took fourth place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.27, while classmate Andy Holway took home fourth-place honors in the 400-meter dash. Finally, junior John Gillespie placed fifth in the 800-meters to pick up the final points for the Raiders. The men finished seventh overall, while Army took first place.

The Raider track teams will next be in action next weekend, when select team members will travel to Boston, where the men will participate in the IC4A Championships and the women will take part in the ECAC Championships.