The Colgate Women’s Track and Field team opened the new year over break with two meets. On January 8, Colgate traveled to the Southern Tier Collegiate Open, held at Cornell University. Despite participating in relatively few events (no team points were recorded at the meet for this reason), the team had notable success at the meet. Senior Ashley Niness placed second in the 500-meter-dash, setting a personal record in the process with a time of 1:19.79. Junior Michelle Miller finished just behind Niness in the event with a final time of 1:21.00. Colgate also saw success in the women’s 3000-meter event, with Sophomore Chelsea Burns finishing second overall with a final time of 10:31.70. Senior Lauren Abuouf led Colgate in the throwing events, winning the weight throw and placing third overall in the shot put. Abuouf won weight throw with a toss of 15.08 meters, and recorded an 11.28-meter throw in the shot put.

On Saturday January 16, the team headed to Syracuse to participate in the Syracuse Welcome Back Invitational. Chelsea Burns continued her success from the previous meet, winning the mile in 5:15.09, the third-best time in the Patriot League thus far this season. Colgate placed well once again in the 3000-meter run, with sophomores Elise DeRoo and Kendall Lyons placing second and third, respectively. DeRoo finished with a final time of 10:08.86, the fastest time in the Patriot League this season, while Lyons finished the race in 10:29.42. Senior Alisandra Denton broke the Colgate school record in the pole vault with a jump of 3.1 meters, tying her for third place overall. Lauren Abuouf also continued her success from the previous meet, placing second overall in both the weight throw and the shot put. Abuouf posted a 13.85 meter toss in the weight throw, and an 11.40 meter throw in the shot put.

The women’s team will return to action for the first time after break this weekend on January 23 when they head to Ithaca for the second time this season to compete in the Cornell Invite. When asked what the team is doing in preparation for the upcoming meets this season, Women’s Track and Field Coach Laura Nardelli noted that the team is working on “establish[ing] a common ground so we are all pulling in the same direction…” and “… moving some folks up one event to work endurance and establish some seed times to get us ready for the bigger meets later this season.”

The squad is fielding its largest team in over a decade, so Coach Nardelli has stressed the importance of team unity in the weeks leading up to the season. 

The men’s track and field team did not participate in a meet until Saturday January 16, when they returned to action in Happy Valley at Penn State University, competing in the PSU Northeast Challenge. Similar to the women’s team’s meet, no teams points were recorded due to the small number of events in which Colgate participated. That said, they did experience success at the meet. Sophomore Graham Tooker and Junior Edouard Boulat both set personal records. Tooker finished the 200 meter race in 22.57, and crossed the finish line at the 50.02 mark in the 400 meter race. Tooker’s time in the 200 meter was the third-best time in the Patriot League so far this season, and his final time in the 400 meter race was the second-fastest time run this year in the Patriot League. Boulat ran the 1000 m race in 2:29.01, which was also a personal record. Tooker placed ninth overall in the 200 meter dash, and 12th in the 400 meter dash. Boulat’s time was good enough for 15th place in the final 400 meter standings. Junior Daniel Gleason placed seventh for Colgate in the one-mile run, posting a time of 4:18.24. The men’s team will continue their season this weekend on January 23, when they head off to Ithaca with the women’s team to face off against Cornell. 

Contact Matt Flannery at [email protected].