What a way to start out the second semester! The Track and Field teams sent partial squads to the Ramapo Season Opener held at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City. The meet was comprised of over 20 teams from division I to junior colleges and provided a high level of competition. Among the strong field, the men's team compiled 51 points to place fourth as a team, seven points ahead of Syracuse. Rowan won the meet with 110 points followed by Wagner University and The College of New Jersey.
The highlight of the meet and of the season so far came from Senior Keimon Barrow. Barrow, a product of New Rochelle high school won two events taking the high jump and the triple jump. He won the high jump with a clearance of 2.07m (6' 9.5"). However, the real highlight came on the triple jump runway where Barrow added to his school record with a jump of 15.43m (50' 7.5"). That mark exceeded the 15.39m standard necessary for an automatic entry into the USATF Indoor National Championships held in Albuquerque, NM in March. This is the most prestigious championship meet held in America! The rest of the jump squad also performed very well. In the long jump, sophomore Doug Williams (Kingston HS) placed fourth with a leap of 6.94m (22' 9.5") and senior Brian McLeod (Solvay HS) placed seventh in the high jump with a clearance of 1.97m (6' 5.5").
Another group that posted some great performances and a lot of points was the distance running squad. Fresh of winning the USCAA National Cross Country Championship, four members of the team scored points with some huge personal bests. The top performance was from junior Jack Hillenbrand (Harpursville HS) who won the 5000 meters with the school's second fastest time ever, running 15:19.40, just two seconds off the school record. The performance was an 11 second personal best for Hillenbrand. Sophomores Nicholas Arnecke (Edmeston HS) and Andrew Davis (Penn Yan HS) dropped major improvements to score point in the 3000 meters. Arnecke improved his personal best by 34 seconds and Davis dropped his 19 seconds to run 8:55.79 (3rd) and 9:07.59 (7th) respectively. Finally Sophomore Kobie Lane (Port Jervis HS) ran a six and a half second personal best in the mile to place fourth with a time of 4:22.19.
Also adding points for the men were sophomore Ricardo Castello (New Rochelle HS) in the 500 meters with a time of 1:07.81 to place eighth.
Leading the way for the women were sophomore Isamarie Ramos (Southern LeHigh HS) and freshman Ashley Magnifico (Bayport-Blue Point HS). Ramos placed 14th overall in the 1000 meters with a time of 3:27.45. Magnifico placed 27th in a large and deep field in the 60 meter dash with a time of 8.54 seconds.
The teams will travel again next Friday to the Ocean Breeze facility in Staten Island, NY.