Oneonta, NY - The SUNY Delhi track and field teams had a great showing over the weekend in the North Atlantic Conference Championship meet with the men's team winning their first conference title since 2022 and the women's team placing third to improve upon last years fourth place finish they were voted to earn in the pre-championship coaches poll. Records were falling all over the place at the meet as the weather conditions gave athletes the best chance they have had to perform at a high level and the Delhi contingent took full advantage of it.
In the 100 meter dash Dayzin Legare broke the meet record with a 10.57 second clocking in the prelims. He finished second in the final with a time of 10.80. Senior Joshua Jeffes won the 200 and 400 meter events with meet records in both posting times of 21.48 and 47.69 seconds to win both those individual titles. John Amenta was also a double winner taking the titles in the 5,000 meters with a 16:26.55 and the 10,000 meters with a finish time of 34:22.41. In the field events, Chris Filatov won the pole vault with a clearance at 4.00 meters and Ryan Swinea won the triple jump with a leap covering 13.39 meters, a full two feet ahead of the second place jumper.
The Broncos relied on their depth in the sprints scoring four athletes in the 100, five athletes that included a 1-2-3 sweep in the 200 and five athletes that included a 1-2-3-4 sweep in the 400 meter event. They also scored five of the top seven places in the long jump. A highlight of that sprint depth came in the 400 meter relay where the Broncos sat out All-American sprinters Legare and Jeffes. That did not stop the quartet of Swinea, Cristhian Cuevas, Ciufo and Deron Davis from winning the event and setting a new meet record in the process. The sprint dominance continued into the 4x400 meter relay where Swinea, Sam Lees, JamesMichael Vizzari and Jeffes threw down a meet record of their own finishing in 3:23.86.
For the women, there were more records to fall. The highlight performance of the meet came from Zoe Rodi who broke the NAC meet record and the SUNY Delhi school record she has been so close to the last two week, winning the event in 58.53 seconds. That mark replaces the record at SUNY Delhi set by Cassi Williams back in 2004 when she ran 58.67 seconds. Rodi also ran legs on the winning 4x100 meter relay team with Kim Dean, Rodi, Meg Cruz and Kadie-Ann Whyte as well as the 4x400 meter relay team with Cruz, Mary Bryant, Evie Eastman and Rodi. Finally Rodi added a second place finish in the 200 meters where she ran a huge lifetime best of 25.69 seconds that would have broken the exisint meet record had it not been for Emma Burr being the event winner.
The other major highlight for the Broncos on the weekend was senior Kitty Messina. Messina opened the weekend winning the hammer throw with a toss of 42.62 meters, nearly two full meters ahead of the runner-up in the event. Then she pulled the best performance of her life out in the javelin where she added over three meters to her best performance of the year to win that event as well with a throw of 35.56 meters. Today Messina placed second in the shot put with a throw of 10.92 meters and then added a fourth place finish in the discus with a toss of 32.31 meters. Messina's two day total was 33 points in the throwing area!
The Delhi men piled up a total of 251 points to easily outscore the second place team Maine-Farmington who had 213. The women placed third, edging out Husson by one point, scoring a total of 143 points. The women's title was won by Thomas College with 183 points.
That meet will wrap up the season for a lot of the Delhi athletes. However, there will be some that will continue on to a last chance meet, the All-Atlantic Regional Track and Field Conference Championship meet and hopefully the NCAA Championships to be contested on Memorial Day weekend in Myrtle Beach, SC.
