Men's Indoor Track and Field | 2/21/2021 5:17:00 PM
The Utica College track and field teams opened up their 2021 season on Sunday as they headed to nearby Hamilton, NY to compete at Colgate University. In a field full of Division I athletes, the Pioneers held their own in their first day of competition since March 7th, 2020. The men's squad won the team competition with 49 points over the course of the day's events, while the Utica women placed third with a total of 28 points.
Between men's and women's athletes, the program combined to win eight events in total on Saturday. Six of those events were won by freshmen on a day of impressive debuts by the program's newcomers. Five of Utica's eight event wins came in the field events.
In the sprinting events, the story of the day was rookie Daijon Richards for the Pioneers. Richards bolted out of the starting blocks on his season, and his college career with a strong effort in the short sprints. He won the men's 60 meter dash in his collegiate debut with a time of 7.05 seconds, which was good enough for the third fastest time in program history. Richards later recorded a runner-up finish at 200 meters with an opening performance of 23.40 seconds.
In the 400 meters, veteran long sprinter and jumper Sei Sei ran to a runner-up finish in the 400 meter dash in 55.06 seconds.
In the women's sprints, junior Caroline Castriotta was the runner-up at 60 meters with the clock hitting 8.35 seconds at the line. Newcomer Janaiya Cruz-Bermudez was second in the 200 meters at 31.40 seconds, and also crossed the line fourth in the 400 meters. Senior Julianne Emerson recorded a fifth place finish.
Utica swept the top spots in the hurdling events for the afternoon. Senior Coralynn Maxwell won the women's 60 meter hurdles in 10.78, and freshman Justin Valentin was the winner in the men's 60 hurdles with a time of 9.69. Valentin ran a 9.56 in the preliminaries while besting teammate Anthony Coney, who ran a 9.87 but did not contest the finals.
In the field, the men's throwers took center stage with a pair of 1-2 finishes. In the men's weight throw, sophomore Antwan Kelly led the way with a winning mark of 14.01 meters. Freshman Justin Swavely was second in 13.73 meters. Swavely topped the table in the shot put with a toss of 12.77 meters, with sophomore Jacob Barnes close behind with a mark of 12.33 meters to place second.
Utica also swept the men's and women's high jumps by staking a claim to the top spot in both events. Amina Sinclair soared to a height of 1.53 meters to win the women's high jump, and Justin Valentin became a double winner on the day as he won the tiebreaker off a 1.73 meter leap to claim the win in the men's high jump.
Andrew Weider placed first in his first collegiate appearance in the men's pole vault with the bar set at 2.90 meters, and Castriotta placed second in the women's pole vault with a 2.70 meter performance.
Laura Meade led the way in the horizontal jumps with a second place finish in the long jump and triple jump. Her best long jump spanned 4.43 meters, while her best triple effort went for 9.61 meters. Maxwell was third in the long jump at 4.26 meters.
A 6.18 meter jump snagged second place in the men's long jump for Sei, while Zuriel Wright was third in 5.52 and Anthony Coney finished fourth with a 4.54 meter bound.
Gabrielle Desanctis was fifth in the women's shot put and weight throw. Middle distance specialist Laura Levi was seventh in the women's 800 meters.
The Pioneers will return to action as they host The Sage Colleges in a dual meet on Saturday, March 6th. The meet will begin at 10 am.