Track competes at Princeton and Delaware

By Frank Visco
Collegian Editor
April 12, 2006

With spring in full force, the days are heating up in and around La Salle’s campus. If this past weekend is any indication, so are the school’s outdoor track and field teams.

On Saturday, April 8, the team garnered three first-places finishes at the Delaware Invitational, while also performing solidly at Princeton’s Sam Howell Invitational the day before.

“I’m happy with the season so far,” sophomore Joe Fedorowicz said. “As the weather improves, I expect many people will be recording personal best scores.”

At Delaware, freshman Orestes Medina, as well as sophomores Adriana Boyle and Carolyn Lipovsky, all registered head-of-the-pack performances. Notching the men’s sole first place victory, Medina grabbed a gold finish in the long jump with a mark of 6.29 meters. For the women, Boyle won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:18.41, while Lipovsky took the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:42.82.

The Explorers had a slew of other strong performances as well. On the women’s side, junior Nicole O’Dea crossed the finish line a hair behind Lipovsky in the 1,500-meter run (4:46.80) to convert a solid second place finish. In addition, freshman Meaghan Hobson ranked third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.84.

For the men, sophomore Joe Karash notched a second place finish with a mark of 53.75, while Fedorowicz (4:00.65) and sophomore Carman Cavella (4:01.08) took second and fourth in the 1,500 meter run, respectively.

“It rained a lot, but overall the meet went well,” Fedorowicz said. “We sat back and decided to kick at the end, which resulted in some wins, as well as some second place finishes. The 5K got switched to a 3K, and so the guys running in that had to change it up a little, but all together everybody was happy with the meet’s outcome.”

Although the team acquired no first-place finishes at Princeton, on Friday, April 7, there were still several noteworthy performances. For the men, Joseph Brancaleone qualified for the IC4As in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, crossing the finish-line with a time of 9:15.47. Meanwhile, the top performance for the women came courtesy of Christa Plummer, who qualified for the ECACs by finishing sixth in the 5,000-meter run with a mark of 16:59.27.

After a dominating weekend, both the men’s and women’s teams are set to experience a break in their schedules over the Easter break. However, they will be back in action on Saturday, April 22 at the Widener Invitational. The team will then make its way to the Penn Relays on Thursday, April 27.

“We’re looking really good going into the Penn Relays,” Fedorowicz said. “It’s the first meet of the season that we really go all out in, and I think we are going to do well.”

viscof1@lasalle.edu