Marquette Men & Women Lead After First Day of Track & Field Championships
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – After the first day of the 2016 BIG EAST Track & Field Championships Presented by the Jeep Brand, both the Marquette men and women are in the lead with 65 points on the men’s side and 59.50 points on the women’s side. The Golden Eagles finished the day with 10 top three finishes.
For the women, St. John’s is 2.5 points behind Marquette with 57 points, with the Wildcats in third with 39.50 points. Complete men’s scores will be updated later. Finals for Friday included the pole vault, weight throw and long jump, 5,000-meter run, Distance Medley Relay.
Marquette’s Joel Swanberg repeated as the men’s pole vault champion with a height of 4.80 meters. The Golden Eagles had two of the three podium spots with junior William Ford as the runner up. Villanova’s James Deutemeyer finished third with height of 4.70 meters.
The weight throw event also had a repeat winner in Trevor Kintyhtt from DePaul with a winning distance of 20.15 meters. Marquette’s Maxwell Bullard (16.29 meters) and Joel McBride (16.18 meters) took the other spots on the podium.
Zachary Polk won the long jump for Xavier with a distance of 7.18 meters. DePaul’s Brian Mada came in second with a 7.17 meter jump and Dwayne Dash of Marquette came in third.
Villanova’s Patrick Tiernan became a three-time champion of the men’s indoor 5K becoming the 30th men’s athlete to win three BIG EAST Indoor titles in the same event. He is the third three-time champion in the 5,000-meter run, a prestigious group that includes current Providence head coach Ray Treacy who won the event in 1980, ’81 and ’82 and Jason Rexing of Notre Dame (1996, ’97, ’98). Tiernan’s final finish time was calculated by split time at 14:03.53.
The Hoyas' team of Michael Lederhouse, Joseph White, Ahmed Bile and Amos Bartelsmeyer won the distance medley relay, as anchor Bartelsmeyer just beat out second-place Villanova by nearly a photo-finish. Georgetown crossed the tape at 9:28.91, while Villanova finished at 9:29.17. The Hoyas set the meet record with their title finish. The previous record was set by Villanova in 2008 at 9:32.89.
St. John’s swept the podium in the women’s weight throw as sophomore Nyla Woods won the title for the Red Storm. Woods, a two-time BIG EAST Field Athlete of the Week, came into the event with the top performance this year. Woods out-threw her competitors by more than a meter, with a winning throw of 19.31 meters. Joining her on the medals were her teammates seniors Ann Dagrin (18.18 meters) and Patricia Clark (17.21 meters).
The Red Storm continued to score points in the field events as they finished second, third and fourth in the pentathlon. Monique Felix of Marquette took the title with 3,466 points. St. John’s Julia Schwan took the silver and Jasmine Burkett finished third.
Marquette also took first in the women’s pole vault as Gemma Tedeschi won the event with a distance of 3.81 meters. Second and third on the podium were Villanova’s Catherine Walker (3.80 meters) and Nicole Jaffke (3.57 meters).
The women’s long jump had the Red Storm win again with Anointing Onuoha taking first on the podium with a distance of 5.69 meters. DePaul’s Gabrielle Howard finished second with a 5.53 meter distance and Felix, the pentathlon winner, finished third with a 5.45 meter jump.
Butler’s Olivia Pratt was the women’s 5K title winner as she finished at 16:15.69. Finishing four seconds later was Providence’s Lauren Mullins at 16:19.21. Georgetown’s Audrey Belf came in third at 16:21.16.
Georgetown also won the women’s DMR with a team of Samantha Nadel, Sabrina Southerland, Kennedy Weisner and Katrina Coogan finishing at 11:18.02. Villanova came in second at 11:26.12 and Marquette came in third at 11:31.45.
Due to technical difficulties the full points and standings of the men’s championship results will be provided later. The women’s standings are below.
The full event schedule and meet program can be found on the
BIG EAST Track & Field Championship Central.
Women
1. Marquette – 59.50
2. St. John’s – 57
3. Villanova – 39.50
4. Georgetown – 20
5. Providence – 18
6. DePaul – 16
7. Butler – 15
8. Xavier – 8