Piscataway, N.J. (April 21, 2007)? Rutgers University dethroned Manhattan Men's Track and Field at Saturday's Metropolitan Outdoor Championships held at Rutgers' Bauer Complex. With the men settling for second place, the women moved up a spot from their fourth place finish of a year ago. Only two Big East programs, the Rutgers women and the ladies from St. John's University, managed to finish ahead of the Lady Jaspers.
Although the team just missed out on repeating that was not the case for junior shot putter Milan Jotanovic. The two-time NCAA Indoor All-American had little trouble nailing down his second straight Met Outdoor shot title with an NCAA qualifying mark of 18.78m. Jotanovic also racked up points for the Jaspers with his performance in the discus, taking second place at 45.36m.
Two more Jasper repeats came in the men's and women's triple jump competitions. Junior Dexter Jules, who helped sealed Manhattan's 2006 team victory with a win in his signature event on the meet's final day, won the triple jump again on Saturday. Jules' took the crown with a mark of 15.08m, which also guarantees him a return trip to the NCAA East Region Championships in May.
On the women's side, senior Tiina Magi used her biggest mark of the season thus far to secure another title. Magi, the 2006 ECAC triple jump champ, leaped 12.86m, only 12 centimeters off of her personal record. The jump also landed her in the nation's Top 15 thus far this outdoor season at the NCAA Division I level.
While Magi placed herself amongst the top collegiate triple jumpers in America, freshman teammate Malin Marmbrandt became Sweden's top performer in three events on Saturday afternoon. Although the Swedish outdoor season in still very young, Marmbrandt has the top triple jump, long jump, and 100 hurdles marks thus far in 2007. She finished fourth in the triple (11.93m) and fifth in the long jump (5.80m) surpassing the ECAC qualifying standard in both events. In the hurdles, she clocked in at 15.21s.
Fellow freshman Tobias Lundgren's men's 5K time of 15:26.95 placed him fourth at the Mets, but like Marmbrandt, it currently puts the rookie from Sweden atop the Swedish outdoor performance list. Lundgren was Manhattan's second best finisher in the event as junior Joe McElhoney claimed third place. McElhoney crossed the finish line in 15:11.17 for a new personal record. Junior Tom Murphy was fifth in the 5K with a PR of his own (15:30.04).
The Manhattan men heavily increased their point total in the hammer throw. Freshman Seid Mujanovic can now call himself a Met Champion after setting a new personal best in the event with a mark of 60.19m, which also surpasses the NCAA Regional qualifying standard. Junior Paul Peulich claimed second at 58.61m, while last year's champion Zoran Loncar, a senior, settled for fourth at 55.53m.
A pair of graduate students captured individual crown for the Lady Jaspers. Shannon Radermacher secured the 800m title, registering a time of 2:13.66. Meredith Mante claimed the pole vault championship by clearing 3.23m. Right behind Mante in the pole vault was freshman Alexandra MacDougall who posted a PR at 3.08m.
Freshman Milos Vuckovic took second in the men's 800m at 1:54.08 as part of a double. The rookie did not settle for second in the 1500m run, capturing the crown with a time of 3:53.90.
Vuckovic's teammates picked up 15 points in the long jump. Senior Nick Newman led a 3-4-5 finish with an IC4A qualifying mark of 7.14m. Jules also surpassed the IC4A standard at 7.13m to place fourth, while senior Denis Street, Jr. was fifth overall with a top leap of 6.96m.
