Men Take Second, Women Third at Metropolitan Championships

STATEN ISLAND, NY – The Manhattan College men's and women's indoor track & field teams concluded competition at the annual Metropolitan Championships on Friday at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.  The Jasper women, who had the lead in the team standings after Thursday's events, ended up third overall.  The men's squad, meanwhile, placed second as a team.

Just like he did in 2016, Stefan Hoeller (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany) sat in third place after the first day of the heptathlon.  And just like he did in 2016, Hoeller had a great second day to win the competition.  He won all three events contested on Friday (the 60 meter hurdles, pole vault and 1000 meters) to finish with 5081 points and defend his Metropolitan title.

Manhattan earned two other victories on the men's side, as Hayden Clarke (Townsville, Australia) took first in the long jump with a best effort of 7.28 meters (23 feet, 10¾ inches).  Love Litzell (Ostersund, Sweden), meanwhile, had a dominant performance in the weight throw.  All four of his legal efforts would've won the competition.  His best mark of 19.19 m (62'11½) came on his final attempt.  Ire Bozovicar (Potoki, Slovenia) took second (16.78 m, 55'0¾) to go along with a third-place showing in the shot put (15.52 m, 50'11).  Ryan Addlesberger (Cinnaminson, NJ) was second in the shot put with a toss of 16.61 m (54'6).

Dennis Eriksson (Sundsvall, Sweden) contributed points in three different events.  He was third in both the long jump (6.92 m, 22'8½) and triple jump (14.38 m, 47'2¼), and he also finished fourth in the 60 hurdles (8.46).  Chris Sandoli (Old Bridge, NJ) placed third in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.60 m (15'1), while Brenton Foster (Townsville, Australia) cleared 1.94 m (6'4¼) in the high jump, which was good for third place.  In addition, Chris Orlando (Newburyport, MA) finished second in the 5000 meters (15:01.29) and Anthony Hall (Mountainville, NY) secured fourth place in the 60 meters with a 7.05-second clocking.

With 134 points, Manhattan finished second to Rutgers in the men's team standings.  It was the Jaspers' third consecutive second-place finish at Indoor Mets.

On the women's side, the Jaspers entered Friday's action in first place on the strength of first-place finishes by Kathleen Cibuls (Blue Point, NY) in the pentathlon and Marisa Robbins (Goshen, NY) in the pole vault on Thursday.  Manhattan added three more wins on Friday, as Paige Chapman (Abingdon, MD) was first in the 60, Kelly Gorman (South Amboy, NJ) took the gold in the mile, and Lisa Fajardo (Brooklyn, NY) crossed the line first in the 5000.

Chapman's time of 7.52 seconds in the 60 was the fastest for a Manhattan women's sprinter since the 1990s, and moved her into the top 10 in the ECAC this season.  She also ran the 200 meters and placed sixth in 25.37 seconds.  Gorman, meanwhile, posted a time of 5:02.59 to win the mile.  She also anchored the Jaspers' distance medley relay squad to a second-place finish.  Joining Gorman on that relay were Erin Spadaccini (Wilmington, DE), who took third behind her teammate in the mile (5:08.73), Alexa Roda (Staten Island, NY), the fourth-place finisher in the 1000 meters (3:00.14), and Kim Jelich (Malverne, NY).

In the 5000, Fajardo beat the field by more than 20 seconds.  Her winning time of 17:17.88 easily qualified her for the ECAC Championships.

Ellinor Persson (Taby, Sweden) and Charlene Pohl (Bisingen, Germany) went 3-5 in the long jump.  Persson's best effort was 5.56 m (18'3), while Pohl, who won the bronze in the pentathlon on Thursday, got out to a distance of 5.45 m (17'10¾).  Persson also grabbed seventh place in the 60 hurdles (9.14).  Mikeisha Kelly (Albany, NY) added fourth-place points in the 500 meters with a 1:16.70 clocking.

After collecting 108 points in the team competition, the Jaspers ended up third overall for the second straight year.  St. John's won the team title with 142.5 points, while Rutgers was second with 127 points.