Complete Results
WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – After opening the season last weekend at the Dennis Craddock Carolina Relays, the Manhattan College men's and women's outdoor track & field teams returned to action on Saturday at the Monmouth Season Opener from E. Todd Murray Track at Kessler Field. The Jaspers continued their stellar start to the outdoor campaign, adding several ECAC/IC4A qualifiers to those who achieved the standard last week.
Competition actually got underway on Friday with the long throws (hammer throw, discus, javelin), which were held at Georgian Court University. Lina Bengtson (Malmo, Sweden) took second in the women's discus with a toss of 45.58 meters (149'6), while Manhattan went 2-3 in the men's discus. Ire Bozovicar (Potoki, Slovenia) got out to a distance of 52.72 m (172'11), while Gustave Menocal's (Bronx, NY) best mark was 49.08 m (161'0). All three of those efforts were better than the qualifying standard for the ECAC/IC4A Championships.
Manhattan gained another ECAC qualifier on Saturday, as Lisa Fajardo (Brooklyn, NY) reached the standard with a time of 17:14.14. She placed third overall and first among collegians in the event. Two other Jasper women earned event wins, as Paige Chapman (Abingdon, MD) took first in the 200 meters (25.20) and Marisa Robbins (Goshen, NY) had the top mark in the pole vault (3.65 m, 11'11¾).
Charlene Pohl (Bisingen, Germany) finished second in the long jump with a leap of 5.48 m (17'11¾), and Kathy Cadet's (Endicott, NY) time of 1:03.21 was good for third place in the 400 meter hurdles. In the 100 meter hurdles, Ellinor Persson (Taby, Sweden) took second (14.71), followed by Kathleen Cibuls (Blue Point, NY) in third (14.82). Cibuls also grabbed fifth place in the 200 (26.08). Kelly Gorman (South Amboy, NJ) made her season debut and placed fourth in the 1500 meters with a 4:43.21 clocking. Meanwhile, Erin Spadaccini (Wilmington, DE) (2:17.73) and Alexa Roda (Staten Island, NY) (2:19.04) went 4-5 in the 800 meters.
The Jaspers had a 2-3 showing in the men's 800. John Dove (Monroe, NY) posted a time of 1:53.89, while Liam O'Brien (Clifton Park, NY) notched a 1:56.00 clocking. Dennis Eriksson (Sundsvall, Sweden), meanwhile, placed third in the 110 meter hurdles (15.08) and fourth in the triple jump (14.07 m, 46'2).
Chris Sandoli (Old Bridge, NJ) finished third in the pole vault with a clearance at 4.20 m (13'9¼). In the shot put, Ryan Addlesberger (Cinnaminson, NJ) captured third place with a 16.05 m (52'8) effort and Bozovicar was sixth with a mark of 15.73 m (51'7¼). The Jaspers also grabbed fourth place in the men's 4x400 meter relay, with the quartet of Mike DeAngelis (Rahway, NJ), Akash Patel (Orlando, FL), Nesta Littlejohn (Albany, NY) and JP Merkler (Spring Lake, NJ) posting a time of 3:28.01.
Next weekend, the Jaspers will head to a pair of meets. The distance runners will take part in the Colonial Relays in Williamsburg, VA, while the rest of the squad is set to compete at the Mark Young Invitational from Yale University.
