Track and field teams make strides at Washington and Lee
Both the Carnegie Mellon men’s and women’s track and field teams headed to Lexington, Va. this past week to compete in the Virginia Military Institute-Washington and Lee University Track and Field Carnival at Washington and Lee University.
The Tartans had three impressive finishes for the women in the 5,000-meter event. Senior Emily Wobb finished third with a 17:57.96 time, and sophomore Halley Bayer sprinted to finish with a time of 18:27.19, earning fourth place. Junior Elise Hall’s time of 18:44.09 gave the Tartans another top-10 finish in the race, as Hall earned eighth place.
Junior Jacqueline Guevel had two outstanding finishes, earning second place in both the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15:10 and 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:04.74.
Sophomore Erin Kiekhaefer also competed well in two events. In the 1500-meter race, she ran a 4:54.42 time and earned sixth place and earned another seventh place win in the 800-meter run with a 2:21.82 time.
Finally, sophomore Sasha Spalding ran successfully in the heptathlon, placing fifth with a total of 3,763 points.
Members of the team are positive about the results of the various events. “Overall as a team I believe we performed well,” Spalding said via email. “Even though the weather was not ideal everyone performed to the best of their abilities.”
On the men’s side, Thomas Vandenberg won the Tartans the only first-place victory of the event as he won the 800-meter race with an astonishing time of 1:53.31.
Senior Billy Littlefield crossed the finish line of the 10,000-meter run with a time of 32:38.20, earning third place.
Two Carnegie Mellon athletes placed in the hurdle events. Junior Mike Standish ran a 58.53 time in the 40-meter hurdles, and first-year Ben Neiman finished the 110-meter hurdles with a 16.21 time. Both athletes earned eighth place.
Junior Zachary Erra-Hernandez represented Carnegie Mellon well in the field events.
In the hammer event, Erra-Hernandez was able to throw the hammer his career-best distance of 50.60 meters. He also was able to throw the shot put a distance of 15.08 meters, earning fourth place, and the discus 42.45 meters, earning eighth place.
Junior Nathan Cheek also competed in the shot put and hammer events. Cheek threw the shot put 13.97 meters, leading to a sixth-place finish. Cheek also placed seventh in the hammer event with a 46.46-meter throw.
Tartan sophomore Gino Pilato was the other Carnegie Mellon athlete to place in the discus event. Pilato placed seventh with a throw of 42.69 meters.
Finally, first-year Max Reinertsen jumped an amazing 12.81 meters in the triple jump to earn seventh in the event.
With a solid showing at Washington and Lee, the team is confident. “It’s still very early in the season,” Spalding said, “but I believe with good training, the men’s team should be able to win UAAs again, and hopefully the women’s team can finish in the top three.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will next compete in the Carnegie Mellon Mini-Invite on Saturday.