Fordham Finishes 27th at ECAC/IC4A Championships

Fordham’s men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams headed to the Armory Track and Field Center in Manhattan on Friday, Feb. 26, for the NYU FasTrack Invitational, the last chance for those who qualified for the ECAC/IC4A Championships to improve.

“The people who competed at [FasTrack] ran well,” senior Catherine Groene said. “We had two PRs [personal records] for the season. I’m very excited for outdoor.”

For the women, junior Kerri Gallagher won the 800-meter run with 2:08.95, while junior Sherilyn Groeninger took ninth in the 60-meter dash with 7.86, breaking her own school record of 7.87.

Groeninger also took sixth in the 200-meter dash with 25.97 seconds. Sophomore Elisabeth Warren came in fourth in the long jump with 17 feet 9.75 inches, Groene took seventh in the triple jump with 36 feet 2.75 inches and freshman Courtnay Newman tied for seventh in the high jump with 5 feet 1 inch and took 12th in the 60-meter hurdles with 9.82.

Sophomore Sheena Parand came in 10th in the 1,000-meter run (3:05.83), while sophomore Kelly Connolly came in 21st in the 400-meter dash with 58.93, the Lady Rams’ best time this season, followed by Warren in 32nd with 1:00.58

For the men, sophomore Kevin Fitzgerald took eighth in the mile run with 4:16.46. In the 1,000-meter run, freshman Bernard Moore took 11th (2:34.31), junior Tim Hutchinson took 12th (2:34.62) and senior Brian Horowitz took 20th (2:38.34). Junior Brian Schmidt took 16th in the 400-meter dash with 49.57, followed by freshman Sean Atkinson in 29th (50.39) and junior Christopher Lyons in 32nd (50.42). Freshman Michael Rossi placed 17th in the 500-meter dash with 1:06.02, while in the 800-meter run, freshman John Cosgrove led the Rams with 18th place (1:57.23), followed by sophomore Sam Stuart in 31st (1:59.71) and junior Jarrett Anistranski in 44th (2:05.11).

 “The FasTrack meet was a nice last test for everybody before IC4As,” Fitzgerald said. “We had a few great performances, and everyone showed a lot of heart. It was a tough meet and everyone felt a bit run down from the long season, but we had a few standout performances, especially from some talented young freshmen.”

The Rams next traveled to the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center in Boston for the ECAC/IC4A Championships on Saturday, March 6 and Sunday, March 7.

“The IC4As were a perfect end to the season,” Fitzgerald said. “At a very competitive meet we had some people step up and mix it up with some real powerhouse D[ivision] 1 schools.”

At the ECACs on Saturday, Gallagher won the preliminary 1,000-meter run with 2:50.97, qualifying her for Sunday’s finals. Redshirted senior Brigid Moriarty came in 16th in the 5,000-meter run with 17:14.28, her best time of the season.

At Saturday’s IC4As, Fitzgerald came in second in the preliminary 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:26.67, qualifying him for the finals on Sunday. Schmidt finished 23rd in the preliminary 800-meter run with 1:53.02.

In the relays, the 4x800 team of Hutchinson, Moore, Cosgrove and Rossi took 12th in the preliminary race with 7:39.86, while the 4x400 team of Atkinson, sophomore Nick Delligatti, Schmidt and Lyons took 18th in the preliminary race with 3:16.59; both results were the best of the season.

On Sunday, Gallagher took second in the final 1,000-meter run with 2:47.86, barely beaten by Leah Andrianos of Connecticut with 2:47.41. Gallagher’s 800-meter time is the best of those recorded by the Rams this season, and second only to Lauren Gubicza’s 1992 2:45.8 finish in Fordham history.

Fitzgerald won the final 1,000-meter race with 2:27.91, besting Navy’s Dominic DellaPelle’s 2:27.77 for the Rams’ second straight year winning an IC4A event (Matt DiBuono won the weight throw competition last year). Both Gallagher and Fitzgerald were named All-East.

“One performance that stood out in particular was freshman John Cosgrove’s leg of the 4x800m relay,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s a guy without much experience in the 800-meter distance; but after his strong leg this weekend, he’ll be seeing a lot more races in that distance. Kerri Gallagher capped off an incredible season of running and finished second in a really competitive race. She’s a real leader and an example to both the guys’ and girls’ squads.”

Fitzgerald said he was proud of himself. 

“I was really lucky and was able to get in a race that played to my and the team’s advantages,” he said. “The race went out conservative and came back kinda quick. I was just feeling good that day and was able to do some things that put me in a good position to kick in and win.”

This weekend marked the end of the indoor season, as the teams will switch to outdoor meets at the Morgan State Invitational.

“Overall this indoor season was a real success,” Fitzgerald said. “So many people stepped up, and everyone is showing real promise for this outdoor season.”

The Morgan State Invitational will be Saturday, March 20 in Baltimore.