Schmidt Wins 500-Meter Dash at Valentine Invitational

Fordham competed in Boston, Mass. on Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13 in Boston University’s Valentine Invitational.

“The BU Valentine Invitational went very well from both a men’s and women’s prospective,” junior Jarret Anistranski said. “We faced strong competition and everyone looked strong coming into the second half of our indoor season.”

“Overall we raced competitively and intelligently,” senior Catherine Groene said. “It was a great meet and our hard work will continue to pay off this up coming weekend.”

“The meet went pretty good, most of us ran well,” freshman Sean Atkinson said. “A lot of people are starting to get sick so right now; we’re just trying to keep everyone okay enough for [the] A[tlantic] 10 [Championship] and the rest of the season. After this weekend a couple of us are now on top of the A-10 list so that’s a good sign on what should happen this weekend [at the A-10s]. A couple of us have been/are injured, myself included, but things seem to be coming into place and outdoor looks very promising for our team.”

Junior Kerri Gallagher won the 800-meter run in 2:08.56, qualifying her for NCAA Provisionals and breaking Lauren Gubicza’s (CBA ’93) school record.

She is now qualified for the 800-meter run, 1,000-meter run and mile run.

She was followed in the 800-meter race by sophomore Sheena Parand in 58th with 2:21.02 and freshman Ashley Davis in 94th with 2:24.11.

Junior Sherilyn Groeninger came in 12th in the 55-meter dash with 7.37, breaking her own school record set at the Metro Coaches Invitational on Jan. 8, and 28th in the 200-meter dash with 25.90.

In the 400-meter dash, junior Kerry Kwalwasser placed 11th (1:18.80), sophomore Kelly Connolly placed 14th (1:19.27) and Groene placed 28th (1:21.15). Sophomore Mairin O’Connor took 98th in the mile with 5:33.99, while in the 200-meter dash, sophomore Elisabeth Warren took 68th with 26.69.

The women’s distance medley relay team of Gallagher, Warren, Parand and redshirted senior Brigid Moriarty placed 15th with 12:08.10, qualifying them for the ECAC Championship.

The 4x400 relay team of Connelly, Groene, Groeninger and Gallagher took 21st (4:04.03).

For the men, junior Brian Schmidt won the 500-meter dash with 1:03.40, .06 seconds off Deric Zaphire’s (FCRH ’03) 2003 school record; Schmidt had already qualified for the IC4A Championship in this event.

Junior Christopher Lyons came in 19th in the same race with 1:06.02.

Atkinson took 42nd in the 400-meter dash (49.66) and Delligatti took 115th in the 200-meter dash (23.36), while in the 800-meter run, sophomore Kevin Fitzgerald placed 13th (1:53.41), freshman Michael Rossi placed 65th (1:57.71), Anistranski finished 81st (1:59.05) and sophomore Carter Ward placed 151st (2:07.31).

In the 1,000-meter run, sophomore Sam Stuart came in 49th with 2:34.43, junior Tim Hutchinson placed in 52nd with 2:34.76, sophomore Stephen Donnelly took in 65th with 2:37.84 and freshman Bernard Moore finished in 69th with 2:39.98, while in the mile run sophomore Brian Riley came in 59th with 4:19.51 and freshman Julian Saad finished in 72nd with 4:21.46.

Schmidt, Atkinson, Delligatti and Lyons qualified for the IC4A Championship in the 4x400 relay, coming in ninth with 3:17.00, only 0.8 of a second away from the school’s record for indoor track.

“It was great having such awesome performances the week before A-10s,” Kwalwasser said. “I think that we are in a great position going into the A-10s, with mostly everyone bettering their times each week. We are really happy for everyone with their great performances, so as a team we are all in really high spirits, which works out perfectly with A-10s this weekend.”

“Our team is very confident that we will be able to perform well,” Delligatti said. “We expect to improve on our performances from last year and hopefully finish toward the top of the conference.”

“We look to place well in individual events and relays at the A-10 Championships this coming week,” Anistranski said. “We have a strong core of underclassmen who look to compete well and gain experience throughout the championship portion of our season.”

“We’re all looking to place well and really help out the team, hopefully participate on some really strong relays,” Fitzgerald said. “The entire team seems to really be coming around at the right time, peaking well. We’ve been looking forward to this meet all year and are ready to get out there and really prove ourselves.”

Both teams will next compete at the A-10 Championship on Friday, Feb. 19 and Saturday, Feb. 20 in Kingston, R.I.