By: Donnie Menke ~Staff Writer~
The track and field team opened the 2016 Indoor Season at the Kentucky Track and Field Invitational at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
The highlight of the meet for the women’s team was the 3000 meter race, in which all four runners placed in the top 30, including two in the top 10. Madeline Britton and Sarah Mazzei, with times of 10:02.65 and 10:04.16, finished sixth and seventh. The other two runners, Allison Sinning and Gina Genco, finished 19th and 26th with times of 10:19.17 and 10:26.89, respectively.
On the men’s side, Zachary Polk placed eighth in the long jump with a jump of 6.93 meters. He also ran his personal-best in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.03 seconds.
Other top finishers included Grant Stapleton, who placed 16th in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:58.64, and Nolan Daniels, who finished 22nd in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50:95. Jordan Shepherd and Grayson Jenkins also had a good day, placing 27th and 28th in the one-mile run with times of 4:27.18 and 4:28.56, respectively.
The next meet was the Gladstein Invitational at Indiana University in Bloomington. It was a special day for Xavier track, as Polk and Sydney Larkin both set school records in their respective events. Polk won the long jump with a distance of 7.23 meters on his second jump of the day, breaking the school record that he previously set during his freshman season. Larkin placed seventh in the 600-meter run, posting a time of 1:36.77. Rachel Clark previously set the record in 2013 at the Indiana Relays with a time of 1:38.00.
Besides his record-breaking run, Polk posted a time of 22.50 in the 200-meter dash to place seventh in the event. Shepherd also placed fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:57.23. Other top finishes on the women’s side included Haley Jerabek’s eighth-place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:17.63 and seventh-place finish in the 4×800 meter relay. The relay team of Sarah Clark, Genco, Caterina Karas and Meghan Vogel posted a time of 9:35.67.
Xavier returns to action on Jan. 29-30 at the Thundering Herd Invitational hosted by Marshall University.