T&F: ‘Cats earn victories in Gotham Cup
January 24, 2007
The men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to New York City last week to compete in the New Balance Gotham Cup at the Armory Track & Field Center. The women’s team won three events: the 60-meter hurdles, 1,000-meter run and the 4×800-meter relay. Frances Koons set a new meet record for the 1,000-meter with a time of 2:45.70 and also led off the Wildcats’ win in the 4×800-meter relay. Monique Morgan won the 60-meter hurdles for the ‘Cats third victory.
The women’s team also placed in the top three in five other events and had a total of 24 women compete in the finals. In the 500-meter dash, Arusha McKenzie and Makalia Griffith placed second and third respectively. Akilah Vargas finished six seconds behind record-setting Koons to take second place in the 1,000-meter run. Bridget Akard finished third in the unseeded 3,000-meter run. In the field events, Kourtney Marquis finished third in the pole vault with a height of 3.30 meters.
In the men’s events, Villanova had another 24 student-athletes compete in finals. The men’s team won only one event, the unseeded 5,000-meter run, but had seven other competitors finish in the top three in their respective events. Geoffrey Doody won the unseeded 5,000-meter run for ‘Nova.
While Elvis Lewis and Drew Eckman finished first and second respectively in the 500-meter dash for affiliated runners, unattached Bryan Steele edged out Lewis by .23 seconds to take first place. Kevin Okolie took third place in the 60-meter dash; Sean Tully and Mark Korich finished second and third respectively in the 800-meter run. Kevin Sives placed third in the unseeded 1-mile run. In the field events, Robert McDade had a great day, placing in two finals and finishing in second place for the shot put and in fourth place for the weight throw.