The Cardinal Invitational, the last home meet of the track and field team’s indoor season, was a good one for the team, with some very strong performances from athletes across the board.
Although a rather small meet, the competition was nonetheless solid, with athletes from the University of Hartford, Coast Guard, and NESCAC rival Williams College on the track.
“I did probably the best I’ve done since freshman year,” said team captain Anwell Lanfranco ’08.
Lanfranco, a thrower, is excited about the team’s prospects.
“Everyone is either PR-ing [achieving personal records] or getting very close to it,” he said. “There is improvement everywhere I look. ”
Tommie Lark ’11 won the long jump event, and hop-stepped his way into second place in the triple jump, and also a spot on the Wesleyan Indoor Records board. Lark broke the Wesleyan indoor team record with a 46-0 ft. jump, an effort that eclipsed the previous record of 45-10 1/2 set by Richmond Simmons in 1990.
Lark attributed his success to the good coaching and hard work put in by him and his fellow jump team members, who have been working hard during training since the fall.
“Breaking a record is an achievement, but that’s not what I think about when entering meets,” he said.
The throwers saw good performances from Mike Moody ’10 in the weight throw, and Pearce Talbot ’09 in the shot put, who set a personal record with a throw of 11.54 meters.
On the track itself, the hard work continued. Dan Manuyag ’10 blazed across the track to PR in the 55 meter dash with a blistering time of 6.70 seconds, whilst Kiran Sheffrin ’10 finished the day with a PR in the 55 meter hurdles, crossing the line at 9.30 seconds. Christina Barnett ’11, also running the 55 meter hurdles, set a personal best of 9.35 seconds.
According to Lanfranco, the team is just getting started.
“We’re gearing up for the outdoors now, focusing on getting healthy, staying healthy and doing the damn thing,” he said.
Some members of the team were away during the Invitational, competing at a two day meet held in at Boston University. The BU meet was much larger and contained intense competition from several Division I schools.
According to captain Stephanie O’Brian ’08, the high-profile event made for an exciting and intimidating experience.
“When you race against such athletes, yes you can feel intimidated, but you know it makes you run faster,” she said.
And run faster she did, coming through to qualify provisionally for Nationals in the 800 meter. Provisional qualification for Nationals was also achieved by fellow captain Sean Watson ’08 in the 5 kilometer. Hayley Smith ’11 reached a personal best in the 5 kilometer.
The Cards are looking forward to the Tufts Invitational this weekend where they hope to equal and improve upon their collective successes from last week.
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