The Track & Field teams head to the NCAA Championships after an impressive winter season
After achieving great success at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference on Friday, Mar. 4 and Saturday, Mar. 5, the men’s and women’s track and field team is set to complete in National Collegiate Athletic Associations’ Division III Championships starting Friday, Mar. 11 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The team will send 11 women and men, 22 total players, to the Championships to compete in fifteen different events. The event will occur until Saturday. Mar. 12.
At the AARTFC conference this past weekend, the Knights placed second overall during their time at Nazareth College. Senior player Kieran Sheridan set a meet 400-meter record and program 4x400 relay record, finishing the former in an incredibly impressive 48.26 seconds; Sheridan is currently the fastest player in Division III track and field. The relay record was completed alongside John Goldszer, Jason Rappazzo, and Lance Jensen with a program-record time of 3:17.41.
The Geneseo Knights track and field team has been impressing all season long. Members of the team have earned six honors as PrestoSports Athletes of the Week, for seniors Sheridan, Jenna Strickland and juniors Kathleen McCarey and Nicky Andrews.
Their season started in early December at an indoor meet in Houghton, where the Knights took first-place wins in twelve events. They went on to compete at the Nazareth College Alumni Invitational on Friday, Dec. 10, where Sheridan set another 400-meter record and Bryan Jacobs came incredibly close to breaking one of Geneseo’s oldest records in the 60-meter with a time of 6.96 seconds, just .02 seconds shy of the 6.94-seconds record.
After a short break, the Knights returned in mid-January at a Brockport Welcome Back Meet. They placed first overall and earned first-place titles in the mile (Andrews, 4:12.89), 400-meter (Jensen, 51.72), 500-meter (Sheridan, 1:04.75, a facility record), and the 800-meter (Ezra Ruggles, 1:55.50).
The team earned their first Conference Challenge Cup a week later at Nazareth College. The men’s team placed first in both the distance relay, medley relay, and 4x400 relay. The men’s team also competed at Brockport and Ithaca invitationals to great acclaim, with Jensen earning a first-place win for the 400-meter. After another conference at Nazareth College in mid-February, the Knights went on to defend their SUNYAC title, finishing first in eight events and earning their fifth-consecutive championship, which is kind of crazy when you think about it.
The men’s and women’s track and field team has had an astonishing winter season. We here at the Lamron wish them the best at their NCAA Championships this weekend.