Quinnipiac freshman Katie Gwyther won the women’s mile in a school record time to lead the Bobcats at day two of the 2003 Northeast Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Prince George Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, Md., on Sunday afternoon.
Gwyther is the school’s first track conference champion since Quinnipiac moved to Division I in 1998-99.
“I am incredibly pleased with the performances by our men’s and women’s teams,” said head coach Shawn Green. “We are very excited to have a conference champion on the women’s side and to score in every event we entered on the men’s side.”
Gwyther’s time of 5:05.71 shattered her own record of 5:11 set two weeks earlier at the URI Invitational.
The meet was scheduled for last weekend but was postponed after one day of competition due to the winter storm that hit the east coast.
Also on the women’s side, Jenna Nechamen set a new school record in the 800-meters, placing sixth in 2:23.44. Carolyn Robin, who placed second in the 3,000-meters last week, took third overall in the 5,000-meters in 18:28.11, followed by Gwyther in sixth in 18:47.15, Sarah DeFreitas in 12th in 18:47.15 and Jamie Scholl in 15th in 20:18.83. The distance medley relay team of Melissa Jenkins, Joanna Perez, Nechamen and Danielle Green finished fifth in 13:05.94.
LIU captured the women’s title with 146 points, followed by UMBC in second with 84, St. Francis (Pa.) in third with 79, Monmouth in fourth with 75, Fairleigh Dickinson in fifth with 65, Central Connecticut State in sixth with 49, Robert Morris in seventh with 48 and Quinnipiac in eighth with 34. Mount St. Mary’s (ninth, 28 points), Sacred Heart (10th, 25), Wagner (11th, 20) and St. Francis (N.Y.) (12th, 10) rounded out the team standings.
The Bobcat women competed in just seven of the 17 events and more than doubled their highest ever point total at the meet, set a year ago.
On the men’s side, Quinnipiac had at least one runner score in each running event for the first time in school history. Leading the way for the Bobcats were Jeffrey Roginielewicz, who was fourth in the 5,000-meters in 15:06.15 and Josh Jabaut, who was fifth in the 800-meters in 1:56.57. Dominic Popolizio was seventh in the 500-meters in 1:06.99 and Andrew Sinnott was seventh in the mile in 4:23.95. Michael Charron was eighth in the 5,000-meters in 15:28.56, Tom Martin was 11th in the 5,000 in 15:56.20 and Tim Moylan was 13th in the 5,000 in 16:03.35. The men’s distance medley relay team of Jabaut, Popolizio, Andrew Bober and Sinnott finished fourth in 10:27.50.
St. Francis (Pa.) took the men’s title with 131 points, followed by UMBC in second with 116, Monmouth in third with 91, LIU in fourth with 84, Mount St. Mary’s in fifth with 82, Robert Morris in sixth with 49, Fairleigh Dickinson in seventh with 38 and Quinnipiac in eighth with 27 points. Wagner (ninth, 16 points), Sacred Heart (10th, 14), Central Connecticut State (11th, eight) and St. Francis (N.Y.) (12th, seven) rounded out the men’s field.
