Joanna Perez has been running like a broken record over the past weeks for the Quinnipiac women’s indoor track program, and pun aside, Perez broke her fourth consecutive Quinnipiac record on Saturday in the 1000m at the University of Rhode Island Mega Meet. Perez finished with a time of 3:02.2, smashing her previous school record.
“Her biggest factor for success may be the maturity thing,” Coach Shawn Green said of Perez’s latest performances. “Maturity breeds confidence and she looks very confident at the line. She is not intimated and has that look in her eyes.”
Perez finished sixth overall in the race and also was the leadoff leg for the distance medley relay. Freshman standout Caitlin Brady finished seventh in the race with a time of 3:04.63, which was good enough for a new freshman school record in the event.
The aforementioned-distanced medley relay team was composed of Perez, Julianne Foito, Lilian Perez, and Jenna Necheman. They finished fifth overall with a time of 12:58.89. Necheman also had a strong showing in the 800 meter as she finished fifth overall with a time of 2:20.98.
Another event that the Bobcats do not run that often is the 4×400 meter relay. With the focus on distance events, Quinnipiac often does not have enough speed to be competitive in the 4×400, but that was not the case this Saturday as the team of Erin O’Connell, Caitlin Brady, Danielle Green, and Abbey Gosling set a new school record with a time of 4:24.66.
The men’s indoor track program also so a couple of personal best performances on Saturday. Both Greg Toomey and Jacob Gurzler set their own personal records in the 1000-meter. Toomey finished third overall in the race with a time of 2:29.99. Gurzler finished in fifth place with a time of 2:30.79. Unfortunately Toomey’s time was only four one hundredths of a second away from qualifying for the IC4A Championships, as Green said that was one of the goals for this meet.
In the 3000 meter Greg Brink finished third overall with a time of 8:31.09. He was followed closely by teammate Phil Roach who finished in sixth place with a time of 8:45.90. The Bobcats found themselves finishing third in the 4×800 meter relay as they ran a time of 8:02.8. The team they ran was Toomey, Richard Heffron III, Gurzler, and Alex Grout.
The meet was being used as a tune up for next weekend’s Northeast Conference Championships said Coach Green, and although there were many personal records being set on Saturday, there is still room for improvement. “I don’t think that we are peaking at all yet. We plan to peak for the NEC’s and the two weeks that follow those. We are running some really fast times, but I think that we definitely can run even faster,” said Green.
The NEC Championships will be held in Landover, Md., on Feb. 12 and 13.
