LIAM GALLIGAN
SPORTS WRITER
On Feb. 9, the Barons and Lady Barons track teams made the trip up to Delaware, Ohio, to compete in the 2018 Ohio Wesleyan University Open. Though the meet didn’t have the best competition to challenge the Barons, Head Coach Vincent Oliver said the team was looking to this meet as a “competitive workout.” The meet proved that the Barons ran very competitively and showed improvement on their recent workouts.
In the women’s sprinting events, the Lady Barons fought well all across the board in the short and long sprint events. In the women’s 200 meter dash, the freshman duo of Gina Mannino and Sofia Cantu finished seventh and eighth place out of nine overall runners. Running together in the same heat, Mannino leaned to finish just in front of Cantu, with Mannino running 31.84 seconds and Cantu running 32.36 seconds, respectively.
In the women’s 400 meter dash, the Lady Barons were lead by outstanding sophomore Janelle Lunde as she placed second overall, with a time of 1:07.80, out of 4 runners. Cantu (third, 1:13.53) and Mannino (fourth, 1:13.94) also returned to race the 400 meters.
In the women’s distance events, the Lady Barons only fielded two runners, both in the 3000 meter run. Freshman Syndi Cain, in her first collegiate race, led the way, finishing third overall in a new personal best of 14:00.09. Senior Victoria Snell followed Cain closely, finishing fourth in a time of 14:44.41.
In the men’s sprinting events, experience led the way. The night started with junior Tristan Rios, eligible as freshman on account of not having raced since senior year of high school, running a new personal best of 7.87 in the 60 meter dash. This blazing time would allow him to finish 15th overall out of 18 runners. In the men’s 200 meter dash, the Baron men were all over the results. They were lead by senior Carlo Fabian who finished in seventh overall with a time of 25.22. He was followed closely by freshman Austen Duggan in 26.02 for 11th place overall. Freshman Sergie Daez (13th, 26.60) and Tristan Rios (14th, 26.71) were the remaining Baron men in the 200 meter dash field. In the men’s 400 meter dash, Fabian and Daez returned, and they were joined by Sophomore James Craig. Fabian (second, 54.97) and Craig (fourth, 55.12) lead the way, while Daez wasn’t too far behind in sixth with a time of 1:00.07.
In the men’s distance events, the Barons ran competitively and grabbed some top 5 finishes across each event. In the men’s 1 mile run, the Barons fielded four runners over two heats. In heat one, they were lead by junior Nick Long who finished in third place in a time of 4:40.36. Freshman duo Mark Borek and Athanasius Sirilla finished right behind Long in fourth place and sixth place with times of 4:43.75 and 4:47.33 respectively. In heat 2, senior James Sarlo finished in seventh, (16th overall), in a time of 5:43.45.
The men’s 800 also showed the depth of men’s mid-distance and distance teams. The Barons were lead by freshman Austen Duggan, who finished third overall in a time of 2:08.77. He was closely trailed by Borek (fourth, 2:10.6) and sophomore John Bolster (fifth, 2:11.68). Sirilla also doubled back from the mile and finished in seventh place with a time of 2:15.6.
The final distance event of the night for the men was the 3000 meter run. The Barons were lead by freshman Liam Galligan, who took the win in a time of 8:55.04. He went out patiently and passed the leader with 600 meters remaining and never looked back. Long came back for the men’s mile and finished in fourth place in a time of 9:26.41. Sophomore Patrick Tansill (sixth, 9:30.43) and freshman Matt Murphy (10th, 12:01.87) were the last of the Barons to cross the line.
The Barons also fielded two relay teams for the men’s 4×4. The ‘A’ team, composed of Bolster, Craig, Duggan and Fabian finished first overall with a time of 3:47.87, while the ‘B’ team finished right behind them in second with a time of 3:58.70. The ‘B’ team was composed of Sirilla, Borek, Long and Galligan.
The next meet for both the men’s and women’s team will be Feb. 17 at Kent State as they will conclude their indoor campaign. Each runner will be chasing fast times and hopefully compete well against stiff competition.