Track | Hawks look forward to the beginning of outdoor season this spring

This past week saw the conclusion of the men's and women's indoor track season in Boston, Mass. Neither of the teams was able to send a member to the NCAA Championships that were held this past Friday and Saturday. From this season, both teams learned valuable lessons and will look to improve and move forward. According to women's head coach Kevin Quinn, both teams hope that this indoor year will help them prepare for the fall season.

"Many valuable lessons were learned and we should go into the outdoor season looking to improve our performances and place within the A-10," said Quinn of his women's team.

Even though each team failed to send a member to the NCAA Championships, both teams had strong showings in their last respective meets in Boston.

The men, under long-time coach Mike Glavin, finished their season at the IC4A Championships. Out of a total of 56 teams the men tied for 36th. Individually, the Hawks had strong performances from Jared Sabre, '11, and Kevin McDonnell, '12, who both finished in the top 10 in their respective races. Sabre finished sixth in the 500m dash, with a personal best time of 1:03.66. McDonnell finished his season by placing fifth in the 5,000m. McDonnell ran a personal best 14:22.67. In that same race, Jonathan Sclafani, '10, finished a respectable 18th with another personal best time of 14:43.39.

The men's relay teams were headed up by a strong performance in the 4x800m that saw the Hawks place ninth. A team of Andrew Townsend, '13, Ryan Garvin, '13, Jesse Brooks, '11, and Luke Fischer, '11, placed fifth in the preliminaries with a season best time of 7:36.31 and placed ninth overall with a time of 7:45.33. The other Hawk relay teams did not fare as well as the 4x800m team, though. The distance medley squad finished 18th overall, and in the 4x400m, the Hawks finished 27th overall.

The women's team finished their season at the ECAC Championships. The team sent a relay team and an individual to compete in Boston and ended up placing 47th out of 52 teams. The 4x800m relay team qualified for the final with their fastest time of the year, 9:09. The relay team of Anna Casey, '12, Kelsey Rose,'12, Kathleen Casey, '12, and Sara Walker, '13, placed ninth overall with a solid 9:12 performance. Individually, Jessica Di Cicco, '11, placed 21st in the 5000m with a time of 17:34.68, which happened to be her second fastest time of the year.

"[DiCicco] ran a competitive race, perhaps too competitive," said Quinn. "She went through the two mile 15 seconds faster than she ever had before and then struggled over the last three quarters of a mile."

Another name worth noting is Kristin Andrews, '11. Andrews qualified for the ECAC but had to withdraw because of a nagging injury. She had qualified for the 500m and also won the A-10 championship in that event.

In talking about his team and the season, Quinn said that the ECAC qualifiers, Andrews, Di Cicco, and the members of the 4x800 relay team, were the top performers. Along with Nohjay Nimpson, '11, who placed fourth in the A-10 in the triple jump and missed out of qualifying for the ECAC by 1 cm. Quinn also said that "this is a very young team blessed with the strong leadership of the seniors."

Now this women's team, along with the men's team will look to the fall to improve upon this indoor year.