The men’s and women’s track and field team hosted their first home meet of the season this past weekend. Both the men and women competed well, taking home some first place finishes and breaking personal records.
“I am really proud of how my team did at our home opener this weekend,” said sophomore Molly McCullough. “It was a successful start to the outdoor season with a number of personal best times and a lot of improvement over last year. I am especially proud of how the team supported each other.”
Two personal records were broken at the meet. Sophomores Abby Schneebeck and Elliott Blake walked away feeling very proud of their performance and excited to keep working hard. Schneebeck ran the 100 meter hurdle in 15:40 seconds, winning the event. Blake ran the 1500 meter in 4:02.47, also winning first place.
“I was really excited to run my fastest time in the 100 hurdles, because I have been training very hard since August, and was hoping to start the season off better than I ended it last year,” said Schneebeck. “Also, I am getting much closer to the school record, so that is my next goal.”
The women’s 4×100 meter relay team, which consisted of junior Elizabeth Peters, junior Nkolika Nweke, senior Katie Groke, and junior Britney Sullivan, won their event in a time of 48.91 seconds. Nweke went on and placed third in the 100 meter dash and fourth in the 200 meter dash. Groke placed fifth in the 400 meter dash.
The 5000 meter run was taken over by the tigers, taking seven of the top ten spots in the leaderboard. Junior Melissa Whitman placed first with a time of 19:27.51, McCullough placed second with a time of 19:27.78, and sophomore Samantha Simank placed third with a time of 19:51.24. For the jumpers, first year MaKenna Bentley placed second in high jump with a distance of 1.50 meters while Sullivan and first year Ayriel Coleman placed second and third in triple jump with distances of 11.74 meters and 11.49 meters.
In a time of 11:28.90, McCullough won the 3000 meter steeplechase. The time allowed her to move up to the fourth fastest time in Trinity’s history.
On the men’s side, junior Michael Erickson took second in the 1500 meter run with a time of 4:03.27. In the 5000 meter run, five out of the top ten runners were Tigers. Senior Austin Brown took second with a time of 15:27.48 while sophomore Brian Wongchotigul and junior Jacob Hammond came in third and fifth.
Junior Cody Hall took second with a time of 14.84 seconds in the 110 meter hurdles and fourth in long jump. Sophomore Benjamin Matthews took second in the 3000 meter steeplechase with a time of 10:24.60 and junior Matt Love placed third with a distance of 47.83 meters in the discus throw.
“We really showed how much we’re willing to fight to get the job done,” sophomore Elliott Blake. “I know it’s still early in the season and it was a lot of people’s first time doing some of their respective events at the collegiate level, but just the fact that they were able to go out and compete is a fantastic sign for the team as a whole.”
The team will travel to Cuero to compete in the Cuero Gobbler Invite on Saturday Mar. 4.
