Complete Results
STATEN ISLAND, NY – The Manhattan College men's and women's track & field teams opened the indoor season by participating in the first-ever collegiate meet at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Saturday. The Jaspers helped break in the new facility in style, securing four event wins and notching several other solid performances. Since this was the first meet at the venue, all first-place results were also facility records.
Love Litzell (Ostersund, Sweden) led a 1-3 finish in the men's weight throw. His mark of 20.15 meters (66 feet, 1½ inches) was one of the top marks in the NCAA over the opening weekend of the season, as well as a qualifier for the IC4A Championships. Blerim Pocesta (Staten Island, NY) took third in the event with a toss of 19.40 m (63'7¾).
Hayden Clarke (Townsville, Australia) also achieved the IC4A qualifying standard in the men's long jump. He got out to a distance of 7.37 m (24'2¼). Clarke added a fifth-place showing in the triple jump (14.26 m, 46'9½), while Bobby Gebhard (Saddle River, NJ) was fourth with an IC4A-qualifying leap of 14.68 m (48'2). Chris Sandoli (Old Bridge, NJ), meanwhile, cleared 4.35 m (14'3¼) to place fourth in the men's pole vault.
On the track, Tom Bonaro (Pearl River, NY) grabbed fourth place in the 800 meters (1:57.31) and Tom Diliberto (Massapequa Park, NY) was fifth in the 3000 meters (8:37.33). In addition, Will Stallings (Sleepy Hollow, NY) posted a time of 22.44 seconds to place eighth in the 200 meters.
Manhattan also earned a pair of event wins on the women's side. Marisa Robbins (Goshen, NY) captured the pole vault with a leap of 3.60 m (11'9¾), qualifying her for the ECAC Championships. Meanwhile, in her first collegiate race, Jasmine Davis (Ronkonkoma, NY) secured the victory in the 400 meters with a 57.53-second clocking.
Another newcomer who had a solid indoor debut was Lisa Fajardo (Brooklyn, NY). She ran the 3000 meters and finished second in 10:07.96. Ellinor Persson (Taby, Sweden) secured fourth place in the long jump (5.23 m, 17'2) and eighth in the 60 meter hurdles (9.09), while Paige Chapman (Abingdon, MD) was second in the 60 meters (7.73).
Next weekend, the Jaspers return to Ocean Breeze for the Wagner Shootout. Competition gets underway at 2 p.m. on Friday.
