Track gets some sun, wins too

What a difference a little bit of sun makes.

Competing in good weather for the first time… What a difference a little bit of sun makes.

Competing in good weather for the first time all season, the Pitt track team annihilated the competition at both the IUP Invitational and the Morgan State Legacy Meet.

Only a week prior, head coach Alonzo Webb had let out his frustrations after yet another meet was cut short by freezing rain and snow. All performances had been poor on account of terrible conditions.

Everything changed this past weekend, however, as the sun seemed to provide an extra boost for the Panthers in their first breakout performance of the outdoor season.

“We seemed to win almost every event we entered,” a relieved Webb said. “The major factor was the weather. It’s no coincidence that our best performance occurred on the weekend with the best weather. The conditions especially affect our sprinters and field performers and it showed today. They were smiling and happy to be competing out there and, as a result, won many events.”

The Panthers translated the good weather into numerous NCAA regional qualifiers and personal bests. Prior to last weekend, the team had only two regional qualifiers.

The team was split between two meets over the weekend because some of the athletes wanted to be close to home in order to study for finals, and because the IUP meet supposedly had better distance runners competing.

The results show otherwise, however. Almost every distance event was won by a Panther, starting with Sam Bair, whose time of 3:42.36 in the 1,500 meters was not only the winning time and a regional qualifying time, but a school record as well.

According to Webb, Bair basically ran the race alone. This was evident when the second place runner finished 21 seconds after Bair.

Following Bair’s lead, Pitt’s steeplechase competitors, Mike Long and Nicki Angstadt, each won the men’s and women’s races in times of 9:22.40 and 10:56.90, respectively.

Shortly after that, Curtis Larimer and Steve Gonzalez finished in first and second places in the 10,000 meters with almost identical times of 31.37.51 and 32.37.11. Eric Fleming, who had been injured the past few weeks, also returned to winning form by capturing the 800-meter race.

Aside from Angstadt, the women also had a winner in the 800 meters. Like Larimer and Gonzalez, Ali Briggs and Bailey Flask came in first and second in the 800. Briggs also captured second in the 1,500, losing by less than a second with a time of 4:43.81.

The rest of Pitt’s athletes competed at the Morgan State Legacy Meet. The day got off to an early start as the team bus departed Pittsburgh at 4:30 a.m. in order to compete in Baltimore at 11:00 a.m.

If fatigue played a factor in the meet, it certainly was not evident.

Similar to the results at IUP, both the men and women took little pity on the other competitors en route to multiple victories.

Picking up where he left off at IUP, Bair was the 1,500 meter winner at 3:43.00, narrowly besting fellow teammate and nationally ranked runner Tim Konoval, who came in second.

The men had three top finishers in the 5,000-meters as Andy Tomaswick, Curtis Larimer and Steve Gonzalez came in third, fifth and seventh places, respectively.

Sophomores Ron Walter and Matt Raquet performed brilliantly in the field as Walter won the men’s pole vault with a height of 4.90 meters, and Raquet finished in second in the javelin with a throw of 57.00 meters.

The women were led by Shantea Calhoun who won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and qualified for regionals in both. Her sister, Shanea, came in second in the 200, less than a second behind Shantea at 23.50.

Like Bair, Ali Briggs came up with her second victory in two different meets by winning the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:34.00. Krystal Epps was the women’s 800-meter winner with a time of 2:10.00

In the 5,000-meters, Pitt took three of the top five spots, with Suzy Bossart leading the way in first place with a time of 17:30.00. Nicole Bielick and Monica Bhattacharjee followed in third and fifth places, respectively. The women were also successful in the 4×100- and 4×400-meter relays, winning the former in a time of 44.80 and coming in second in the latter.

In the long jump, Martina Hallman and Janessa Murphy finished in first and second places, respectively, with distances of 6.19 and 6.12 meters. The mark was a personal best and regional qualifier for Hallman, who also finished fourth in the triple jump.

Additionally, the women dominated the pole vault competition, with Kendall Butch leading the way with a winning height of 3.50 meters. Janelle Adams and Kristin Johnson also performed well, finishing in third and fourth places, respectively.

Although Webb was very pleased with the results of the past weekend, he admitted there was still work to be done.

“We are still about two weeks off from where we wanted to be at this point in the season,” he stated.

The Panthers next meet, the Penn Relays, begins this Thursday in Philadelphia. The meet is the final competition for the team before the Big East Outdoor Championships.