Junior Christina Melian raced around the track at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Friday, winning the 5,000-meter run to lead the Stony Brook Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track in competition at two different events this weekend.
The standout, who qualified for the NCAA Championships last fall, was victorious with a time of 15:48.77, nearly 15 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Also standing out at the event was sophomore Jane Clark, who came in 17th place in the 800-meter run by completing the race in 1:18:12.
A majority of the team stayed closer to school, performing well on Friday in the Fastrack National Invitational at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island, a promising sign as the team gets ready for the America East Championships next week.
Junior Elizabeth Caldwell had the top finish of any Seawolf that day, finishing second in the women’s 3,000-meter race by stopping the clock at a time of 10:01.34. She finished four seconds behind Princeton sophomore Melissa Reed.
Freshman Chinque Thompson finished eighth in the 60-meter race, clocking in at 7.76 seconds in the finals. Freshman Nikki Fogarty also ran well for the Seawolves, finishing 11th in the women’s 200-meter race with a time of 26.00 seconds.
In the field events, sophomore Kaylyn Gordon shined again in the triple jump event, finishing third, topping her performance at the John Thomas Terrier Classic two weeks ago. In that event, she finished fifth.
But the women were not the only Seawolves competing well indoors.
Senior Joe Clark led the charge on the men’s side, finishing sixth in the one-mile race. He completed the competition in a time of 4:17.30, while two of his teammates finished seconds after him. Senior Gabriel Vazquez came in 11th place with a time of 4:19.96. Freshman Kevin Vinolas finished 12th just fractions of a second behind him, 4:20.22.
The men also ran well in the 800-meter race, finishing with three runners in the top 20. In his home borough, senior Alex Lopresti placed seventh in the event, stopping the clock at a time of 1:54.23. He was followed by seniors Bradley Amazan and Jonathan Samuel.
Junior Jarrett Button and freshman Wayne Williams finished 12th and 13th in the men’s 400-meter dash, respectively. Button nipped his teammate by four hundredths of a second at the line.
After Friday’s strong performance, the Seawolves head into next weekend’s America East Championships in Staten Island with wind at their back, as Stony Brook looks to bring conference titles back to Long Island.
FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: STONY BROOK ATHLETICS
Tim Oakes
Tim is a senior journalism major. He joined the Statesman back in the fall of 2015 as a contributing sports writer. Since then he has written stories on almost every Stony Brook sport, including two consecutive years of in-depth coverage of the Stony Brook Baseball team. You can contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @TimOakesBlog
