In case you missed the action at last week's Penn State Invitational, fear not, because UCCTF does not rest and we are back this week with the Ocean Breeze Garden State Invitational. A smaller meet this time but equally eventful, this team continues to show out at every opportunity to get the job done.
The beautiful Ocean Breeze track provided a great opportunity for many members of the team to continue to show out so soon after their last outing. The day began with Eric Meade (9.21) taking 3rd place in the 60mh. In a demonstration that proves his last week’s performance was by no means an accident, he took a top 3 spot in two more events on the day. In the triple jump Meade (12.69m) took 2nd place, and in the high jump he came in third (1.85m). In the mile Michael Johnson significantly brought down his PR, moving from a time of 5:57 last week to a new time of 5:14.
For the women Alanna Smith took the 2nd place spot (8.07) in the 60m dash in what would just scratch the surface for an overall very successful day for the team. The rest of the running events were highlighted by Celestine Walliser (63.94) in the 400m and Brooke Sheehan (2.30:45) in the 800m. These two women both took 2nd place in the club record books with their performances, each continuing to push past their marks last week to continue to push up the standards more. On the field, Katie Floering (4.69m) started off in the long jump taking 3rd place, and Karina Huang (10.02m) brought home the 2nd spot in the meet and 2nd spot in the club record books in triple jump. For the throws Clarissa Nock continued her streak by taking 1st place in the shot put by almost one whole meter. Just to further show the scale of her performance, she also would have taken 3rd place overall in the meet when compared with the men's shot put. Cassidy Ward came 3rd place in shot put, steadily improving on her shot last
week by .6 meters.
The one highlight of the meet above all others came from the pole vault squad’s first opportunity of the new year to compete, where they took full advantage of the opportunity and broke both club records on the mens and womens side. Katie Floering reached a height of 3.05m and now has written her name down for the first time in the pole vault books, with much more time left in the season to further separate herself from the pack. Ian Kearney shattered the previous record on his side by a daunting 0.65 meters. Clearly something has been working in the training being done by this group these past few weeks. Bennet Labree came in 2nd place in pole vault. The final success of the trip came from President Trevor Zupan who expertly demonstrated his parking skills on the way back home, quickly and accurately parallel parking his car when the team stopped for food after their many victories.
UCCTF walked away undoubtedly successful from this meet, providing new PRs, club records, and reasons to be hopeful in the coming weeks with even bigger meets on the line in Harvard and The Armory. Although a small step in the overall story of the season, this meet cannot be ignored and only shows the continued progress, effort, and commitment of the team every week.
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