By Carley Crain
@carley_crain12
Inspired by the women’s gymnastics team, the track team also held a Black Pride meet on Saturday afternoon. With it being Black History Month and their last regular-season home meet, the team felt they had a responsibility to use their voices as student-athletes.
“This is something that is very important to the team, to make everyone feel not only welcome but wanted. It’s important to embrace vulnerable conversations… without vulnerability, we will never have change,” said sophomore Kate Bonanno. “A few of our teammates spoke about Black History Month at the beginning of the meet, representing Springfield’s love for everyone in the sport.”
The Triangle Classic, hosted by Springfield College, included many competitive NEWMAC teams, such as WPI, Coast Guard, and MIT.
One of the first events was the 3,000 meter, where many new personal and season bests were run. Graduate student Rachel Wentnick broke 11 minutes for the first time despite coming off an injury, as she came away with a new career-best of 10:58. Senior Aly Coyle also ran a new season-best time of 11:33.
For the men, senior Russell Allen and junior John Derosa took control of the pack from the gun. Derosa came away with a 24 second personal best, as he won the race in 8:47. His time also qualified him for D-III New England’s next week in Maine.
In the mile, Springfield’s top performer was sophomore Sophie Curcio, as she ran a five-second season-best of 5:37.
First-year Katelynn Taylor threw a huge personal best of 11.57 meters in the shot put to place fourth overall in the event. Springfield continued to impress in the field events, as junior Colby Wilson placed second overall in the long jump with his 6.90-meter mark. In the women’s weight throw, the Pride’s depth shined. The duo of Lily Gould and Christa Carr placed second and third respectively, as Gould threw a big personal best of 14.75 meters.
Junior Abigail Clinch ran a season-best in the 400 and was the Pride’s highest finisher in the event, as she ran a speedy 1:02. Clinch also jumped a D-III qualifier mark in the triple jump. (10.63m)
For the men, sophomore Kevin Lee had a day full of solid jumps. He finished only .02m behind the top finisher in the triple jump.
In her first-ever collegiate 600, Junior Brenna LaChapelle qualified for D-III New England’s with a personal best time of 1:44. First-year Joe Wong also contributed a strong third-place finish for the men in the 600. Bonanno also ran a new career-best, this time in the 1,000. Her time of 3:12 was a four-second improvement from the last time she raced the event.
Sophomore Hope Maher was the Pride’s top finisher in the 200-meter dash, as she finished second overall with her best time of the season, 26.93 seconds. Maher has been one of Springfield’s top sprinters all season long. For the men, Sophomore Anik Dole and junior Luke Chastain finished fourth and fifth respectively. The duo has been leaders amongst the Pride’s sprinters. Evan Weber is another sprinter on the men’s side that has run fast times all season. He finished second overall in the 60 meter dash.
“This meet was a great celebration of our seniors… for a lot of them this was their last indoor meet with this team ever,” said Bonanno.
The Pride will travel to Maine next weekend for D-III Regionals.
Photo: Springfield College Athletics