The St. Thomas Aquinas Track team competed at the Rider Invitational in Lawrenceville, NJ on Saturday. The men's team finished 1st out of the DII competitors and 6th overall, while the women took 11th. The Spartans were lead by junior Mike Abelard who scored 18 points with a 1st place win in the 100 meters in 10.91 and a 2nd place bid in the 200m in a time of 22.14.
Sophomore George Erazo scored 10 points on his own with a 2nd place finish in the 400m with a time of 48.32 and a 7th place finish in the 200 in a time of 22.58. Freshman Joe Chegwidden took a 5th place in the 3000 meter steeplechase in a time of 10:08.53. Sophomore Mike Galonski took 5th in the 5000 meters in a time of 15:46.36. The Spartans 4x800 team of Garvenchy Nicolas, Alex Andre, Matt Buell and Mike Kraus took 4th overall in the event with a time of 8:08.18 Freshman Eddie Oswald also score a point for the Spartans in the high jump and finished in 8th overall with a jump of 1.70 (5'7).
Sophomore Keeley Bateman had a strong performance for the Lady Spartans running a new personal best in the 1500 in 4:59.16 which was good for 16th overall. Freshman Ashley Weintraub took a 6th place finish scoring 3 points in the 3000 meter steeplechase in 15:06.96. Classmate Katelyn Garvey scored the other lone point for the Lady Spartans in the 5000 meters, where she finished 8th overall, in a time of 19:38.05.
The Track & Field team will return to action this weekend at the CTC Championships which are being held at Desales University in Centre Valley, PA.
The men are currently ranked 10th overall in the East Region and the women are 15th.