photo by Ty Smith
Freshman runner Katie Guarnaccia competes in the 5,000 run on Saturday at the Cal U Early Bird Meet. Guarnaccia won the race with a time of 18:39.
photo by Ty Smith
Point Park track and field teams had a strong showing at the first outdoor meet in the history of the program Saturday at the California (Pa.) Early Bird Invitational. Although there was no team score, there were many standout performances.
Freshman distance runner Katie Guarnaccia was a top performer and highlight of the meet, placing first in the women’s 5,000-meter run with a time of 18 minutes and 39 seconds, 39 seconds faster than the second place finisher.
This was only Guarnaccia’s second time competing in the 5K, last month being her first at the Kent State Tune Up during the indoor season.
“Considering it was our first outdoor meet and we just came off of spring break, training hasn’t been really tough yet,” said Guarnaccia on March 21 after her race. “I feel like today was a good start to the season,”
Guarnaccia was just three seconds shy of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) 5K indoor national qualifying standard. She said her goal for the outdoor season is to make it to nationals.
“I definitely want to get my time down,” Guarnaccia said. “My goal is to try to make 17:50.”
Saturday’s meet was the first to have women compete in jumping events for the Pioneers.
Danika Adams-Peterson, Darian Leighty, Jahniah McAllister, Gigi Hoffman and Vianka Cotton all competed in the long jump. Cotton led the Pioneers jumping at 4.45 meters and ranked 16th overall.
Shaun Berry led the men’s jumping squad, placing third in the triple, and tied for sixth in the high jump.
More notable performances came from junior Eric Biggs and freshman Alex Vaughn on the men’s team.
Biggs, a former high school football player who’s running track for the first time this season, competed in five events and set his personal best in the 200-meter dash, coming in at 23.55 seconds.
He said his goal was to catch up with fellow teammate Alvin Harris, who ran unattached in his heat, and he was surprised when he found out he set his own personal record.
“Once I caught him coming out of the turn, I was like ‘Yeah, this is great then I ran out of steam,” Biggs said on the second floor of the Student Center on Monday. “I felt terrible because all my other 200s I still had some [energy] left to take out in the straight. This time I didn’t, and I started looking around and saw that people were passing me.”
Vaughn increased his time in the 400-meter dash and placed fourth with a time of 50.13 seconds, setting a new personal best and school record in the event. He said that breaking 49 seconds in the 400-meter was one of his goals during the outdoor season.
“Running on an outdoor track is much better because the turns aren’t as tight,” Vaughn said after competing in the 4×400-meter relay. “I had a great day today, being able to do two 400-meters can be hard.”
De’Anthony Morgan, Christian Capers, Falonte Jackson and Biggs made their collegiate 4×100 meter relay debut and took fourth at 44.03 seconds.
“Our times could’ve definitely been better in the four by one,” Biggs said. “If we work on our handoffs and switch positions I think we can definitely shave off a good second and a half.”
Taelor Fowler, Amber Brown, Chereese Langely and McAllister competed in the women’s 4×1000-meter with a time of 50.92 seconds and took fifth.
In the field events, freshman Joshua Wright competed in the javelin and discus with a throw of 136 feet, 6 inches placing 12th in the javelin for the men’s team. He ranked 22nd in the discus with a toss of 98 feet, 2 inches. Michael Beavis placed 37th in the shot put with a throw of 30 feet, 5 inches.
Vanessa Sprando competed in the shot put and javelin, throwing at 28 feet, 10 inches and 72 feet, 8 inches, respectively for the women’s team.
The Pioneers will next compete on March 28 at the West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcat Invitational.
“We have so much potential,” Biggs said. “I want to see how well we improve throughout the season.”
