Women’s track and field found success in individual finishes at the Patriot Games at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, on Friday and Saturday.
The Revs raced at the Robert Comstock Cardinal Classic hosted by Catholic University in Landover, Maryland, on Jan. 20 where one runner podiumed. With a roster of 23, the Buff and Blue clocked in both strong PRs and individual performances, most of which finished within the top 15 of their respective events.
“We’re not really concerned so much about the time but just how the girls are running and how they’re getting after it,” Assistant Coach Justin Lupone said. “And we had good competition, some heat wins, some nice good chase downs. So overall, very happy with the performance.”
Saturday’s events started with 60-meter dashes. Graduate student Rachel Horowitz finished in 8.06 seconds, placing third in her heat. Horowitz set the program record with a PR of 7.86 seconds in the 60-meter dash at the Youree Spence-Garcia Meet on Dec. 2. Freshman Janae Russell finished in 8.21 seconds, placing fourth in her heat. Horowitz and Russell both failed to qualify for finals.
“I think today my 200 is pretty solid,” Horowitz said. “I’m a 400 runner, so all of these meets leading up to conference, we just trained as a team, so I was pretty happy considering it’s a flat track and it’s only our second meet back from break.”
The next event was the one-mile run with four Revs competing. In the first heat, freshman Emma Friedrich and senior Catherine Ruffino had strong starts. Fredrich climbed to the top of the pack with Ruffino trailing behind. On the third lap, Ruffino and Fredrich were set firmly in third place right behind Catholic University’s Lauren Cerda and Apolline Gaspers, Johns Hopkins University and William & Mary University. Even with Ruffino and Fredrich’s strong start, both fell back at the end of the race. The Revs were the second to last team to finish. Friedrich came in 24th with a time of 5:32.36. Ruffino came in 26th at 5:34.06, a few seconds shy of her one-mile PR of 5:20.53.
The second heat of the event featured sophomore Una Boylan and junior Olivia Syftestad. Boylan and Syftestad clocked in PRs at the Robert Comstock Cardinal, coming in back to back third and fourth with respective marks of 5:09.62 and 5:11.45. Syftestad secured a strong start in third, while Boylan fell into second to last place. In the last two laps, Boylan worked her way up to the top and trailed in third place while Syftestad was comfortable in fifth. Once again, Boylan and Syftestad finished back to back in ninth and 10th, with marks of 5:08.24 and 5:14.15.
The 400-meter dash starred freshman Kamryn Holness, but she fell behind and finished last in her heat with a time of 1:02.61 and 11th overall.
In the 500-meter dash, the Buff and Blue won two heats. Sophomore Alexia Massoud had both a strong start and finish, coming in first in her heat with a time of 1:24.19, with her PR of 1:22.07 being a program record. On the other hand, freshman Kayla Desousa tallied a time of 1:26.00.
The 800-meter run saw the Revs rise and fall. Despite sophomore Rita Mazumder coming in third with a time of 2:21.29 in their heat, senior Kirsten Long came in last with a time of 2:29.06, compared to her PR of 2:21.37.
The 1,000-meter run featured sophomore Sarah Mitchell and freshman Lola Dinneen. Dinneen began the race near last and pushed herself into third place in her heat, recording a time of 3:06.43. They respectively placed eighth and 10th.
The final event of the day was the 200-meter dash. Horowitz came in second in her heat with a time of 25.26, also earning second place. Holness took first in her heat with a time of 27.19 and placed 10th. In the last heat, Russell finished first, recording a time of 27.12 and placing eighth.
While the Patriot Games had its ups and downs, Russell and Horowitz were both satisfied with their individual performances.
“Just get stronger,” Russell said. “Overall, I feel like we have this deep down, but I really need the strength and like to finish our races and everything. So just strength, but I feel like we’ve been doing pretty good so far.”
Even though GW does not have an official men’s indoor track team, three Revs participated in the 800 and 1,000-meter. Sophomore Colin Funk finished third in his heat for the 800-meter, clocking in at 1:57.80. Senior Pierce Kaptuska had a time of 1:58.60 and freshman Cole McCue finished at 2:01.72.
The 1,000-meter saw two Revs take first and second in the finals. Graduate student Ryan Fowkes secured first, clocking in at 2:26.51, and sophomore Michael Bohlke took home second with a time of 2:27.54.
The Revs hope to bounce back at the Boston University Valentine Invitational in Boston on Feb. 9.
