Track and Field Teams Open Indoor Season at Vermont Dual Meet

Priscilla Appiagyei

The University of Hartford men’s and women’s track and field teams opened the 2010-11 season with a dual meet at the University of Vermont on Saturday, Dec. 4. The men’s team fell to the host Catamounts by an 85-73 score while the women fell by an 81-75 margin.

The men’s and women’s teams combined for 16 top finishes, while four athletes from the men’s side turned in school record performances.

In the short sprints, Hartford swept a pair of one-two finishes led by Grace Lawal and Priscilla Appiagyei. In her first collegiate meet, Lawal took home top honors in the 55-meter dash with her time of 7.51. Kenterra Richardson secured second place in the 55, finishing in 7.60.

In the 300-meter dash, Appiagyei covered the track in 42.56, winning the event while breaking her own school record set last season (43.19). Lawal, who crossed the line at 42.84, was the second finisher in the race.

Rounding out the top finishes on the track on Saturday was the women’s 4x400-meter team, which combined to outrun the Catamounts by more than three seconds with its time of 4:12.16.

Three members of the women’s team found success in the field events with respective titles in the long jump, triple jump and shot put. Nicolle Adams won the long jump (5.22-meters) while Ally Thatcher’s mark of 9.52-meters was good for first place in the triple. Catie Nyitray, a sophomore, reached a distance of 10.36-meters in the shot put to clinch top honors in the event.

Alisha Beeman, a freshman, placed first in the pentathlon with 3,034 points backed behind solid performances in the high jump and the long jump.

On the men’s side, the Hawks saw seven different athletes finish first in their events, while the 4x400-meter relay team also took home top honors on Saturday.

The Hawks dominated the short sprints as they came out with top finishes in the 55-meter, 300-meter and 500-meter events. Ackeme Brown, a sophomore, defeated the Catamounts in the 55-meter dash by more than one-tenth of a second with a time of 6.53. In the 4x400-meter relay, Hartford combined for a time of 3:29.29, outracing the Catamounts’ squad by more than five seconds.

Anderson Emerole and Warren Lane won the 300-meter and 500-meter events, respectively. Emerole’s victory came with a school record when he finished the 300 in 36.08, shaving five-tenths of a second off of his previous record of 36.58. Lane outran the Catamounts by more than two seconds to capture the 500-meter title (1:03.50).

Also winning individual titles on the track were Andrew Chalmers, Eric Quitzau and Cody Adamson. Chalmers tore up the track in the 3,000-meter run, turning in a school record time of 8:52.14 in the event. In the 55-meter hurdles, Quitzau and Adamson found success, sharing first place in the event with their identical times of 8.34. In addition, the duo’s mark in the event tied the program record set in the 2009 season.

In the field events, rookie Kyle Chowela came out on top with his performance in the weight throw. In his first-ever collegiate meet, Chowela hit a mark of 14.24-meters to not only take first place in the event, but also break the school record.

The Hawks return to action when they travel to Cambridge, Mass. for the Harvard Open on Saturday, December 10.