Track & Field
This past Friday and Saturday the men’s and women’s indoor track teams kicked off spring season at the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg.
“This was first meet where most everyone ran,” head coach Ron Helmer said. “And we are starting to see some fairly decent performances.”
The team, which does not run the 300m dash often, was led in the event by junior Chris Bonner, who finished second in the event with a time of 34.19, which is also a Georgetown record. Bonner also came back the next day to run well and finish third in the 400m.
Sophomore Neil Grosscup turned in another strong performance at the invitational, finishing second in the 1000m with a time of 2:26.59. Grosscup also posted a big personal record in the 800m, finishing sixth, with a time of 1:54.80.
“Neil Grosscup had a really outstanding meet,” Helmer said. “He was off our radar screen last year, but has done a really nice job of getting ready for this season.”
On the women’s side, senior Nicole Lee turned in some top performances, finishing 4th in the 3000m with a time of 9:37.40 and sixth in the mile with a time of 5:01.79.
“Nicole anchored our distance medley and had a very good meet,” Helmer said. “[Sophomore] Ashley Mondie also performed really well with a personal record in the long jump [5.49m], but had a really great triple jump with a Big East and East Coast Athletic Conference qualifier [12.04m].”
With the meet in Virginia being the first one of the season, save a meet in December to finish off the fall training period, the team will look to improve on this solid performance.
“We are more focused in getting into the swing of things in January,” Helmer said. “Now we just want to be competitive. We always want to do the best we can, but we don’t make performance a priority until we get back into the routine of classes and consistent workouts.”
Swimming
Georgetown sent its swimming and diving team to Radford this past weekend to take on Radford, Howard and the Virginia Military Institute. The Hoyas dominated the meet, tallying 16 first-place finishes, with seven for the women and nine for the men.
“This was the first meet back from training,” head coach Bethany Bower said. “It was a good starter to what is going to be happening in the second half.”
The women’s swim team was led by junior Katie Amaro, who had two first place finishes the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:38.75 and the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:15.05. Sophomore Liz Nugent won first place in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:14.28 and first-year Caitlin Colling added a first place in the 100-yard freestyle and a second place finish in the 50-yard freestyle (26.10).
The men’s team also performed well, validating a slim victory over VMI in last season’s Northeastern Championships by handling this meet easily.
“The win last year against VMI was a slim one,” Bower said. “We rocked them here and really looked good, which is a strong indication of what’s to come.”
Junior John Hayden and senior Kevin Walsh led the team with two first place finishes apiece. Hayden won the 1000-yard freestyle (10:17.23) and the 500-yard freestyle (5:03.16), while Walsh swam to first in the 200 IM (2:04.36) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:02.44). Junior Heath Walden also swam to first in the 200-yard butterfly (2:01.93) and to second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.94).
In diving action, the women were led by first-year Katie Oldham, who won the one-meter diving with a score of 195.07 and the three-meter dive with 186.44. Junior Doug Curran and senior Alan Fong led the men. Curran took the one-meter dive with a 210.00 and Fong finished second with 206.70.
