Georgetown’s Track and Field teams placed in the top ten for three events—the men’s and women’s 4X400m and in the men’s 800m—in the Raleigh Relays on March 24 and 25.
The Relays are one of the few meets which the team attends together for the season, and as its name suggests, the highlighted events are the relays. The Hoyas went to the meet emphasizing good competition and building up experience for the rest of the season.
Stand-out performances from freshman Jody Ann Knight and fifth-year graduate student athlete Jocelyn Hubbard in the women’s 4x400m, and Gordon and Quincey Wilson in the men’s 4X400m show promising signs for the rest of the season, Interim Director of Track and Field Julia Culley said.
“[In the women’s 4x400m relay] we had Jody Ann Knight run 56.5, and Jocelyn Hubbard run 56.1, which is indicative of both of them running quite a bit faster than that later in the season,” said Culley.
The women’s relay team ultimately placed tenth, with the impressive individual performances from Knight and Hubbard, 56.5 seconds for Knight’s leg of the race and 56.1seconds by Hubbard serving as something for the team to build on going forward as they focus on their season goals.
“We had a lot of our athletes run off-distances on the women’s side, off-distance meaning you know if they were an 800m runner, they were either running a 400 or the 1500, if they were a 1500 m runner they were either running an 800 or a 400,” said Culley. This set-up allowed athletes like Hubbard, who is focusing on the 800m for the end of the season, to race with their focus less on times and more on competing well.
As a fifth-year graduate student in her last year of eligibility, Hubbard said she has felt a motivating shift. “After collegiate you can continue to run, but not as a Hoya. And so I’m just trying to take in being with the team as much as I can,” she said.
Other athletes who made notable performances included junior Piper Donaghu, who was named Big East women’s track athlete of the week for her personal record 4:22:48 in the 1500m, and senior Nate Gordon, who anchored the men’s 4X400m and placed eighth in the men’s 800m. He earned a Big East notable performance for his 800m time. Gordon came back for this year’s indoor season after almost two years of not competing, and struggled with a hamstring injury throughout.
“I was pretty disappointed with my indoor performances,” Gordon wrote in an email to the Voice. “My performance at the Raleigh Relays put me way ahead of where I expected to be so early in the outdoor season.”
Gordon has hopes to make it to the NCAA Regionals for both the events he placed in at Relays. Moving forward, this year’s NCAA’s are a goal for the team as a whole.
“The indoor season really serves as kind of a warm up to the outdoor season, and so we’re gonna really be looking at running quite a bit faster with people in their primary events,” Culley said. “And then ultimately the goal is always to get as many individuals as we possibly can to the regional championships. And then from there to the national championships.”
The women’s and men’s teams will next compete in the George Mason Spring Invitational in Fairfax, Va. on April 8.
