CURTIS HENRY
Special to The Leader
This past weekend at the Bucknell Outdoor Classic, there were several members of both the men and women’s track teams that posted personal bests in different events.
Saturday marked day one of the event and saw three runners for the men’s side post personal bests. Junior Collin Mulcahy highlighted the day with a time of 3:55.42 in the 1500-meter event, besting his previous personal best by nearly five seconds.
Kyle Collins was the second to run a personal-best time when he posted a time of 14:54.86 in the 5000-meter, nearly 15 seconds better than the 15:09.51 time he ran this past indoor season. Rounding out day one for the men was Chris Shartrand running a new best time of 9:31.48 in the 3000-meter steeplechase. The day also saw sophomore Cody Martini qualify for SUNYACs in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 33:16.45.
On the women’s side in day one, sophomore Bonnie Binggeli saw a nine-second improvement on her 1500-meter time, setting her new personal best at 4:55.74. Finishing just ahead of Binggeli was junior Lauren Kotas, who finished the event in 4:52.62. Sophomore Julia Johnson also set a personal best on the day with a 1500-meter time of 5:13.69.
Day two of the event saw more of the same across the board from the Blue Devils. Mulcahy was back at it for the men, running a time of 1:52.99 in the 800-meter run. The time puts him in top-ten territory in D-III and was just four-hundredths of a second shy of his personal best time at 1:52.95.
Freshman Chase Towse ran a personal-best time of 56.91 in the 400-meter hurdles. Towse joined senior teammates Jeremy Kozlowski, Jonmichael Knapp and junior teammate Nick Watson in the 4×400-meter relay as the four posted a joint time of 3:22.79.
Day two for the women saw four previous school records fall by the wayside.
Junior Laura Morrison set the school’s new best time in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:12.35, better than the time of 2:17.69 she set in the event a year ago. That time is now good for sixth in the nation at the D-III level.
Freshman Brittany Feldman was the next to set a Blue Devil record as she bested Morrison’s previous record in the 400 with a time of 58.38. Later on in the day, Feldman and Morrison would team up with fellow sprinters, junior Anna Dambacher and Kim Foltz to set a school record in the 4×400 relay with a joint time of 3:57.96. The four are now ranked number 22 in the nation in the event. Foltz also set a personal best in the 800-meter on day two with a time of 2:18.90, which put her second on Fredonia’s all-time list for the event.
Rounding out a record-breaking day was freshman pole vaulter Julia Schreier. In just her second outdoor meet, Schreier shattered the previous pole vault record of 10’8” with a height of 11’2.75”. The record was held previously by junior teammate Olivia Kurbs.
Both the men’s and women’s sides will travel to Cortland on Friday for the Cortland Classic.