Williamstown, MA - The SUNY Delhi track and field team spent the last two days competing at the All-Atlantic Regional Track and Field Conference Championships hosted by Williams College. The women's team finished the meet in sixth place in the field of 55 schools while the men finished 19th in the same field. The Broncos established all sorts of new records during the two day competition and likely punched a lot of tickets to nationals.
The women's sprint crew dominated the meet and shattered records in nearly every race. The sprinters set three new school records, three new meet records and two new SUNYAC records. In the 100 meter dash, Shaesha Johnson, who already has the Delhi school records for the 100 meter dash for both wind legal times as well as all-conditions, shattered her established mark, running 11.68 seconds to set a new program record, a new meet record and took down the SUNYAC record that has stood since 1987! Teammate Miranda Cole ran 11.75 to place second and was also under the old program, meet and SUNYAC record! With these times, the women should comfortably qualify for next weekends NCAA Championships.
Cole then moved onto the 200 meter dash, where she ran to the top spot and shattered her program record as well as the meet record with a time of 24.08. Cole moved up the NCAA leaderboard in the event and all but guaranteed her appearance in the NCAA Championships next weekend.
As if these performances were not enough, Johnson and Cole also teamed up with Zoe Rodi and Belvia Konodji to win the meet in the 4x100 meter relay with a time of 45.98 seconds. That time shattered their established program record, but also took down the meet and SUNYAC records as well. The previous SUNYAC record was 46.22 set by Buffalo State back in 2013.
Elsewhere on team Charlotte Warner and Kitty Messina also scored points for the Broncos. Warner, who was running just her third career race in the 3000 meter steeplechase slashed the program record for a third straight time. This season the record started at 11:48.23 by Kelli O'Brien, but Warner has already lowered it to 11:05.63 dropping more than 40 seconds off the time. That performance was good enough for an eighth place finish. Messina capped off her Bronco career with a podium finish in the Javelin. She threw 35.67 meters on her third throw to place eighth overall to round out the scoring for the team.
On the men's side, the 4x100 meter relay team also had a big meet. In the preliminary round, the quartet of Marvin Markland, Deron Davis, Ransom Dutcher, and Cristhian Cuevas lowered the Delhi program record to 40.72 seconds, breaking the mark set last year of 40.91 by a slightly different team. That time has moved them into the top 16 times in the nation which is what earns a spot at the NCAA Championships. In the finals, they ran 40.75 seconds which placed them second overall.
Also scoring for the men was Taehyoung Kim, who jumped a season best 14.41 meters in the triple jump to place fourth, Tawakal Omar who ran a season best 14.50 in the 110 hurdles which was good for fifth place and Neklor Smith who ran a personal best 47.87 in the 400 to place seventh.
