Siena Cross Country and Track & Field began its Spring 2021 outdoor track campaign by re-writing the record books Wednesday afternoon. The men placed third (22 points) and women took fourth (41 points) at the UB Mid-Week Invitational hosted by the University at Buffalo at UB Stadium, marking the first of four scheduled regular season events during the Saints' outdoor track season.
"It was really exciting to finally open up our outdoor track season," head coach
John Kenworthy said. "It felt like a lifetime ago the last time we competed on a 400-meter oval. The track gods blessed us with great weather, and I'm really happy with many of the performances from the group today. While we're very excited, we also know it's early and this was a great first meet to get the momentum going again."
Looking to follow up a breakout cross country season which saw him become the first Saint in over 40 years to qualify individually for the NCAA Cross Country Championships, sophomore
Brandon Olden took down a school record in his first collegiate outdoor track meet, winning the men's 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:26.31. The mark blew away the previous outdoor program record set by
Travis Fairlee in 2017 (8:40.24), and now stands as the fourth-best overall time run in the event in the Siena record books.
Alongside Olden, sophomore
Tommy Anderson (8:43.44), freshman
Killian McNamee (8:46.05), and graduate student
Stosh Davis (8:49.60) each also scored in the 3000m, placing fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. Freshman
Griffin Cooke led the way for the men's competitors in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:05.06 for ninth place, while sophomore
Matthew Laframboise took 10
th to lead Siena runners in the 1500-meter race with a time of 4:04.75.
On the women's side, junior
Olivia Lomascolo kicked off her junior outdoor track campaign by taking the top spot in the 3000-meter with a mark of 10:00.72, which now stands as second all-time in both outdoor and overall program history to program great
Sarah Forman's time of 9:33.59 at the Penn Relays in 2019. Senior
Mia Forster (10:25.34) took third in the event, while sophomore
Elaine Atanasova (10:38.47) and senior
Carissa Kahn (10:39.13) placed sixth and seventh, respectively.
Siena also saw runners compete in the 1500 and 800-meter races on the women's side, with senior
Morgan Serkes winning the 1500 with a mark of 4:44.58, good for fifth-best all-time. Classmate
Monica Strain placed third with a time of 4:54.85, while freshman
Katharine Hesler scored a point in eighth with a mark of 5:13.64. Junior
Shannon Bergin led the way in the 800-meter for the Saints, placing sixth with a time of 2:42.59.
The Green and Gold wrapped the meet by entering two teams in the mixed 4x400 relay, with the pairing of Serkes, Strain, Laframboise and sophomore
Ryan Famiglietti taking third with a time of 3:56.04. The foursome of Cooke, Lomascolo, Hesler, and McName placed eighth with a mark of 4:05.99.
Siena will be back in action to continue the 2021 outdoor track season on Saturday, April 3, when it heads south to Lawrenceville, New Jersey to take part in the Rider Five Team Meet.
