The Seattle University track and field team started the outdoor season with six first-place finishes and several other top performances Saturday in cold and windy conditions at the Joe Peyton Invitational hosted by the University of Puget Sound at Baker Stadium.
The Seattle University relay teams had an outstanding meet, led by the men’s 4x400 meter relay quartet of Daniel Sullivan (Tukwila, Wash.), Jabari Fraser (Bethesda, Md.), Zach Stanfield (Adna, Wash.), and Tom Mezzera (San Francisco, Calif.), as they set a new meet record in winning the event in 3:24.77. The men’s 4x100 meter relay team finished in second place by just 2/100ths of a second with a time of 42.77 seconds. Meanwhile, the women’s 4x400 meter relay team finished in second place in 4:11.03, while the women’s 4x100 meter relay squad finished in fourth place in 1:00.58.
Stanfield led a SeattleU sweep of the top three positions in the 200 meter dash, winning the event in 22.66 seconds. Jim Mezzera (San Francisco, Calif.) finished second in 22.85 seconds, while Tom Mezzera earned a third-place finish in 22.86 seconds. Stanfield also finished third in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.09 seconds, just ahead of Jim Mezzera, who finished fourth in 11.16 seconds. Alyssa Lout (Tempe, Ariz.) finished fourth in the women’s 200 meter dash in 27.51 seconds.
Sullivan earned a victory in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 55.10 seconds. Robert Poshusta (Bremerton, Wash.) finished in eighth place in the same event in 1:03.58. In the 110 meter hurdles, Poshusta finished seventh in 17.21 seconds, Devlin Sweeney (Olympia, Wash.) finished eighth in 17.33 seconds, and Jude Martinez (Hagatna, Guam) earned a ninth-place finish in 17.76 seconds. Rachel Vranizan (Portland, Ore.) placed sixth in the women’s 100 meter hurdles in 16.77 seconds and fourth in the 400 meter hurdles with a school-record time of 1:09.24, while Toni Tetzlaff (Mendota Heights, Minn.) earned a seventh place finish in the 100 meter hurdles in 17.82 seconds.
In the field events, d'Andre Benjamin (Mililani, Hawaii) earned a victory in the long jump with a top leap of 6.43 meters (21' 1.25"). Udoka Odoemene (Des Moines, Wash.) finished second in the long jump with an effort of 6.23 meters (20' 5.25") and fifth in the triple jump with a top jump of 12.46 meters (40' 10.5"). Martinez finished sixth in the long jump with a top effort of 5.76 meters (18' 10.75").
On the women’s side, Becca Urbany (Damascus, Ore.) was victorious in the triple jump after jumping 10.12 meters (33' 2.5"), setting a new school record in the process. Lindsay Currier (Beaverton, Ore.) took first place in the discus throw with a throw of 37.14 meters (121' 10"). Currier also finished in eighth place in the javelin throw after posting a mark of 22.04 meters (72' 4"), with Clare Monahan (Centennial, Colo.) finishing in ninth place with a top throw of 21.46 meters (70' 5").
Kamala Squires (Ventura, Calif.) finished sixth in the long jump with a top leap of 4.58 meters (15' 0.5") and seventh in the triple jump after posting a distance of 8.94 meters (29' 4"), while Tetzlaff finished ninth in the long jump with a top jump of 4.28 meters (14' 0.5"). In the throwing events, Sara DeMartini (San Francisco, Calif.) finished sixth in the shot put (30' 11.75") and seventh in the discus throw (87' 7"), while RaeLani Valaile (Seattle, Wash.) placed eighth in the shot put (29' 10.75") and sixth in the discus throw (90' 1").
Several runners pulled double duty in the middle distance events, led by Jen Hamann (Colorado Springs, Colo.), who finished second in the 800 meter run (2:27.38) and third in the 1500 meter run (5:01.26). Sarah Bolce (Sacramento, Calif.) finished fifth in the 800 meter run (2:31.39) and second in the 1500 meter run (5:00.25), and Allison Prather (Carpinteria, Calif.) crossed the finish line eighth in the 800 meter run (2:34.33) and fifth in the 1500 meter run (5:12.93). Nicole Waters (Phoenix, Ariz.) finished ninth in the 1500 meter run with a time of 5:29.13.
On the men’s side, Dan Auld (Eugene, Ore.) finished fourth in the 800 meter run (2:02.99) and eighth in the 1500 meter run (4:14.61), Graham Miller (Spokane, Wash.) earned an eighth place finish over 800 meters (2:06.83) and a tenth-place finish over 1500 meters (4:17.89), Hans Heitzinger (Scottsdale, Ariz.) finished 12th in the 800 meter run (2:13.73) and seventh in the 1500 meter run (4:14.52), and Chris Auld (Eugene, Ore.) finished ninth in the 800 meter run (2:07.29) and 11th in the 1500 meter run (4:18.58). Rustin Winger (Tracyton, Wash.) led SeattleU in the 800 meter run with a second place finish in 2:02.14, while Adam Kollgaard (Kent, Wash.) finished fifth in the 1500 meter run in 4:13.34 and Hector Estrada (The Colony, Tex.) finished in 14th place in 4:20.27.
Michael Van Nuland (Newcastle, Wash.) earned a fourth place finish in the 3000 meter steeplechase in 10:17.80, and Alec Adams (Woodway, Wash.) finished in seventh in the 5000 meter run with a time of 16:36.28. In the women’s 5000 meter run, Rhiannon Cadelinia (San Francisco, Calif.) led SeattleU with a fourth-place finish in 19:02.71, followed by Rachel Yorkston (Bellingham, Wash.) in sixth place (19:18.13), Natalie Martinez (San Francisco, Calif.) in seventh place (19:23.25), and Jennifer Innes (San Bruno, Calif.) in tenth place (19:53.35).
In the high jump, Sweeney finished in second place on the men’s side after clearing a height of 1.83 meters (6' 0"), and Mara Becker (Fairbanks, Alaska) finished in fourth place on the women’s side after clearing 1.48 meters (4' 10.25"). In the team standings, the SeattleU men finished in second place with 132 points and the Redhawk women finished in third place with 116 points.
"The weather at today’s meet made for a harsh introduction to the outdoor season. That being said, I felt the team stayed tough and made the best out of the situation they could," head coach Trisha Steidl said. "It was extremely impressive to have two school records set on a day like this. I felt the team had an overall good showing. We’re looking forward to having a little down time for finals and then getting back on it during spring break."
The Seattle University track and field teams will have two weeks to prepare for their next competition. While some members of the team will head to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Invitational, the majority of the team will next compete at the Club Northwest Spring Break Open at Kings Stadium in Shoreline, Wash., on Saturday, March 28.