Kings Point, N.Y. (April 14, 2007)--Although heavy rains on Thursday prevented Manhattan Track and Field from flying out to Knoxville, Tenn. for the Sea Ray Relays, the weekend was not a total wash. A number of Jaspers, especially Malin Marmbrandt and Meredith Mante made the best of their opportunity at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's Coach ?O' Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
Marmbrandt, a freshman, captured both the long jump and triple jump titles, and needed every allotted attempt in both events to do it. Trailing CW Post's Colleena Guy with one attempt remaining in the triple jump, Marmbrandt, who had not triple jumped since the MAAC Indoor Championships on February 16, saved her best for last. The rookie jumped 11.41m (37' 5.25”) to surpass Guy's top mark of 11.30m.
In the long jump, Marmbrandt's winning mark of 5.52m also came on her final leap.
Mante broke the meet record in the women's pole vault with her best performance of the season. The first-year Jasper, who completed her undergraduate work at Princeton University prior to coming to Manhattan in August 2006, cleared 3.40m (11' 1.75”).
Rookie hammer thrower Seid Mujanovic also set a new meet record en route to capturing the title. Mujanovic threw 56.47m to beat out runner-up Matthew DiBuono of Fordham University's mark of 55.25m.
“Although he may have thrown a little farther last week, it was good to see Seid work out some technical issues today,” said head coach Dan Mecca, who hopes to send at least one Jasper hammer thrower back to the NCAA Outdoor championships for the 22nd time in the past 24 years.
The men's triple jump was also won by a Jasper. Sophomore Kosta Randjic made only one attempt to win the event with a mark of 14.78m (48' 6”).
The results from the men's 400 hurdles also helped brighten Mecca's smile a bit after the Jasper mentor's weekend plans in Tennessee were ruined on Thursday.
After missing the entire indoor season due to injury, sophomore Kelton Cumberbatch continues to build strength and it showed on Saturday. Cumberbatch won the 400 hurdles, clocking in at 54.82s. In the same event, freshman George Pickel set a new personal best by registering a time of 58.63s.
The men's and women's 3000m races also resulted in three new Jasper personal records. Sophomore Ellen Dobbin and freshman Mary Consiglio produced new personal bests in the event with times of 10:43.71 and 11:02.92, respectively. Dobbin's time placed her third overall directly behind Manhattan freshman Lindsay Southard, who claimed second with a time of 10:38.56. Consiglio was sixth overall, only two seconds off sophomore teammate Melissa Trauscht's pace. Trauscht was fifth at 11:00.66.
On the men's side, freshman Milos Vuckovic followed up last week's big performance in the steeple chase at Princeton by winning the 3K. Vuckovic's time of 8:34.89 led three Jaspers in the top six. Junior Tom Murphy finished fourth en route to setting his new personal record at 8:45.78. Returning from injury, freshman Tobias Lundgren was sixth at 8:56.71.
Sophomore Nikolay Tkachenko captured the men's pole vault crown, clearing 4.35m (14' 3.25”). Freshman DeSean HooShing was third at 4.05m (13' 3.50”).
