New York, N.Y. (February 22, 2008) ? It is a hard, but good habit the Manhattan College Track and Field team just can't break ? winning the MAAC Indoor Championships. Tonight at the Armory Track and Field Center it was total domination for both the men and the women as they both won the championship meet, with freshman hurdler Siri Fagerlund and freshman shot putter Marina Vojinovic setting MAAC records for good measure.
In winning the MAACs, it was the 12th time in the row for the men and the 11th time in the past 12 years for the women, The Lady Jaspers tallied 278.50 points, while the men's team scored 214 points.
“For both our women and men, this was a very, very impressive performance, with points coming in the jumps, throws, sprints and distances,” said Manhattan Track and Field Coach Dan Mecca.
Fagerlund broke the 55m hurdle record by one tenth of a second, winning the event in 8.17s. Fellow teammates Malin Marmbrandt took fourth in the event and Cara Hessels scored a fifth place finish. Vojinovic broke the shot put record with a toss of 14.73m, finishing ahead of teammate Ana Ugarkovic who took second with a mark of 11.76m.
Marmbrandt, who also won the women's long and triple jumps, was named the meets Co-Outstanding Female Field Performer, while sophomore Diane Torsell was named the Most Outstanding Female Track Performer. Jasper Dexter Jules was named the Most Outstanding Male Field Performer.
The Jaspers were unbelievably dominant in the field events. In addition to going 1-2 in the women's shot put, the Jaspers went 1-2-3-4 in the men's long jump, 1-2-3 in the men's triple jump, 1-2-3 in the men's high jump, 1-2-3 in the men's weight throw and 1-2 in the men's shot put, 1-2 in the women's long jump, first and third in both the men's and women's pole vault and
In the men's long jump, Denis Street took first with a mark of 7.04m, Dexter Jules was second with a jump of 6.78m, Jamie Spataro was third (6.74m) and Kosta Randjic was fourth (6.71m). In the men's triple jump, Randjic took first with a qualifying mark of 15.48m, Jules was second (14.65m) and Street was third (14.40m). Randjic's mark was a NCAA "B" qualifying mark and missed the meet record by one centimeter.
In the women's long jump, Marmbrandt grabbed gold with a jump of 5.65m, ahead of teammate Ana Ugarkovic who took second with a mark of 5.26m. Marmbrandt also won the women's triple jump with a 12.05 mark.
In the men's high jump, senior Chris Sole won in 2.04m, with Nikolay Tkachenko taking second in 1.89m and Jason Grant taking third in 1.89,
In the men's weight throw, Paul Peulich took gold with a throw of 18.04, Seid Mujanovic took second with a mark of 17.49m and Rich Reuter grabbed third (16.08m). In the men's shot, senior Milan Jotanovic continued his hot streak with a toss of 18.92m, finishing ahead of teammate Reuter who threw 15.43m.
In the women's pole vault, Meredith Mante won with a vault of 3.60m and teammate Alexandra MacDougall took second (3.00m), while in the men's pole vault, Tkachenko won with a mark of 4.50 and DeSean Hooshing was third (4.35m).
In the sprints, the Jaspers were also dominant. In addition to the record setting 55m hurdle win, in the women's 55m dash, Diane Torsell won in 7.18s , edging out Fagerlund who dashed a 7.23s. On the men's side, Dexter Jules took his second gold in 6.52s in the 55m dash and Justin Chiarvelle took first in the 55m hurdles in 7.94s.
In the women's 200m dash, Torsell took her second gold of the evening in 25.32s, while on the men's side, freshman Nick Estis won the gold in the 200m dash in 22.43s. In the women's 400m dash, Erin Gregorek won in 59.36s, while on the men's side in that event Estis took third in 50.01, just ahead of Kelton Cumberbatch (50.29s.)
In the running events, Eryka Perrault took gold in the 800m run in a time of 2:17.69s, nosing out teammate Jelena Rankovic who took silver in 2:17.82. On the men's side in this event, Milos Vuckovic took second in 1:55.96. Also, in the women's 3000m run, Adreina Roel took bronze in a time of 18:21.32, while teammate Ellen Dobbin placed fifth, clocked in 18:40.87.
In the men's 3000m run, freshman Brendan Brethel finished sixth, but his 8:38.22 time qualified him for the USA Track and Field National Junior Championships. In the women's 3000m, Sarah Rogers scored a third place finish with a time of 10:15.31, while Sarah Janssen finished sixth in a personal record time of 10:43.64.
The Lady Jaspers also took gold in the women's distance relay, with the team winning in 12:39.56. And they took silver in the 4x400m relay in 4:03.56.
