The Delaware Club Track & Field team opened their spring season in the nation’s capital at American University for the Capital Relays. Despite it being the spring season, the winter weather was still hanging on. Throughout the day, runners had to deal with a mix of hail, wind, and near freezing temperatures. Despite this, the Blue Hens fought the elements as well as their opponents to start the season off with gritty performances.

Alex Horgan started the meet for the Blue Hens with a masterful running of the 5k. Horgan not only won the race handily, but he set a new meet record and improved to third all time in club history. On top of all that, he also made a 23-second improvement on his personal best, breaking the 15-minute mark for the first time by running the race in 14:54.78.

As soon as the 5ks finished, the hail started falling hard, just in time for the start of the 100-meter dash. That didn’t stop four Blue Hens from scoring on both sides. In the women’s 100, junior Sam Radinsky (14.53) and freshman Rilee McMahan (14.6) placed 3rd and 4th respectively. The men followed up a pair of 3rd and 4th place finishes of their own. Freshman Kurt Krummenacker (11.44) and junior Daniel Toms (12.07) both managed to score points in their first individual outdoor races of their collegiate careers.

Horgan continued his winning ways in the 1600-meter race. He took the lead half-way through the race and never looked back, securing the win by five seconds with a time of 4:33.73. No women scored for women in the 1600, but freshmen Kaitlyn Burke (6:06.04) and Hannah Heredia (6:06.50) took the top two spots in their heat, both managing top-15 overall finishes. More winning was done in the men’s 4×100-meter relay, where the squad of Krummenacker, Toms, Josiah Taylor, and Shane Isacson won the race in 49.89 seconds.

The 800-meter race had a handful of top-10 finishes and scoring spots. The duo of sophomore Leah Goodman (2:52.82) and Burke (2:53.64) both top-10, squeezing in 9th and 10th respectively. On the men’s side, three Blue Hens managed to score points. Junior Ryan Lazev (2:09.98), freshman Josh Pawlik (2:10.66), and senior Sasha Latina (2:11.16) finished back-to-back-to-back, finishing in 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively.

In the final and most anticipated event of the day, three evenly matched men’s 4×400 relay teams from Delaware battled it out for the crown. In a back and forth race, it all came down to the final leg, where Caden MacHenry went from third to first, catching his teammate at the line, giving him, Lazev, Brady Sheaffer, and Evan Pawlik the victory. Unfortunately, the heat-winning time of 3:56.25 was only good for 2nd place overall.

As a unit, the University of Delaware’s men’s team was the top squad. They finished with 81 total points, which was 34 more than second place. The women’s team scored 37 points, which landed them at 4th place.

The club only has to wait one week for their next meet. The Lloyd Sigler Spring Meet takes place on March 4th, hosted by Salisbury University.

Full men’s results can be found here, and women’s here.