Both Men and Women Place 4th at the Lloyd Sigler Spring Meet in Windy Conditions

For their second meet of the spring, and the second meet in two weeks, the Delaware Club Track & Field team traveled the length of their state to Salisbury University for the Lloyd Sigler Spring Meet. The last time they competed in Salisbury, Maryland was right before the COVID pandemic in the 2020 spring season. The weather was once again not in the favor of the runners, with wind gusts reaching over 40 miles per hour at points during the day. Despite this, the Blue Hens pushed through and competed to the best of their abilities.

The meet kicked off with the field events, where three different Blue Hens scored points and etched themselves into the record books. Freshman Maggie Huizinga secured a second place finish in the high jump, leaping 1.45 meters, which was good for a new collegiate best and the second spot on the outdoor performance list. Freshman Lianna Greenstein continued her dominance from the winter, placing in both the long jump and the triple jump. In the long jump, Greenstein placed 6th overall, but her 4.49m jump landed her at second on the performance list. Greenstein one-upped herself in the triple jump later in the day, placing 4th in the meet and jumping 10.05 meters for the furthest outdoor triple jump in club history. Sophomore John Shaw also found his way into a scoring position in the triple jump. His 10.76 meter jump tied him with Devin DeTurk for 8th all-time on the performance list and placed him 5th in the meet.

Women’s steeplechase started the running events, and Delaware did not disappoint. The trio of Jenna Mlecko (14:04.15), Kaitlyn Burke (14:04.76), and Huizinga (15:43.89) swept the field, while Burke and Huizinga found themselves at 6th and 10th on the all-time list. Alex Horgan continued the winning streak for the Delaware distance team, as well as his own personal streak, placing first in the 1500-meter run at 4:06.33. Sophomore Michael Anderson was also able to score in the 1500, his 4:22.47 time placed him 6th overall. Although not beating the entire field like her teammates, sophomore Lauren Pollock also reigned victorious, winning her heat with a time of 5:56.33, and placing 12th overall.

Delaware had a few scoring finishes in the hurdles races. Ryan Wallace (16.30) opened his season with a fifth place finish in the 110-meter hurdle race. Gracy Back had a fantastic start to her first spring season. Her 16.42-second 100-meter hurdle race placed her second overall, and was also the fastest time in the club’s history. Jenny O’Leary (18.77) and Grace Wertheimer (19.93) also secured top ten finishes in both the meet and the all-time performance list for the club. Wertheimer also ran the second fastest 400-meter hurdle race in the club’s history, running 1:25.51 and placing 5th overall. Wallace (1:07.28) also placed in the 400-meter hurdles, this time landing him in 6th.

A pair of Blue Hens managed top finishes in the 400-meter dash. Eli Manning (1:09.19) placed 7th in the women’s race, while Ryan Lazev (54.85) came in 4th for the men.

The freshman short sprinters for Delaware came to play in their races. Gracy Back followed up her hurdle race with another scoring performance in the 100-meter dash, placing 7th. Her 13.66 was also the 4th fastest 100m in club history. Rilee McMahan (13.94) also landed on the all-time leaderboard at 7th, and placed 11th in the entire meet. McMahan (30.43) followed that race up with a 9th place finish in the 200-meter, missing the all-time leaderboard by a hundredth of a second. Kurt Krummenacker did however land on the all-time leaderboard for the 200. His time of 23.95 allowed him to sneak into the 10th spot, as well as 12th overall for the meet.

The final two distance events of the day featured a handful of top finishes for Delaware. In the 800-meter, Mlecko placed 9th, in a time of 2:52.10. Michael Anderson was able to score in the men’s 800 as well, he ran 2:05.56 and placed 4th. In the 5,000-meter run, the duo of senior Sasha Latina and sophomore Aravind Arunachalam placed back-to-back in 11th and 12th respectively. Latina was able to break the 17-minute mark to start the season to finish in 16:54.94, and while Arunachalam fell just short of this mark at 17:03.47, he was able to dominate and win his heat by over 30 seconds.

Overall, both the men and women’s teams placed 4th in the entire meet, with the women grabbing 65 points and the men 48.

The Blue Hens are able to grab a break for a few weeks, with their next meet being on April 1st at Muhlenberg College for the Muhlenberg Invitational.

Full meet results can be found here.