Men’s and women’s collegiate 5,000-meter records were broken at this past weekend’s meet. Several MA alums take advantage of the fast oval at Boston College.
(Above, Stanford University Photo)
BOSTON – Boston University’s indoor track facility continued to prove why it’s one of the fastest on the planet this past weekend.
At the BU Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener fast times and a few collegiate records for 5,000 meters were on the agenda. Just two weeks after their impressive victories at the NCAA Division 1 Cross-Country Championships, Harvard’s Graham Blanks and Florida’s Parker Valby added a pair of NCAA Indoor 5K marks to their resume. Blanks raced to a winning time of 13 minutes, 3.78 seconds, while Valby was lights out with a 14:56.11 clocking. In the men’s field, 97 runners (that’s right, 97 runners) dipped under 14 minutes at the meet. On the women’s side, 50 finished under 16 minutes!
Mixed among the finishers were several former high school stars, who once called the Reggie Lewis Center their home.
Newton South alum Lucy Jenks, a junior at Stanford, finished 21st overall with an indoor best of 15:38.63. Placing 61st overall was fellow teammate and onetime Natick star Grace Connolly with a time of 16:16.32. Syracuse junior Sophia Jacobs-Townley (Amherst-Pelham) was not too far behind Connolly, crossing the line in 16:18.23 for 67th overall. Loyola-Chicago senior Ali Gillooly (Nashoba Regional) was 155th with a PR of 17:27.67. For the men, UMass-Amherst junior Robert Carew (Milton) was 170th in 14:27.78. Recent Uxbridge grad Aidan Ross, a freshman at Wake Forest, finished in 14:42,96, good for 195th overall.
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Here’s what else we dug up from Saturday’s meet.
Cambridge Rindge & Latin alum and current Boston College freshman Kylee Bernard was a runner-up in the 300m dash where she was timed in a PR of 39.16. Wachusett Regional senior Nyah Santana was 19th overall with a time of 42.05.
Competing unattached, Weston grad and Yale student Carmel Fitzgibbon was second in the 1,000m (2:49.83) and 24th in the mile (4:52.36).
Acton-Boxborough alum and Yale grad Samantha Friborg was tenth overall in the mile where she clocked a PR of 4:40.78.
Massachusetts native and Virginia junior Margot Appleton was 19th in the 3K with a time of 9:08.68. Ursuline Academy and Northeastern grad Amy Piccola, who competes for the Battle Road Track Club, finished 67th overall in 9:45.93.
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Congratulations are in order for Oliver Ames’ Katie Sobieraj, who concluded her outstanding cross-country season at the Nike Cross Nationals this past weekend in Portland, Oregon. Sobieraj beat nearly half the field with a strong time of 19:17.9 on the difficult 5K of the Glendoveer Golf Course.
