Marquette track and field participated in the second annual John Tierney Triangular meet this past Friday. The meet, which took place at the Klotsche Center on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, consisted of Marquette, the UWM Panthers and the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames. The women were able to topple both competitors and claim first place, while the men came in second to their crosstown rival, the Panthers.
“We’ve competed really well early on,” observed track and field coach Bert Rogers. “Some teams take awhile to really get going, but this team has competed right from the start. Our main focus is going to be to try and keep that going.”
The Golden Eagles’ high point of the meet was provided by standout freshman Cassy Goodrich, who emerged victorious in the women’s 300-meter run with a time of 39:56 seconds. That not only put her almost a full second ahead of second-place finisher Anuli Okonkwo (40:33), but it also tied Jennifer Batie’s 14-year old Marquette program record. The run also broke the Klotsche Center facility record of 40.04 seconds
“I actually [had] never run a 300 before and really didn’t know what a good time was,” said Goodrich. “When I was running, I definitely didn’t think [the record] was a possibility. My mind was just focused on getting the run done, more or less.”
Freshman Jennifer Parker also made significant contributions for the women by winning the 600-meter run. Her time of 1:35:55 was just three-tenths of a second short from setting an all-time program record. However, she did beat Sarah Ball’s freshman record (1:36:47) for the event by just under a full a second.
On the men’s side, pole vaulting took center stage as sophomore Joel Swanburg took first by clearing a height of 4.65 meters. This feat leaves him tied for fourth for Marquette’s highest distance cleared record. The Golden Eagles completed a clean sweep of the event’s top three positions by having junior John Kaplan place second and freshman William Ford take third.
The night ended with a bang as both the men’s and women’s teams won the 4×400 meter relays. Nicholas Ebert, Anton Rice, Joshua Word and Alex Halloway delivered victory for the men’s side, while Cassy Goodrich, Arra Strong, Anna Strong and Nicole Ethier outran their competitors to seal a victory for the women.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will be back in action next weekend as they travel to Minneapolis for the two-day Jack Johnson Invitational, which will take place in the UM Fieldhouse.
