NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. – Franciscan track & field put in its most balanced performance of the season at a crowded Westminster College Invitational.
The meet was packed with opponents as a weather cancellation of another meet the week before forced eight more teams to join the invitational at the last minute. Despite the extra opponents and much longer layovers in between events, Franciscan's head coach Rob Copeland said he was encouraged by his teams' performances because for the first time all season they executed at a high level in distance, sprinting, and field events.
"This was a meet I was hoping to see. This week we put forth a pretty consistent effort on all fronts which is something I wanted to see at this point in the season," Copeland said. "It gave me a lot of signs of hope."
One specific sign of hope all season has been the improvement of freshman sprinter Carlo Fabian in the 400m. While Fabian once again finished behind James Downs, who ran a 53.8, he has continued to cut his time every meet and this time ran a 55.9. Fabian ran above 60 seconds in the season's first meet.
"Carlo is the type of guy who practices like it's a meet. Every time he runs a sprint in practice he's doing it like it's a competition even if he's just running against himself," Copeland said. "He has just been our poster guy for hard work and its paying off for him."
Copeland also said he was pleased with the hard work of female sprinters Sophia Cantu, Kelly Limmina, Vanessa Marquez, and Rose Thompson who continue to fill in for the team's currently injured top sprinters.
"They're really working exceptionally hard. Every meet their times are dropping and you can tell their forms are improving," Copeland said.
Rounding out the track portion of the meet were solid distance runs from sophomore David Byers (17:02) in the 5k and William Hassan (41:33) in the 10k for the men, and Deirdre Coyle (5:21), Allison Huelseman (5:33), and Francesca Santos (5:49) in the 1500 for the women.
All five runners set either new personal records or new season records in their respective events. Hassan's time was four minutes faster than his previous best.
"That's a huge improvement for William and he has more time to drop too," Copeland said of the freshman. "I think, and coach Shaun McKeegan, the distance coach, thinks that he's just figuring out how to run that race and that he still has some ceiling above him."
The standout in the field events was once again freshman thrower Brad Montgomery who set another new personal record in the shot put. His throw of 13.72 meters was not only a new personal best and school record but also put him within less than a meter of qualifying for the Eastern College Athletic Conference regional championships.
"He's definitely one to keep an eye on," Copeland said.
Montgomery and the rest of the Barons and Lady Barons have two more meets left in the season to raise their times and distances. The next will come on April 18 at the Sparky Adams invite at Baldwin Wallace University.
