NEW YORK, NY – The Franciscan women's and men's track and field teams had a historic ECAC Indoor Championships as the teams brought home three gold and a silver medal over the last two days.
Complete Results
Earning the first gold of the weekend, the Lady Baron distance medley relay team won on Friday night with a time of 12:45.30. Sophomore
Mary Jo Schirger ran the 1,200-meter opening leg with a time 3:56.06, giving the Lady Barons a four-second cushion to open the race.
Ashlin LaFond followed with a 1:03.98 400-meter leg as Franciscan maintained a 2.8 second lead. Freshman
Claire Dawyot ran an impressive 2:32.216 800-meter leg to extend the Lady Baron lead to almost seven seconds, setting up a 5:10.486 mile for senior
Grace Galligan who crossed the line at 12:42.74, giving the Lady Barons a 17-second win in the DMR.
The men's DMR team followed the Lady Barons impressive performance with a silver medal for the Barons. Sophomore
Mark Borek opened the race with a 3:14.978 1,200-meter leg, while graduate student
Carlo Fabian ran a 51.421 in the 400-meter leg as the Barons continued to battle for third. Sophomore
Austen Duggan picked up ground for the Barons as he ran a 2:00.65 800-meter leg to overtake second for Franciscan. Senior
Nick Long posted a 4:29.132 in the mile leg to secure second for the Barons with a total time of 10:36.18.
The DMRs were the only races for the Franciscan teams Friday night and the Galligan siblings, Grace and Liam, opened Saturday with a pair of individual gold medals in the 1-mile runs.
Grace Galligan was the first individual winner for Franciscan as she got out to a quick start in the 1-mile run as she hit the first split at 38.345, seven seconds ahead of the next competitor and never lost ground. Galligan cruised to a 5:15.79 win, 46 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher and a set a school and personal-best in the race.
Liam ran in one of the most tightly contested races for the men as he also crossed the line first in the first lap, but just .61 seconds ahead of the second-place runner, and 1.2 seconds ahead of the sixth-place runner. The second-place runner, David Haines from Marywood, briefly overcame Galligan as his split at the mid-way point was 2:06.291 and Galligan clocked a 2:06.456. Haines maintained his narrow lead through lap five but Galligan ran a 32.312 in the sixth lap to Haines' 32.596 and the sophomore re-took the lead. Galligan held the lead for the rest of the race and crossed the finish line at 4:12.13, a school and personal record for the Springfield, PA native.
LaFond was the next runner to take the track in the 500-meter dash and after posting a 48.382 in the first lap, the sophomore finished with a 36.960 in the final lap to take eighth overall with a time of 1:25.35.
Long and Borek were the next two on the course for the 3,000-meter run. Both ran impressive and steady races as Long took fourth overall with a time of 8:59.14 and Borek took fifth with a time of 8:59.34.
The men's 4x400-meter team finished the indoor championships with a bang as the foursome of Fabian, Duggan, Galligan, and senior James Craig set the school's indoor 4x4 record with a time of 3:30.54. Fabian ran a 53.257 in the first 400 while Duggan posted a 53.68 split. After Galligan's 53.062 third leg, Craig ran the fastest 400 for the Barons with a 51.539 anchor leg. The Barons finished third in their heat and seventh overall.
With the conclusion of their first official indoor season, the men's and women's track and field teams will now begin training for the 2019 outdoor season.
