The College of DuPage men and women’s track teams traveled to the Al B. Carius Track at North Central College to compete in the F. Lee Slick Invitational on Friday, Feb. 16. As the meet was filled with collegiate and junior collegiate teams, several Chaparral athletes earned qualifying marks for the NJCAA outdoor national championship meet in May.
On the men’s side, COD supplied four individuals in the 200-meter race including sophomore Noah Mack with a time of 22.60, freshman Weston White in 22.72, freshman Elijah Phipps in 23.56, and freshman Tim McMiller with a time of 23.65. Freshmen distance runners Kevin Diederich and Addisu Wolski qualified for the 5000-meter race with times of 15:47.27 and 16:46.87 respectively. The 4 x 400-meter relay team of sophomore Graham McAninch, sophomore Alexander Mendez, Wolski and Mack met the standard with a 3:32.68 effort.
In his debut meet, freshman Ronan Cornelius reached the outdoor standard in the high jump when he cleared 1.88 meters. He also met the standard in the long jump where he cleared the event in 6.23 meters. Freshman Anthony Urban also qualified in the long jump by clearing 6.20 meters. Sophomore Dominic Cokinis and freshman Brayden Farmer both met the standard in the pole vault by reaching 3.95 meters. Freshman Jonathan Sears qualified for outdoor nationals in the shot put with a distance of 11.91 meters.
On the women’s side, sophomore Patty Karpiesiuk qualified in the 200-meter race by running 25.91. She also placed third in 60 meters with a time of 7.75 and fifth in pole vault by clearing 3.20 meters. Freshman Molly Morris ran an outdoor qualifying time of 65.29 seconds in the 400 meters. Freshman Carmen Solis placed fourth in the 3000-meter run with a time of 11:13:53.
To conclude the indoor season, the track and field team will travel to Carthage College in Kenosha WI to compete in the Firebird Finale on Friday, Mar. 1. Karpiesiuk will travel to the NJCAA Indoor Championship in Gainesville Fla. to compete in pole vault on Friday, Mar. 1, and Saturday, Mar. 2.
