Finishing off two days of competition, the Brockport women’s track and field team finished second overall and the men’s team finished third at the SUNYAC championship meet. SUNY Geneseo took home their seventh straight SUNYAC title and 14th overall.
The men’s team finished the weekend behind Geneseo and Cortland, with 141.5 points.
Jonathan Zavala had a great day, finishing the one-mile event in 4 minutes and 11.34 seconds, landing him in first place. Zavala would also take home silver in the 3000-meter event.
“I’ve been coming in second for just about every indoor SUNYACs,” Zavala said. “It was very satisfying finishing the last 50 meters and then celebrating with my teammates.”
In the 400-meter event, Jacob Miller continued his success. Breaking program records all season, Miller ended in second, with a time of 48.46 seconds. Also recognized for excellence away from the track, Miller was one of the four athletes awarded the SUNYAC Elite 20 award, given to championship-level athletes who also are achieving a high academic standard.
Miller’s teammate Craig Duffy would finish second in the 60-meter dash and fourth in the 200-meter, picking up 13 points for Brockport.
“Some things went my way, some things didn’t,” Duffy said. “We just kept pushing each other to be the best we can.”
In the 4x400m relay, Brockport would finish a close race in second. Michael Durski, Aiden Grinion, Duffy and Miller would each run a leg and finish in 3 minutes, 19.33 seconds.
Gabriel Giannini performed well in the high jump. The freshman cleared 1.9 meters and finished with silver.
On the women’s side, the Golden Eagles ended the meet with 117.5 points.
In the field events, Brockport had several top-five finishers. Rebecca Bready and Isabel Swyers took home silver and bronze in the pole vault and Tess Eichner finished fourth. Sarah Crockett won gold in the shot put, throwing 13.49 meters. The first-place finisher at last year’s championships, Crockett would finish fourth in the weight throw.
On the track, Kerry Flower was dominant in the 5k event, finishing with a time of 17 minutes and 46.37 seconds. That time was good enough to earn her first-place and the gold medal, beating the second-place finisher by almost 10 seconds.
Julianne Wilson took home silver in the women’s mile event and recorded a personal best with a time of 5 minutes, 19.17 seconds. Marissa Wise would grab six points for Brockport’s team score in the 400-meter event, finishing in 58.52 seconds, earning her a bronze medal.
Veronica Dailey, Ariana Proper, Mia Vizcaino and Wilson teamed up for the distance medley relay and grabbed a silver medal for Brockport. Vizcaino ran the 800-meter third leg.
“Even though it was a relay, the pressure is still there,” Vizcaino said. “We all were able to do exactly what we needed to do.”
Reflecting on the team’s season, Vizcaino, in her final year, was proud of the team’s work.
“This team is some of the hardest working people I know,” Vizcaino said. “I am proud not only of the girls, but the guys, throws, jumps, everyone made it a season to remember.”
Many Golden Eagles will now look to next weekend, when they will head to Nazareth to compete in the All-Atlantic Region Track & Field Indoor Conference Championships, beginning on March 1. From there, qualifying athletes will be looking for more success, traveling to Virginia for the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 8.
