Story by Carlos Hernandez, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Andris Visockis

One of Aquinas’s most successful teams is the Track & Field group. In recent years, this team has gone to national championships and excelled each time. This past week Aquinas College’s Indoor Track team once again competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championship in Geneva, Ohio. The two teams, not surprisingly, did well in their competition on the eighth. Leading up to the event, both the Women’s and Men’s teams had radiant seasons.

On February 5, the Men’s/Women’s  team placed first overall in the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame Track and Field Classic. A few weeks later on February 20 both teams came in third overall at the WHAC Championship, both of these events took place in Alksnis Athletic Building, which was also the place for most of the Track/Field teams’ competitions.

“We’ve been able to be very competitive. We didn’t win every meet, because Indiana Tech is out most competitive school, I would say we have been very competitive; very headstrong whether we always won or not, but we ran against some very fast and very fierce schools in the past,” said Sophomore Octavian Condet “We’ve not let them impede our improvements and how hard we try.” This weekend’s competition will be Condet’s first Indoor National Track competition and second national track competition.

The Track/Field team left last Monday for Nationals with the hype of their great season driving them. The result was high placement in quite a few events, including the 400 Metre Relay and the 60-metre hurdles.

In the one Mile Women’s Running event, sophomore Adri Sigafoose ran away with second place with a time of 4:57.11, while sophomore Tori DeSira placed sixth in Women’s 60-Metre Hurdles, clocking in at 8.92. In the 5000 Metre Run-Women’s, junior Kathy Middaugh placed fifth with a time of 18:04.06. In the Women’s 4 by 400 Metre Relay, DeSira placed sixth with her teammates first-year Analis Floyd, senior Marissa Ingersoll, and senior Courtney Klawieter with a time of 3:54.35. Finally, the Women’s track took first place in the Women’s Distance Relay with a time of 11:58.04. The winning team was Sigafoose, Ingersoll, junior Sydney Anderson, and first-year Melissa Winchester. Overall, both teams ranked fairly well, with the men placing thirty-ninth and the women coming in seventh.

About the writer…

Carlos “Eddie” Hernandez is a fourth year student at Aquinas and has been writing for the newspaper for a year and a half. He is an Acting and Music Major and is also a member of AQPB. His hobbies include ponies and Pokèmon. Other hobbies include eating and sleeping.