The Emory University Track and Field teams opened the spring semester on Saturday, competing at the UAB Vulcan Invitational at the Crossplex in Birmingham, Alabama. The Eagles were one of the couple Division III programs in attendance at the meet as the field featured primarily Division I athletes from UAB, Alcorn State, Arkansas State, Bethune-Cookman, Florida, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Georgia State, Jackson State, Jacksonville State, Lipscomb, Savannah State, Texas State, Troy, as well as student-athletes from other NCAA ranks. As a result, there was no team scoring at the meet.
For the women's team, Rebekah Bondi paced the Eagles in two separate events on Saturday. The junior recorded a time of 7.85 seconds during a qualifying heat for the women's 60m dash. She ended up taking 6th-place in the final heat against DI opponents with a 7.98 second effort. Freshman Ella Lavelle and junior Michelle Rosenblum ran times of 7.92 and 8.28 in their best 60m dash heats, respectively. Freshman Claire Evans took care of the hurdled version of the 60m dash and came up with a 9.59. The women's 4x400m relay team earned 11th after racing in 4:13.76.
In the longer women's sprints, Lavelle clocked a 27.42 in her 200m dash debut and found herself in 26th-place out of 51 competitors, while sophomore Jessica Barbarosh produced a 28.52 in her 200m attempt. Abby Baisley represented the Eagles in the 400m dash by sprinting to a 1:01.90 and securing 22nd-place out of 37 racers. In the 800m, junior Rachel Shanahan ran her way to a new personal-record by concluding in just 2:34.19, which was good enough for 19th out of 34 runners.
In the field events, senior Isabel Saridakis led the way for the Eagles. The pole vaulter tied for 7th out of 15 vaulters with a 3.50m mark. Additionally, Bondi placed 10th in the women's long jump after she leapt 5.17m and topped 22 other competitors. Senior Amy Hunter also participated in the long jump (4.63m, 26th) and covered 10.39m to finish 10th in the triple jump.
On the men's side, freshman Andrew Pahnke was the top Emory competitor in his indoor debut. The distance runner managed a one-mile pace of 4:30 to earn 8th-place out of 37 participants. Behind Pahnke was junior Egan Kattenberg (4:35.56, 18th) and another debuting freshman, Justin Pecore (2:39.79, 23rd). In the 400m event, junior Liam Fost claimed 15th-place out of 35 with a time of 51.12 seconds. Senior Alex Rand (52.37, 22nd) and freshman David Gibbons (55.25, 29th) also made appearances in the 400m. Senior Fernando Cardozo and freshman Jason Huang represented Emory in the 60m dash. The senior came up with a 7.42 second effort, while his younger counterpart produced a 7.62.
Lucas Werner made it to the preliminaries of the 60m hurdles, but his qualifying time of 8.92 seconds proved to be the sophomore's best attempt of the day. Sophomore Graham Scott joined Werner in the qualifying portion of the 60m hurdle event but did not make it to the prelims. Scott (24.69, 40th), Cardozo (23.68, 34th), and Gibbons (23.96, 28th) also each gave performances in the 200m dash. The men's relay team completed its 4x400m in 3:26.913.
Ben Kronman led the men's team in the field events, as he competed in both the long jump and triple jump. The sophomore came close to matching his personal-best mark in the long jump but came up just short with a final distance of 5.91m, which gave him 24th. He fared better in the triple jump, where his 11.45m attempt left him in 14th. Freshman Patrick Osborne and sophomore Yuri Brunner handled vaulting duties for the men. In his debut, Osborne matched Brunner, as they each made it over the 3.80m mark and finished 12th and 13th.
The Emory track and field program will now gear up for its own invitational to take place next weekend in Birmingham. The Eagles will be heavily featured in many events at the Crossplex on Sunday, serving as the host school for the meet. The event will start at approximately 10:30 a.m. EST. The full tentative schedule for the upcoming competition can be found here.