Mount XCTF Outperforms Conference Rankings

Audrey Owens

In a huge showing at the MAAC Indoor Championship, the Mountaineers outperformed the rankings, taking second on the men’s side and third on the women’s, on Feb. 21-22. The weekend was full of podium performances, many of which were from standout freshmen. Joshua Dean, Garrett Wilkerson, Draelyn Crawford and Alena Murray all were top three finishers in their respective events. An impressive feat for their first ever collegiate season.  

Returners Jacey Hentz (C’27), Camryn Jones-Howard (C’28), Marta Gonzalez Alvarez (C’28), Donovan Harrington (C’28), Dante Elliot (C’26), Tyler Cash (C’27), Rebecca Weir (C’26) and Abdul Iyiola (C’28) also had podium finishes. Iyiola won the gold in the 60-meter hurdles, despite being seeded lower. 

Madelyn Valpy (C’26) had a particularly spectacular meet winning triple jump and resetting her own school record with a new mark of 12.52 meters, a distance that puts her in the top 100 female Division 1 athletes across the country. 

Ethan Demeter broke the MAAC championship meet record in pole vault, PR’ing with a new mark of 17 feet. When asked how it felt to PR, Demeter responded, “It felt great. I had planned for how I’d want the season to go and I executed perfectly.”  

The vaulters went through numerous challenges with the Mount losing their primary pole vault coach at the beginning of the year, as well as three dominant vaulters, but remained undeterred in their goals, with Hentz, Cash and Demeter all earning medals. After the success of the indoor Demeter is feeling fully prepared for outdoor. 

“I’m ready, I’m excited,” he said. “This is going to be my freshman outdoor season because I redshirted last year due to my back injury. So there’s nothing but excitement.” 

Before each MAAC Track and Field championship, every athlete’s best performances are used to create a ranking of who will most likely win the conference. For example, if a women’s Quinnipiac athlete runs 54 seconds in the 400-meter dash during the season and that is the best time in the conference, she is predicted to win the event and score 10 points for her team. A conference team win is calculated based on who has the most collective points.  

This year Mount XCTF was predicted fourth place on the men’s side and fifth place on the women’s side. That would put the team solidly in the upper half of the conference, but not on par with previous years of each consistently being top three in the conference. 

However, sports can change on a whim and athletes have the ability to rise above predictions. 

Entering outdoor season, the first meet back is the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. With the overall success of the final indoor meet, tons of podium performances and dozens more unmentioned individual top eight scorers, there’s a lot to look forward to up until outdoor conferences held at home at the Mount track.