Sea Gulls prep for Mason-Dixon championships in the Big Apple
NEW YORK, N.Y. - The Salisbury University men's and women's track and field teams took an abridged squad to compete in the Lafayette-Rider Invitational at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City in preparation for the Mason-Dixon Indoor Track and Field Championships next week at Christopher Newport University. No team scores were recorded in the predominately Division I meet that did not finish Friday until the late hours. Despite the tough competition there were several Sea Gulls who represented the maroon and gold well.
After provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Division III national championships last week in the 55-meter dash junior Delannie Spriggs suited up for the 60-meter dash and posted a time of 6.97 seconds which was good enough for a fifth-place finish. Teammate Justin Acker ran a great time of 7.03 seconds to finish 11th out of a field of 70 runners. The junior also competed in the 200-meter dash and turned in a time of 22.79 seconds which was a second off the leader.
Freshman Paul Moore held his own in the 400-meter dash against a majority of Division I runners. Moore finished the race in 51.39 seconds for a respectable 30th place finish in a field of 78 runners. Senior Quentin Briscoe participated in the 60-meter hurdles and finished with a time of 9.02 seconds.
Salisbury also competed well in the field events. Junior Brandon Fugett did not match his record setting toss from a week ago at the Vince Brown Invitational of 52 feet, 7.5 inches, but did throw the weight 50 feet, four inches to finish seventh out of 35 throwers.
Senior Bobby Price tried to improve upon his record high jump from last week as well but came up just short. He still cleared a respectable six feet, four inches to finish in eighth place. Fellow jumper Brandon Lane flew over the bar at six feet even to finish 21st. Lane also participated in the triple jump (42 feet, one inch) and the 60-meter hurdles (9.41 seconds).
Senior Jenn Bulger was the only Sea Gull from the women's squad to compete at the meet. Bulger competed in both the long jump (15 feet, seven inches) and high jump (six feet) and turned in fine performances.
The Sea Gulls will travel down Rt. 13 next Sunday to compete in the Mason-Dixon Indoor Track and Field Championships. Last year, SU had 20 all-conference honorees as the men finished in second place behind host Christopher Newport and the women came in fourth. The maroon and gold will look to continue their success in these championships as they are familiar with the landscape as they visited the Freeman Center two weeks at the Vince Brown Invitational.
