Track Team Finds Success at Big East Championship

by The Cowl Editor on March 7, 2019


Friar Sports


By Christian Rada ’22

Sports Staff

providence college men's and women's indoor track big east championships
Photo Courtesy of PC Athletics

This past week, the Big East Conference announced the All-Big East Conference squad; which is comprised of competitors who finished in the top three of any individual or relay event in the championships. Fifty-nine women and 61 men complete the list. A total of 31 student-athletes—17 women, 18 men—earned all-conference for multiple events. This year many Friars qualified for the Big East team including Jack Carleo ’21, Nick Carleo ’20, Trevor Crawley ’19, Ryan Jendzejec ’21, Michael O’Leary ’19, Daniel Rooney ’21, Maria Coffin ’21, Alex DeCicco ’20, Mariah O’Gara ’20, Millie Paladino ’19, Catarina Rocha ’19RS, and Abbey Wheeler ’20.

On Feb. 23, the Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track Teams competed in the Big East Tournament with the women’s team finishing seventh overall with 51 points and the men’s team finishing sixth with 33 points. Paladino blew the crowd away making huge strides from the beginning. She and her fellow teammate Briana Ilarda ’19 were in the leading front three bombing for the finish line. By the last 200 meters, it was a race for first between the two Friars and a Villanova athlete. Paladino would finish first overall in a time of 9:24.29. This resulted in back-to-back 3,000-meter titles for Paladino. Ilarda would finish second overall with a time of 9:26.34, and Regan Rome ’GS would come in fourth securing points for the Friars. 

For the men’s indoor team, Rooney had a strong showing for the Friars in the 60 meter hurdle finals and would place eighth overall in a time of 8.68 which was .02 seconds less than his previous record making a new personal record. Rooney’s time is now the second all-time fastest in the school’s history. Michael Bittner ’20 took eighth place in the high jump with a height of 1.85 meters. The men’s 4×800 meter relay team of Carleo, Jendzejec, Carleo, and Michael Wyman ’GS took the lead for the first two legs of the relay. On the third leg it was a battle between the Friars and the Wildcats. The team finished with a silver medal with a time of 7:32.54, only four seconds off the school record.                  

This past weekend both the PC Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track Teams competed in the IC4A Championships at Boston University. The Friars excelled in many races in just the first two days, some even breaking their own personal records. For the men’s indoor track team, Jendzejec started his race in the 1,000 meter finals. Jendzejec placed eighth overall and ran a PR of 2:27.33, which is almost seven seconds faster than his previous race. Veteran runners, Marcus Karamanolis ’19 and Marcelo Rocha ’21, both competed in the 3,000 meter finals. Karamanolis ran his heart out as he finished ninth in the seeded heat in a time of 8:19.55. For the women’s indoor track team, six Friars competed in the preliminary heats. DeCicco raced the preliminaries of the 1,000 meters and finished eighth in her heat with a time of 3:02.55.