Paul Brennan wins first place in the men’s weight
throw.
STOCKTON PHOTO / COURTESY
Karen Flores, Senior Writer
The Manhattan University track and field team celebrated victories and new personal records across various events at the West Point Open on Saturday, Jan. 11.
The Jaspers competed against student-athletes from across the Northeast. Kerri Inman, director of cross country and track and field, emphasized that preseason base building and foundational conditioning are crucial to the success of the athletes.
“For our track and field athletes, the fall season, that preseason base building and the foundational conditioning is going to be really important for them to be able to sustain their competition readiness all the way through May and hopefully June for those that qualify to Nationals,” Inman said. “Being really organized, diligent, and the athletes being dedicated in that fall training when we’re not competing yet, is what really leads to a successful year.”
Bailee Christofis, a sophomore criminology major, triumphantly placed first in the women’s 3,000 meters with a time of 10:30.63.
A feat like this doesn’t happen without a lot of hard work behind the scenes. Christofis spoke to The Quadrangle about some of the training she did to prepare for her events.
“The training started during winter break in which we shifted gears from doing longer stuff for cross country to shorter stuff,” Christofis said. “Since I did not have access to a track during winter break, a lot of my conditioning was done on a grass field, I did a large amount of ladder workouts and a lot of repetition movements.”
Christofis credited her teammates and coaches for being vital factors to her success at the invitational.
“I was not expecting to place first since I had ran a faster race before and placed second, but I went with the game plan that my coaches set up for me and it thankfully ended up panning out,” Christofis said. “A shout out to the throwers and my teammates because every time I’m on the track, I hear them cheering for me louder than anybody else. It definitely helps seeing the different event groups around, because they can see that the work that we’re putting in separately is paying off, which kind of adds to the whole team aspect of the sport.”
Paul Brennan, an MBA student with a concentration in data analytics, successfully placed first in the men’s weight throw with a mark of 18.61 meters during his second attempt.
Brennan explained to The Quadrangle the kind of training he did in order to prepare for his event.
“Weight throw requires a lot of coordination and balance while also using significant core and leg strength in order to propel the implement out,” Brennan said. “The kind of training we usually do is a lot of technical work, doing explosive movements in and out of the weight room as well as plyometrics.”
Brennan, who completed his undergraduate degree at Princeton University, said he decided to come to Manhattan University to continue his education because of the caliber of the coaches.
“The reason that I came to Manhattan was to work with Paddy McGrath, who is one of the best hammer throw coaches in the country,” Brennan said. “I didn’t really have a coach specializing in the hammer throw at Princeton so I’m really lucky to be able to work with Paddy and work on my event-specific skills and strengths. I hope to reach All-American status this year with a great coach like Paddy behind me.”
Brennan shared similar sentiments with Christofis, praising the team environment at MU for fostering cohesion and a sense of community.
“The team is awesome and cohesive which can be difficult to do because track is an individual sport but the group dynamic here is one where everyone is cheering for each other no matter what,” Brennan said. “That’s something that is very special at Manhattan University. I haven’t had a better team dynamic or cohesion anywhere else but at Manhattan University.”
Inman expressed satisfaction with the results of the meet but hopes to continue to improve.
“I’m happy to see where we are,” Inman said. “I think we have a lot that we need to continue working on. I think some weaknesses were exposed and I think some strengths were shown. So overall, I’m pretty happy with where we are, but certainly not satisfied.”