The men’s and women’s track team compete at the Metropolitan Championships.
GOJASPERS.COM / COURTESY
Brooke Della Rocco, News Editor
Manhattan University’s men’s and women’s track and field teams stunned this past weekend at the Metropolitan Indoor Championships held on Staten Island. After an immense amount of both injury and sickness, the team barrels on towards the MAAC Championship that is fast approaching.
The men’s team came away with a third-place finish, scoring a total of 101 points. Senior runner, Darion Lopez had a lot to say about the team’s morale and why they are so cohesive as a group.
“Genuinely, I think it just [comes] down to team culture,” Lopez said. “Everybody is around each other a lot more than just practice…we hang out not just at practice, but outside of practice. We’ll do team dinners by accident.”
Lopez went on to mention how he considers his teammates some of his closest friends, and that contributes greatly to the team chemistry. Lopez had an impressive meet as well, proving to be one of the standouts for the 2025 indoor season. Despite two fractured ankles, he went on to finish tied up with two competitors in the men’s 60-meter dash with a time of 6.95 seconds, and finished first in the men’s 400-meter dash with a time of 49.49 seconds.
Lopez commented on his mindset entering both the Dr. Sander Scorcher meet the week prior, along with the Met Championship, speaking on how his injuries contributed to him losing confidence. When given the opportunity at the beginning of the season to get surgery or perform through it, he chose the latter.
“I’ve been doing a little bit of different training than the rest of the team,” Lopez said. “This week, I’m in the pool all week, so I haven’t really touched a track. I was really not confident going into it.”
However, due to his impressive performance, Lopez hopes to rest and restore his ankles so he can achieve a few personal goals before he graduates.
“Honestly, there’s like three school records that are in pretty good view,” Lopez said. “So there’s the 200-meter indoor, which I was .04 off breaking last year. So I definitely want to do that sooner rather than later…Just based on no training this year, and running faster than I did last year…it’s projected to get there.”
Coach and Director of Track and Field, Kerri Inman, commented on how Lopez contributes to the team.
“Darion has a lot of heart and strong competitive spirit,” Inman wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “His willingness to work through his injury under the direction of the trainers and physical therapist is admirable and definitely inspiring for his teammates.”
Also making extremely impressive advances in this season is senior runner Kylie Conroy. Conroy continues to be a major contributing factor to the team, taking home fourth place, and second place in the women’s 4,000-meter distance medley relay. She also logged eight points for the women’s 5,000-meter run, finishing second place, 10 seconds behind a Fordham runner.
“I definitely feel good about it,” Conroy said. “Going into the race, I also wasn’t feeling 100%, but I knew that I just had to go and do what I needed for the team.”
Conroy explained that one of her major strengths this season is focusing on racing for the team, rather than just for herself. Especially for the relay, the women’s members were changed throughout the day, with Conroy getting asked as an alternate to participate.
“When we’re asked to do something, like volunteering to be on the relay, even if your legs are tired and you just had a race an hour before or earlier in the day, you kind of just do it for the other girls on the relay,” Conroy said. “Because they’re giving it their all, so you have to give it your all too.”
Inman also expressed her extreme pride in this hardworking team and the progress of the program.
“Our program has been on a steady upward trend the past few years and all the credit goes to the work ethic and enthusiasm of the athletes and my fellow coaches,” Inman wrote. “We have a lot of fun doing what we do and have a lot of good things coming our way!”