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The Syracuse Orange Track and Field squads continued their early-season schedule with the Upstate Challenge at Cornell University over the weekend. We know that Syracuse probably will not contend for the team titles in the ACC this year, mostly due to a lack of athletes in a number of events. However, this year's teams are looking to be improved from last year when the Men finished 6th and the Women were 10th.
At Cornell on Saturday, we saw some strong performances from expected key contributors, as well as some performances which bode well for the present, and future, of the program. Leading the way for the women once again was Shaina Harrison, who took 1st in the 60m dash in a time of 7.39 (2nd fastest in the ACC this season). She was followed by Khadejia Sellers, who took 2nd in 7.54 (5th fastest in ACC) Other winners for the Orange were Tia Thevenin in the 60m hurdles (8.46 8th fastest in ACC) and Sydney Leiher (2:48.95) in the 1000m. Among other distance runners, Elizabeth Reynolds had a 3rd place finish in the 800m (2:16), while Shaylyn Tuite (5:05.52) and Mary Malone (5:05.83) were 5th and 6th in the mile.
For the men, Freddie Crittenden was once again the fastest in the 60m hurdles, winning in a time of 7.82 seconds. Crittenden is still at the top of the ACC list in the event, and is 3rd in the NCAA. He was followed by David Gilyard in 3rd (currently 4th on ACC list), Chevis Armstead in 4th (6th on ACC list), and Richard Floyd in 6th (5th on ACC list). This group will be one to watch closely as the season progresses, as there is potential for all four to be in the ACC finals.
The Orange Men had three more 1st-place finishes on Saturday: Paul Lovell in the 800m (1:56.04), Adam Palamar in the 1000m (2:25.76) and Mickey Burke in the Mile (4:16). The Mile ended up being another deep event for Syracuse as they placed 7 runners in the top ten.
Syracuse had a trio of strong finishes in the jumps at Cornell. Reggie Morton took 2nd in the Long Jump, Pascal Bastien was 3rd in the triple jump, and Jabari Butler was 3rd in the high jump.
Competition will heat up when the Orange travel to Boston University this weekend as we should see the season debuts of many of the top distance runners on the team.