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The Syracuse Orange track & field teams were back in action last weekend at the Ramapo Opener.
While the distance squad is still in a training cycle, the focus was on the sprint/hurdles/jumps group and they delivered some strong performances. The highlight of the meet was the new school record set by Junior Tia Thevenin while winning the 60m hurdles. Thevenin’s time of 8.32 seconds broke the previous record of 8.34 and is the 2nd-fastest in the ACC this season. Danielle Delgado and Aviana Goode finished 2nd and 3rd in the event. Over in the men’s 60m hurdles, David Gilstrap took first place in a time of 7.87, which is also the fastest ACC time this year.
Syracuse took home several first-place finishes at the meet. Goode followed up her 3rd in the hurdles with a win in the long jump. Ebhani Blackwood won the triple jump ahead of teammate Regine Hunter. Justice Richardson took the victory in the 60m dash. Khadejia Sellers was 1st in the 200m dash with Dasia Pressley (3rd) and Victoria Parker (5th) finishing in the top five. The women’s 4x400 team of Blackwood, Delgado, Sellers, and Cheyenne Trigg were victorious, while for the men, Kashif Miller finished 1st in the 200m dash.
These performances are impressive enough on their own, but factoring in the facilities challenges that this group has to deal with makes their success remarkable. If these athletes can continue to improve, the Syracuse women can improve upon last season’s 11th place ACC finish and the men can repeat as champions. The Orange will be back in action this weekend at the Cornell Upstate Challenge.