Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Indoor Track & Field | 9 Runners Earn Big East Titles

Following a regular season full of record-setting and noteworthy performances, the Georgetown track and field team embarked for New York City with high hopes for the 2015 Big East Championship meet.

However, there was one glaring issue for the Hoyas; facility limitations at the 168th Street Armory spelled disaster for the team. The Hoyas would be forced to run many of their crucial preliminary races late Saturday evening, only to have to turn around and race in their final heats early Sunday morning.

“The schedule was not a good one this year,” Director of Track and Field Pat Henner said. “Typically you’re going to give the athletes close to 24 hours [of] rest between qualifying and finals, but if you run at 10 o’clock at night [on Saturday], bythe time you eat dinner and get back to the hotel, you’re wired up and you’re not going to fall asleep when you’ve got to get back up at six in the morning and race the next day.”

Despite the unfavorable timetable, the Hoyas won eight different events on the day en route to another gritty performance by a program that has continued to show great strides in improvement this indoor season. Of the many big performances, sophomore Samantha Nadel’s first-place effort in the 3000-meter race, one day removed from running the 1200-meter leg of the girl’s relay, stood out.

“I actually felt better my second race [Sunday’s 3000m event] than my first race with the relay,” Nadel said. “A lot of people were asking me, ‘If you want to run fast in the 3k, why are you running in the DMR?’ I think if anything, it warmed me up for the Sunday’s race.”

Nadel’s still-fresh legs carried her to her first Big East Championship title as she clocked in at 9:05.97, a personal record that would best her previous record time by over 12 seconds. Instrumental to Nadel’s phenomenal finish was teammate Katrina Coogan, who set the pace in the event.

“Katrina already had a time that would get her into the NCAA meet in the 3000, so the plan was for her to set the pace for Nadel to get an NCAA qualifying time,” Henner said. “Katrina did a great job and led Samantha for the vast majority of the race until Samantha took over and had an incredible finish to win the race, set the break the Big East meet record and post a time that’s going to get her into the NCAA national meet.”

Nadel was also quick to credit Coogan with her crucial role in the event.

“Katrina Coogan she helped me so much,” Nadel said. “I don’t know if I could’ve run that fast if she hadn’t been in it with me.”

Coogan, despite coming off an 800m race earlier in the day, posted a third-place finish to make the podium alongside her teammate.

“A lot of people wonder how in track and field teamwork comes into play,” Henner said. “This was just a great example of it.”

The men’s team also turned in several impressive performances, including sophomore Nathaniel Gordon’s convincing comeback race in the 500m event.

“I’ve been working back from an injury, and this was only my third or fourth week actually training,” Gordon said. “I strained my hamstring over Christmas break and I’ve been struggling with that all semester. It was really cool that I could even race on Sunday.”

Gordon turned in a dominant performance on Sunday, beating out the nearest competitor by more than two seconds en route to his first Big East title. Gordon also picked up another first-place finish as a part of the men’s 4x400m relay team, when he joined a Georgetown squad made up of middle distance runners Ryan Manahan, Joe White and Billy Ledder to take down the favored DePaul team with a time of 3:16.11.

“We knew we could push ourselves,” Gordon said. “We were expecting DePaul to take it out early and we would have to play catch-up the whole time. But in the first leg after I passed [DePaul], they never really came back.”

In total, the Hoyas nabbed Big East titles in nine different events, as the men’s team would place third and women’s team place fourth overall.

Hoya Staff Writer Kara Avanceña contributed to reporting.

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