Canisius Track Competes In The UB Alumni Invite

By: Kaitlyn Belile , Sports Reporter

The Griffs earned 16 top-ten finishes at the UB Alumni Invite last Friday.

On the women’s side of the meet, junior Jacqueline Appenheimer placed first in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 18:07, 11 seconds faster than the second place runner. Senior Taylor Heschke took home two top-10 finishes, placing third in the 800-meter and sixth in the 1,500-meter race. 

Senior Kayla Schmidt also grabbed a top-10 finish, placing fourth place in the 1,500 meter-race. Graduate student Stephanie Seyfang logged two top-10 finishes in the two hurdle races, fourth in the 100-meter hurdle and eighth in the 400-meter race. Sophomore Ella Herman placed 10th in the 400-meter hurdle and 11th in the 100-meter race. 

Herman discussed the improvement she has seen in herself this season, saying, “This season, I’ve improved in my self-confidence a lot. I definitely have more confidence in my racing ability and I’m less down and anxious about my races. I am very much someone who just trusts the training plan. Our coach will put out a training plan for us and I follow the training plan to a T every single day.” 

For the men, junior Brody Jones, freshman Ryan Giglia, grad student Kevin Board and freshman Fenway Breckels all came home with a top-10 finish in the 800-meter race. Jones placed third, Giglia fourth, Board seventh and Breckels eighth. 

More top-10 finishes on the men’s side included junior Braden Tent’s eighth place finish in the 400-meter race, junior Kyle Urban’s fourth place finish and grad student Max Chew’s eighth place finish in the 1,500-meter race. In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, junior Lucas Hoyt

grabbed a ninth place finish. In the men’s 4x400 relay, Jones, Board, junior Joe Pivarunas and junior Colin Maddigan took second place in 3:29. That quartet was followed by Breckels, Giglia and freshmen Adam Kozman and Noah Convert, who came in fourth place in 3:37. 

Canisius has their final meet of the regular season on Saturday at the Cardinal Classic in Rochester, New York, before the Outdoor Track MAAC Championships on May 10 and 11 in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.