Jones and Mahoney spark weekend trip to SPIRE

By Cassandra Ercoli, Sports Reporter

In his final indoor track and field season, senior Brody Jones led a podium sweep for the Griffs in the one-mile run with a time of 4:15.80 at this past weekend’s SPIRE Midwest Open in Geneva, Ohio. 

The men’s team replicated another strong showing in the 800m event which saw freshman Jaxyn Mahoney take second place followed by Jones in fourth and freshman Jack Nesbit in fifth. Mahoney’s time of 1:56.00 was just half a second shy of first place while Jones (1:58.80) and Nesbit (1:58.87) were separated by seven hundredths of a second. 

Alongside his 10th-place finish in the 400m dash, Mahoney’s performances earned him MAAC Rookie of the Week honors, the conference announced on Tuesday. Mahoney was also a part of a 4x400m medley relay that claimed a third place finish in a time of 3:33.07.

Sophomore Nathaniel Fisher and fellow senior Kyle Urban completed the 1-2-3 finish for the Blue and Gold posting times of 4:17.65 and 4:20.97, respectively. Sophomore Fenway Breckles also finished in the top ten of runners with a time of 4:27.46, just over four seconds from his personal best from last season.

On the women’s side, underclassmen led the way for the Griffs as freshman Charlotte Keenan and sophomore Clara Sundberg had near program record-breaking performances in their respective events.

Sundberg’s fourth place finish in the 800m, a time of 2:21.83, was just 2.49 seconds shy of the program record set last year. In Keenan’s 60m dash, her time of 8.27 seconds just missed the program record by 0.08 seconds which was also set in 2025. The freshman nearly scraped the 200m dash record of 26.25 with her final time of 26.81.

Junior Payton Calkins also had a strong showing in the 800m event with her time of 2:28.95, good enough for 14th place. Sophomore Ella Krumpek (5:32.5) and junior Brooke Podgorski (5:40.54) also enjoyed top 15 finishes for the Griffs, this time in the women’s mile, coming in at 11th and 14th.  

The Blue and Gold will have a quick turnaround when they return to the track for their third meet when they travel to Youngstown State for the YSU Mid Major Invitational on Jan. 31 in Youngstown, Ohio.

Photo courtesy of Stockton Photo Inc.