Five School Records Set at Fordham Opener
FIVE SCHOOL RECORDS SET AT FORDHAM OPENER
Kicking off STAC’s indoor track campaign in grand style, Chris Muniz won the 200-meter dash and combined with fellow freshmen Jeanette Gibson and Ashley Toscano to establish five school records at the Fordham Opener Invitational. The meet was held December 1 at Fordham University’s Vincent T. Lombardi Center field house.
The nine-team meet included seven Div. I schools – Fordham, Iona, Fairleigh Dickinson, Providence, Stony Brook, St. Peter’s and Marist – as well as STAC and Mercy from Div. II.
Muniz, a Suffern grad, was not among the top seeds in the 200 meters but ruffled the form charts by blazing a 23.5-second furlong to set a school record (manual-timed) in the event. His clocking is equivalent to the auto-timed school mark of 23.63 set by Matt Winkeleer in 2004 and ’05. Muniz also took down the school 500-meter record, posting a 1:09.1 to finish fifth and displace Anthony Hilliard’s 2005 STAC standard of 1:09.81.
Gibson, from North Rockland High, shattered the school shot-put record by more than five feet, finishing in second place with a lifetime best of 36 feet, ¼ inch. She fell just two inches short of winning the event. Freshman teammate Deb Lang (Sea Bright, N.J.) also surpassed the previous school record, placing seventh with a best throw of 31 feet, 10 ¼ inches.
Toscano rewrote the STAC women’s record board in two events. The first-year standout from Clarkstown South High finished third in the 400-meter dash in 63.4 seconds, improving upon the old school record by almost 10 seconds. She came back later in the meet to place fourth in the 200-meter dash in 28.0, more than 4 ½ seconds faster than the previous standard.
Two other Spartan freshmen also had auspicious debuts. Brad McNiff, out of Pearl River High, placed second in the 3,000-meter run in 9:26.7, while former Walter Panas sprinter Mike Valentine finished fifth in the 200 meters in 24.2 and eighth in the 500 meters in 1:11.6.
Sophomore Andrew Gangemi (St. Peter’s Boys School) wound up sixth in the 1,000-meter run in 2:49.0, and soph teammate Andrew Spanos (Burke Catholic) took 16th in the mile (4:51.9). Those two also teamed with Valentine and Muniz to finish seventh in the 4x400-meter relay in 3:44.1. Freshman Renee Remmers (Northwestern Regional/New Hartford, Conn.) came in ninth in both the 200 (30.9) and 400 (68.7).
The Spartans return to competition on Sunday, December 10 when they travel to South Orange, N.J., for the Seton Hall Open.
