STATEN ISLAND, NY (Feb. 19, 2023) - For the fourth straight season, Georgian Court Men's Track and Field are ECC Indoor Champions. The Lions scored 143 points, 54 more than third place Roberts Wesleyan. Yes, third place because matching GCU with 143 points was Holy Family leading to conference co-champions. 

Georgian Court won four of the 18 events but also took second in seven events scoring important points down the result sheet. On the men's side, 15 individuals were named All-Conference for their performances and eight were all All-Conference in multiple events. Eleven women made the ECC All-Conference Team. Aniyah Russell and Shanae Rayside earned First Team honors in two events. 

Jeshurun Devero in the triple jump, Jan Volkmar in the pole vault, Robbie Babson in the shot put and Xavier Seals in the 800m were your ECC Champions. Volkmar was also awarded the Elite 19 award by the conference as the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the championship event.

As you can imagine in a meet ending in a tie, things came down to the final event - the 4x400m relay. Georgian Court was ahead by two points going into the race with Holy Family seeded second and the Lions fifth. If that result stayed true, Holy Family would have won the conference title outright. For their efforts Holy Family won the race, meaning the Lions needed to finish in second place to lay any claim to the title. Sean Donnamaria, Aamere McKethan, Wayne Robinson and Xavier Seals got the job done taking second place to secure a fourth straight CACC Championship. 

The Georgian Court women were also in the title chase until the end. They came up a little short to Holy Family. The Lions totaled 108.67 points to the Tigers 119. Holy Family had 4.33 point lead going into the 4x400 and walked it off winning the event and the championship.

The Lion women also had four event winners: Shalom Adzakro in the 60m hurdles, Julia Kirschnick in the pole vault, Shanae Rayside in the triple jump and Aniyah Russell in the long jump. Rayside and Russell went 1-2 in both the long and triple jump. 

Horizontal Jumps
• Georgian Court had plenty of highlights coming from the horizontal jumps. On the men's side there were none bigger than Jeshurun Devero in the triple jump. Devero was leading heading into the final round of jumps when Nishorn Pierre, the top seed entering the event, past him on his final attempt. With just one jump left, Devero hit a big one, jumping a personal-best 49-4 setting a new school record, meet record and winning the conference title. He's the first Lion to ever just 15.00m in the triple jump and his mark would be 15th nationally heading into the weekend. 
• The Lion men also got points in the long jump as Jan Volkmar finished third jumping 21-8.25.
• Dylan Breen competed in both the long and triple jumps and had top-10 finishes in both. Breen was eighth in the triple jump with a new indoor personal-best mark 41-9.25. He also took ninth in the long jump with a mark of 20-9.5.
• The women also had plenty of success in the long and triple jumps. In the both jumps, it was all blue and gold across the podium as the Lions swept the 1-3 spots. Shanae Rayside won the triple jump jumping 39-1, a new personal-best and her first time going beyond 39 feet. That mark won the meet and is second all-time at GCU and a new ECC championship meet record. 
• Aniyah Russell was right behind jumping 37-1 while Jaison-Ashley Pleva took third in 36-11.65.
• Elena Martinez-Rodriguez also scored for GCU taking sixth place with a mark of 34-6.5. 
• In the long jump, GCU also had four of the top-six finishers. Russell set a meet and school record herself jumping 19-11 for the win. Rayside came in second place jumping 16-3 and Malama Toure was third at 16-1.25. Martinez-Rodriguez was again sixth finishing at 16-0.25. 

Vertical Jumps
• Not only did Volkmar earn All-ECC in the long jump, he was the winner of the pole vault. Volkmar set another meet record jumping 15-9 to win the event.
• Julian Rodriguez came in behind Volkmar jumping 13-5.5. He scored a point in the high jump as well clearing 5-10. 
• The Georgian Court women took the first three spots in the pole vault. Julia Kirschnick won the event jumping 10-6. Nina Casalino and Hannah Gravante each got over the bar at 9-0.25 for second and third place. Gravante was second based on number of attempts.
• Elena Martinez-Rodriguez added to her point total in the high jump. She and Tiffany Parajon tied for fourth place clearing 4-11. 

Throws
• Robbie Babson earned a pair of First Team All-ECC honors. He won the shot put throwing 52-6. He then took second place in the weight throw with a mark of 44-3.
• Jan Volkmar did a bit of everything for GCU. He also took third place with a big personal-best 45-10.
• Elena Keck added six points in the shot put for the women. She also set a new personal-best throwing 37-2. Keck fouled her first two throws in the weight throw before getting off a legal mark of 30-10 and finished 17th.
• Sheridan Martinez competed in both throwing events as well. She was 16th in the shot put at 29-4 and threw 27-0 in the weight throw, good for 20th place. 

Sprints and Hurdles
• Noah Roach picked up a pair of top-four finishes in the short sprints. Roach had the fastest time in the 60m preliminary round, but took third place in the finals running 7.04. In the 200m, Roach finished fourth in 22.71.
• Wayne Robinson earned All-ECC First Team status in the 200m as he finished second crossing the line in 22.67.
• CJ Miranda just missed making the cut for the 60m finals. He finished ninth running 7.35.
• Henry Jean-Michel and Julian Rodriguez finished fourth and fifth in the 60m hurdles. They each ran 9.02 in the finals. Jean-Michel edged Rodriguez for fourth place by less than one-tenth of a second. Rodriguez was seventh in the prelims before moving up to place fifth in the finals.
• It hasn't taken long for Shalom Adzakro to help the Lions on the track. The freshman won the 60m hurdles running 9.31. She was second in the prelims before coming back to win the event. 
• Jaison-Ashley Pleva finished in seventh place in the high hurdles running 9.68. She set a new personal-best in the preliminary round running 9.58.
• Yanely Bohorquez-Gonzalez was the Lions only sprinter on the women's side to run both events. She finished 10th in the 60m running 8.28 and was 14th in the 200m at 28.03.
• Samantha Lonseth joined Bohorquez-Gonzalez in the 60m running 9.02 for 20th place. 

Distance
• Xavier Seals scored 18 points for the Lions in individual events. In a tactical race, Seals won the 800m running 1:59.31. He was able to use his 400m footspeed to outkick a tight pack on the final lap. He also took second place in the mile in another close race. Seals ran 4:34.33 just 0.33 seconds behind the winner.
• Riley Keffer wasn't far behind Seals in the mile. He took fourth place running 4:39.40. Keffer also earned All-ECC First Team honors in the 1,000m run with his second place finish in 2:40.45, eighth all-time at Georgian Court. 
• Dylan Navarro just missed out scoring in the 1000m. He finished in seventh place running 2:42.46 which puts him ninth all-time on the Lions top-10 list.
• Kevin Knoetig was ninth at 2:45.72 and Will Spector 12th at 2:51.82. 
• Another Lion who earned multiple all-conference award is Alec Valle. Valle took third place in the 5,000m running 15:36.20. He then came back later to finish fourth in the 3K running 9:05.32.
• Joseph Jamolawicz secured a top-10 spot in the 5K running a personal-best 17:03.02. That was good for ninth place in the meet and moves him up to sixth all-time at Georgian Court. Thomas Rosky wasn't far behind in 11th place running 17:25.17. 
• Sean Donnamaria moved up to third all-time at GCU in the 500m. His time of 1:06.72 was good for fourth place. Each of the top four finishers all ran 1:06 in a tightly contested race.
• Niya Barden picked up points for the Lions in the 1000m on the women's side. She ran 3:11.65, good for fourth place in the race and fifth all-time at Georgian Court.
• Amirah Beasley scored for GCU in the 800m. She ran an indoor personal-best 2:28.19 which was fifth overall, ninth all-time at GCU.

Relays
• Georgian Court hadn't run a distance medley relay all year until the conference meet. The quartet of Will Spector, Aamere McKethan, Dylan Navarro and Kevin Knoetig finished in second place to grab eight points. They finished the race in 10:45.01 which is fifth all-time at Georgian Court.
• The 4x400m relay is what secured the conference championship for the Lions. With Holy Family winning the event, Georgian Court had to finish in second place to earn a share of the team title. Anything less and Holy Family is the outright 2023 team champions. Sean Donnamaria, Aamere McKethan, Wayne Robinson and Xavier Seals made sure the trophy stayed in Lakewood running 3:27.67 for second place. It's also the eighth fastest time at GCU. Robinson got the baton in fourth place before moving up to third and Seals made a move to take the Lions from second to third. Both Robinson and Seals split 51.2 on their legs. 
• Georgian Court women took fourth place in the distance medley relay. The group of Ashlee Pataky, Aaliyah Thorpe, Niya Barden and Amirah Beasley ran 14:02.63.
• Three of those four also ran on the 4x400m relay. Thorpe, Barden and Beasley were joined by Molly Burns to finish fifth in the days final event running 4:19.96.

ECC All Conference Team (Top 2 finishers in individual events make 1st Team, 3rd & 4th place individual finishers make 2nd Team. Winning Relay team is 1st Team, 2nd place relay team 2nd Team)
Women
First Team
Shalom Adzakro - 60mh
Julia Kirschnick - pv
Hannah Gravante - pv
Aniyah Russell - lj, tj
Shanae Rayside - lj, tj

Second Team
Niya Barden - 1000m
Tiffany Parajon - hj
Elena Martinez-Rodriguez - hj
Nina Casalino - pv
Malama Toure - lj
Jaison-Ashley Pleva - tj

Men
First Team
Wayne Robinson - 200m
Xavier Seals - 800m, mile
Riley Keffer - 1000m
Jan Volkmar - pv
Julian Rodriguez - pv
Jeshurun Devero - tj
Robbie Babson - sp, wt

Second Team
Noah Roach - 60m, 200m
Sean Donnamaria - 500m
Riley Keffer - mile
Alec Valle - 3k, 5k
Henry Jean-Michel - 60mh
Jan Volkmar - lj, sp
4x400m - Donnamaria, McKethan, Robinson, Seals
DMR - Spector, McKethan, Navarro, Knoetig