GALLOWAY, NJ (March 22, 2024) - The 2024 outdoor track and field season is officially underway! Friday afternoon Georgian Court got the season started after a month off at the Stockton Invitational.

The meet featured just four teams with the Lions, Stockton, Goldey-Beacom and TCNJ. The sun also disappeared at around the start of the meet and brought temperatures hovering around 40 degrees and windy conditions. 

Throws
• With the outdoor season comes the addition of three throwing events. In addition to the shot put, the Lions got to compete in the discus, hammer throw and javelin.
• Robbie Babson threw the shot put and hammer finishing in the top-two in both events. He won the shot put throwing 50-7 and was tied for second in the hammer at 143-10.
• Malicah Etienne picked up two top-10 finishes as well. His first time competing outdoors at GCU and he made it into the top-10 list in the shot put throwing 47-4 for second place and seventh in Lions history and in the discus throwing 135-4 where he was also second and now ninth in Lions history.
• Thomas Menegus took seventh place in both the shot put at 39-0.5 and the discus at 97-10. Anthony Lorenzo was 11th with a personal-best throw of 36-11.25 in the shot put and eighth in the hammer throwing 115-7.
• On his first throw of the season, Joe Sauchelli threw the javelin 174-7 which was good enough to win the event. 
• Chiamaka Wokocha had a great first outdoor meet. She too made two Georgian Court all-time top-10 lists. She won the hammer throw with a mark of 154-10 which is sixth all-time. She was also second in the discus throwing 118-10 which is 10th in Lions history.
• Georgian Court had another event winner in Sheridan Martinez. She won the javelin throwing 129-0.
• Ava Reardon had two top-five finishes in her first career meet. She finished fourth in the javelin throwing 112-6 and fifth in the discus at 99-8.
• Sabrina Halk took seventh place throwing the disc 92-9 and was eighth in the hammer at 85-7.

Distance
• The Lions kept things short on the track. Noone ran more than 800m. For the women, Amirah Beasley finished second in the event running 2:23.52. Madalin Jones ran an outdoor personal-best 2:41.78 for fifth place. 
• Kyle Spector was another event winner for Georgian Court. He ran 1:59.91 to win the 800m.
• Ryan Pettrow and Max Salgado-Vigal had top-10 finishes in the event. Pettrow took fifth crossing the line in 2:04.33 and Salgado-Vidal was eighth in 2:05.11.
• Joseph Jamolawicz and Thomas Rosky each ran personal-bests times. Jamolawicz was 11th running 2:09.05. Rosky ran 2:09.96 for 14th place. 

Jumps
• The Lions had a second-place finish in the women's long jump. Malama Toure jumped 17-0 on her final attempt to set an outdoor personal-best. She moved into sole possession of seventh place all-time at GCU.
• Ingrid Rivera-Zuniga's last jump was also her best. She finished fifth at 16-3.
• In the pole vault, Sean Donnamaria cleared 11-7.75 for third place. Ivan Ramos-Lopez set a personal-best jumping 11-1.75 which is sixth all-time at GCU. 

Short Sprints
• Samantha Lonseth ran in the 100m and 200m dashes. She was eighth in the 100m running 14.51 and 15th in the 200m at 31.05.
• Joshua Tipaldo pulled off the same duo. He was 15th in the 100m running 12.56 and 16th in the 200m at 25.94.
• Nicholas Jordan led the men at 200m. He ran 24.20 for 11th place. Brian Barnes finished 14th running 24.53. 

Long Sprints and Relays
• Wayne Robinson was another event winner for the Lions. He ran 51.02 in the 400m.
• Running their first outdoor 400m for Georgian Court, Seth Powell finished seventh in 52.94 and James McCoy was 13th in 55.22.
• Alexander Dejean finished the event in 57.26 for 15th place.
• Aaliyah Thorpe led the Lion women through 400m. She finished in seventh place running 1:04.18.
• Niya Barden was right behind her in 1:04.75 for eighth place and Molly Burns 10th running an outdoor personal-best 1:05.64. Selma Cazimoska ran 1:12.49 for 13th place in her first outdoor 400m race.
• Both the men and women's 4x400m relay teams finished in third place. The men's team ran the distance crew of Spector, Pettrow, Jamolawicz and Rosky and fininshed in 3:42.86.
• The women had Beasley, Burns, Thorpe and Barden finish in 4:19.52.

Next up for the Lions is the Monmouth Spring Opener. The two-day meet is Friday-Saturday, March 29-30 on the campus of Monmouth University.