Men's and Women's Track & Field Sends Handful of Athletes to NYC Armory Meet

The Wheaton College men's and women's track & field teams sent a handful of athletes to the two-day New Balance Collegiate Invitational, which came to an end on Saturday in the New York City Armory. Wheaton was one of a small number of Division III schools represented, as the field was dominated by more than 60 Division I institutions. One school record was broken and one NCAA Championship provisional standard was met by Lyon athletes.

Sophomore Erin Neville (North Providence, RI/La Salle Academy) provisionally qualified for the national meet by springing 5′ 6 1/2″ in the high jump, falling just 3/4″ shy of automatic qualification while taking fifth place out of 22 in the event. Neville's height tied for third among all competitors, as the remaining 21 hailed from Division I institutions. During the triple jump, freshman Ashley Dell'Aira (Shoreham, NY/Shoreham-Wading River) tossed herself 36′ 6 3/4″ to come within 1 1/2″ of an NCAA standard mark. The Lyon men set a school record in the 4×200-meter relay, as the foursome clocked in at 1:29.13 to shave 1.20 seconds off the old program mark. Senior Michael Wright (Baldwin, NY/Uniondale), junior Mark Cimino (Danbury, CT/Danbury), sophomore Mark Williamson (Vienna, VA/James Madison) and freshman Cailean Robinson (Newton, MA/Phillips Exeter Academy) had also set the previous Wheaton standard on January 11. The quartet took sixth out of 14 teams, coming within 1.18 seconds of the runner-up foursome. Robinson narrowly missed a provisional time in the 60M, falling short by 0.01 seconds during a 6.96 finish. During the 400M preliminaries, Williamson clocked in at 49.61, which was 0.43 ticks off an NCAA time.