Junior Alex Masai broke the 10K school record on Saturday, April 13, as the Hofstra track team divided and conquered with some athletes attending the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic in Pennsylvania and others the Rider University Invitational in New Jersey.
Masai’s 29:39.36 record finish put him in fourth place, eight seconds behind the winner Tom Goforth of Saginaw Valley State University. The previous school record was set by Meshack Kipchirchir at the 2018 Penn Relays in a time of 30:07.12.
Masai now ranks No. 32 in the East and No. 77 nationally this outdoor season in the 10K. He will have an opportunity to advance to the NCAA East Preliminary Championships in Jacksonville, Florida in late May if he becomes within the top 46 times in both the East and West regions.
Freshmen Paul Markovina ran in the unseeded version of Bucknell’s 10,000-meter race but did not place, and Steven Fiumefreddo raced the unseeded 5K and finished 80th in a time of 15:54.21. Classmate Sophia Masciarelli raced the women’s unseeded 5K and crossed the line in a time of 19:01.55 putting her in 36th.
Meanwhile in New Jersey, Hofstra athletes competed in both track and field events at the Rider University Invitational held in theMichael P. Brady Track and Field Complex.
Lucy Shepherd – also a member of the Pride’s Women’s Soccer Team – led 12 of Hofstra’s runners in the women’s 100-meter dash finishing in 13.57 and placing 25th overall. Juniors Sarah El Bouzaidi and Sara Bornstein placed 35th and 36th respectively, with nine more teammates following behind. In the men’s 100-meter dash, freshman Ralph Licciardi was Hofstra’s sole runner in 41st in a time of 12.70.
No women competed in the 400-meter dash but in the men’s race, Mitch Holson and Danny Pires finished back to back in 36th and 37th respectively.
However, the 800-meter had a strong showing for both the men and women as both races saw three finishers in each. For the men, freshman Tyler McPartland led the way in 49th, with Ryan Connell and Andrew Giovinazzo trailing behind in 56th and 57th respectively. For the women, sophomore Alyssa Suits placed 37th with freshmen Grace Giannatsi and Caroline Czerwonka in 40th and 41st respectively.
Cross Country veterans Megan Boese, Alli Bacher, Tosin Ibironke, Marc Meltzer and Dante Perez all rounded out the Pride in the running events competing in the 1,500-meter run. Boese and Bacher finished the women’s race in 41st and 51st respectively in times of 5:28.79 and 6:10.97, while Ibironke led the men in 24th in a time of 4:16.83 with Meltzer and Perez trailing behind in 41st and 43rd.
Hofstra also saw four athletes compete in the long jump. Cianciolo led the Pride’s jumpers in 19th with a distance of 14’9.25”. Pierre followed in 22nd with 11’5.75. For the men, Holson led in 20th with 20’8” and Pires followed with 16’0.5”.
The Pride will be back together on Saturday, April 20, as they head to the Stony Brook University Wolfie Invitational.
Image Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
