On Saturday, the Binghamton track and field teams competed at the Bucknell Gulden Indoor Invitational at Gerhard Field House in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. After three meets with no team scoring, the women captured a second-place finish out of 11, and the men finished fourth overall. Altogether, the Bearcats earned 10 first-place finishes, with seven on the women’s team and three for the men’s side.

“It was great,” said Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson. “It just shows that the training is working and that people are in good shape and we’re on track to do well in a month from now at the conference meet.”

Spearheading the Bearcats’ performance was graduate student Jenna Chan, who was named the women’s Most Outstanding Track Performer. Chan placed first in both the long jump with a distance of 18-3.75 and the 60 hurdles with a distance of 8.47. In all three meets this year, Chan has captured gold in the 60 hurdles. Chan’s performance on Saturday made her the second straight Binghamton student to take the title of women’s Most Outstanding Track Performer at Bucknell.

“[Chan] had a great meet and really she just kind of continued with the progress that she’s made this year so far,” Thompson said. “It was exciting but it wasn’t a huge surprise.”

Along with Chan, six other Bearcat women finished first in their respective categories. Junior Alyssa Armitage captured the gold in the pole vault with a distance of 12-5.50. Graduate student Gianna Hoose took home first in her category, the weight throw, with a distance of 59-3. The final first-place finish in the field events came from senior Lucciana Robertson in the high jump with a distance of 5-4.5. Coming in first in the mile, 200m and 3,000m were senior Jennifer Mui, sophomore Tatum Norris, and freshman Anna Gansrow with times of 5:06.09, 25.62 and 10:07.34, respectively.

“[Armitage’s] pole vault was good — she’s jumped higher than that, but she, even though she didn’t jump as high as she’s capable of jumping, she made good progress toward the future by getting on a bigger pole that she’s ever jumped on,” Thompson said. “And [Gansrow] in the 3000, that was a great race for her as a freshman.”

On the men’s side, Binghamton took home three first-place finishes. Junior Matthew Oluwole brought back the gold in the high jump with a distance of 6-6.75 The men also captured first in their 200m and 3,000m races courtesy of graduate student Marcus Johnson in the 200m with a time of 22.11 and freshman Nick Thomas in the 3,000m with a time of 8:31.08.

“I thought that [Johnson’s] 200, and actually all the guys in the 200, ran very well,” Thompson said.

The men’s side also saw the Bearcats take several top-five finishes in their respective categories. Junior Andrew Rosenblatt finished second in the mile with a time of 4:16.16. Two Bearcats captured bronze in their categories — sophomore Putu Sutayasa in the long jump with a distance of 22-11.25, and graduate student Oliver Madariaga in the 200 with a time of 22.35. Four Bearcats finished in fourth in their competitions, and two more finished in fifth. Overall, it was a successful weekend for Binghamton in its first meet with team scoring. The Bearcats will look to build on their performances as they continue their 2024-25 campaign.

“I feel really good,” Thompson said. “I think they’re in a great spot. We still have several meets before the conference meet and I look forward to seeing how they do the next month.”

The Bearcats will head to Penn State to compete at the National Open from Friday, Jan. 31 to Saturday, Feb. 1. First event is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Multi-Sport Facility and Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track in University Park, Pennsylvania.