Over the weekend the Binghamton men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Boston to compete at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference/IC4A meet. The two-day event saw six Bearcats post a top-six finish in their respective events.

“We look at this meet as a meet for people who want to go,” said Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson. “We’re not going to this meet trying to score. We’re not trying to kill our athletes to try and do well at the meet. If we did that, we could’ve placed a lot higher on both sides.”

On the first day of events, the women’s side put Binghamton on the board in both the 60-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash preliminaries. In the 200-meter event, graduate student Nia Joyner took sixth overall with a time of 24.47 to advance to the finals on the following day. Meanwhile, sophomore Jenna Chan took third in the first round of the 60-meter hurdles in 8.66 seconds and subsequently finished sixth (8.71) in the semifinals later in the day. For the men’s team, only senior Jake Restivo managed to crack the upper echelon of the leaderboard, posting a jump of 23-02.50 feet to place fourth in the hotly contested long jump.

During Sunday’s string of events, BU continued to perform well on the individual level. Joyner took to the oval in the 200-meter final and ran a time of 24.37 to finish seventh. Chan, however, was able to take fifth in the 60-meter hurdles final in 8.62 seconds for her best time of the meet.

“[Chan] didn’t run quite as well as she did at [the conference meet], but her time in the finals was one of her best times ever,” Thomspon said. “She was a little sick going into the weekend, so she had to deal with that as well. She had a great season.”

Redshirt junior Aziza Chigatayeva was the last of the Bearcats to post a substantial finish on the overall. The Bearcat took third in the 31-competitor field of the 3000-meter run, clocking in at 9:26.36.

In both the men’s and women’s triple jump, the Bearcats posted their best performances of the weekend. In the women’s side, Joyner managed to take eighth place, but her compatriot, graduate student Brittany Korsah, nearly won the event with her jump of 40-10.25 feet. Her second-place finish was narrowly bested by a margin of a quarter of an inch from the gold-winning competitor.

“The triple jumpers all did well,” Thomspon said. “[Korsah] jumped out of her mind. That’s the best she’s ever jumped, and she hadn’t triple jumped well in a couple of years … [Joyner] was jumping extremely well but kept fouling. The mark that she got eighth with, she was jumping much better than that.”

The men’s team took fourth and fifth place in the triple jump on Sunday. The fourth-place spot was occupied by junior Marcrene Jeannot, who jumped a distance of 48-08.25 feet in the event. Sophomore Marcus Johnson followed up in fifth, hitting the pit at 48-06.75 feet on his fourth attempt.

“[Jeannot and Johnson], they jumped pretty well,” Thomspon said. “Both of them were having trouble with their approach and getting on the board. Despite that, they still jumped really well. Jumpers, and athletes in general, when their average performance ends up being close to their best performances, that’s when you know they’re ready to break through. I’m looking forward to outdoors.”

Neither redshirt senior Dan Schaffer nor redshirt senior Emily Mackay made an appearance at the meet over the weekend. Thompson said they did not compete because Schaffer is beginning to focus on the outdoor competition, while Mackay is gearing up to compete at the NCAA indoor tournament next weekend.

Mackay is set to compete at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12. The meet is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama.