May 4, 2008

Complete Results

Moon Township, PA - The women's track & field team used event wins by senior Samantha Snukis (St. Clair, PA/Nativity BVM), junior Alaina Alfano (East Hanover, NJ/Hanover Park) and freshman Mishelle McNamara (West Covina, CA/West Covina) along with a bevy of outstanding performances to stun the conference with a fourth place finish at the Northeast Conference (NEC) Championships. The lady Seahawks were picked to finish eighth in the pre-season coach's poll.

Snukis brought home the gold in the 800m run with a 2:15.03 run that was more than a second faster than the closest competitor and over two seconds better than her preliminary time in the first day of competition. The senior also scored in the 1500m with a fifth place finish, clocking in at 4:49.85.

Alfano did her best in the triple jump where she leapt an ECAC qualifying mark of 12.03m, good for first place in the event. She also took fifth place in the 100m hurdles finals with a time of 14.84. This performance bested her preliminary time of 15.56 set on Saturday.

McNamra rounds out the first place finishers for the Green & White in the pole vault where she lifted herself 3.45m.

With the wins, Snukis, Alfano and McNamara qualify for the ECAC Championships and the NCAA Regionals. This is the first time in program history that the Wagner Track & Field team will have three representatives at the NCAA Regionals.

Junior Brecken Drager (Loomis, CA/Del Oro) had a long distance day but was able to muster out enough energy to score in both the 1500m and the 5000m runs. The California native used her speed to take third in the 1500m, clocking in at 4:42.34 and fifth in the 5000m run at 18:20.01. Drager was not the only distance runner to place among the best of the conference as sophomore Jenna Naglier (Stony Point, NY/North Rockland) placed seventh in the 3000m steeple chase with a time of 12:13.37.

In the 400m hurdles, senior Jessica Ford (Neptune, NJ/Red Bank Catholic) went the distance for 1:04.61 performance, good for third place. She is joined by fellow senior Gwendolyn Moore (Teaneck, NJ/Teaneck) who took fifth in the javelin with a 38.72 throw.

Rounding out the top performances for the Seahawks is senior Jocelyn Ford (Neptune, NJ/Red Bank Catholic) who placed eighth in the 400m at 58.32 and the women's 4x100's fourth place finish in 58.59.

On the men's side of the action, the team finished tenth with the help of Bryan Pagliuca (Ronkonkoma, NY/Connetquot) who tied his season high in the high jump with a 1.95m performance.

The men's team was riddled with injuries including key sprinter Coleman Edmond (Kingston, NY/Harmony Prep MI) who qualified for the 100m and 200m dashes in day one of competition but did not compete in the finals due to a strained hamstring sustained in the men's 4x100m relay. James Johnston (Middle Island, NY/Longwood) was also forced out of the 3000m steeplechase due to injury while junior Brian Halling (Amherst, NH/Souhegan), who leads the team in the 5000m run this season, was also not medically cleared to compete.

Now that the regular season is over, the Seahawks shift their focus to the ECAC/IC4A and NCAA Regional qualifiers who are looking to face the nation's top athletes in the coming weeks.

Along with her ECAC and NCAA Regionals qualifying mark in the triple jump at the NEC Championships, Alfano will head to the NCAA Regionals with her 6.00m qualifying mark in the long jump on April 12. Moore's 42.81m throw in the javelin at the University of Virginia is good enough to send her to the ECAC Championships. Snukis and McNamara round out the women's post season performers with their NEC Championships performances.

The men's 4x100m relay team is locked up for the IC4A Championships with their qualifying run at the VCU Invitational on March 15. Edmond qualified for the IC4A Championships in the 100m dash earlier in the season, but it remains unclear whether or not he will be healthy enough to compete on May 15.