The Syracuse track and field team had a productive weekend at the New York Relays on Randall’s Island.

Six women placed in the top three for individual events and three of those women won gold medals. The men produced two third-place finishers.

‘The weather was kind of depressing,’ said sophomore Justin Frazier. ‘I wasn’t too pumped up for the race.’

In that weather, Sheron Mark won the triple jump and placed third in the long jump. Katie Simon and Brittany Pryor were also gold medalists in the steeplechase and shot put, respectively.

Alisha Ricardi took second in the pole vault and Sarah Bentley was one place behind her teammate. Kathleen Sanborn finished third in the 1500-meter race.

Mark and teammates Jenna Grimaldi and Jillian Drouin have a shortened week of practice, squeezing in another competition Thursday and Friday at the Penn Relays. Mark will compete in the long jump and Grimaldi and Drouin will enter the high jump.

Dan Pribula and Joey Ziminsky were the only members of the men’s team to have a top three finish over the weekend. Pribula took third in the shot put and Ziminsky placed third in the steeplechase. Ziminsky ran by himself, though, as he was 12 seconds behind the runner-up and 17 seconds away from the finish line when the winner crossed. In the women’s race, Simon didn’t have anyone to chase. She easily stretched the field and finished 24 seconds ahead of her closest competition.

The men will not travel to the Penn Relays, choosing to rest for the Big East Championships the following weekend. Two potential high scorers for the men are nursing injuries and need that extra time to rest. Junior distance runner Chris Muldoon hasn’t run in several weeks and said he’s just trying to get ready for the conference meet. He said the distance medley relay team had thoughts of trying to break the school outdoor record at Penn, but changed their minds when the time got closer.

Triple jumper Josh Johnson has a hamstring problem that jumps coach Enoch Borozinski said just needs some time to heal. Johnson qualified for the Penn Relays, but Borozinski doesn’t want to take any chances.

‘I’d be punching myself in the face if he got injured again,’ he said.

Frazier posted a 52.85 clocking in the 400 meters, a time he said was better than he expected. He had not run a 400 recently and said he wasn’t extremely motivated for the race.

‘I ran better than I thought I would,’ Frazier said. ‘Everyone did pretty well considering the conditions.’

Published on April 24, 2005 at 12:00 pm