Syracuse distance runners open outdoor season at Raleigh Relays
Syracuse track and field’s distance runners opened their outdoor season at the Raleigh Relays on Thursday and Friday. Ike Wood | Asst. Photo Editor
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Syracuse track and field’s distance runners opened their outdoor season at the Raleigh Relays, hosted by NC State, on Thursday and Friday. The Orange saw one runner set a personal best and two runners win their event sections.
Junior Beatriz Fernandes ran a personal record time of 17:21.83 in the women’s 5,000-meter and won Section 1 by 12 seconds Friday. Freshmen Carmen Luisi and Gretta Johnson competed in Section 4, coming in second and seventh, respectively. However, Luisi and Johnson outplaced Fernandes on the overall timesheet.
On Thursday, freshman Charles Guerrera crossed the line first in Section 4 of the men’s 5000-meter race. Guerrera placed 47th overall with a 14:08.13. He finished far ahead of his teammates, Tristan Thurneysen and Asher Danielson, who both didn’t make the top 150.
Junior Ruben Rojas Betanzos and Sophomore Connell Alford ran the longest event of the meet, the 10,000-meter. Betanzos had a photo finish against Eastern Kentucky’s Cosmas Kiprop and fell behind him by one-thousandth of a second to earn a 67th-place finish. Alford trailed Betanzos, coming in 79th.
Junior Julian Franjieh finished 18th overall in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 8:48.03. Sophomore Omar Alsaidi also ran the event for the Orange and placed 62nd with a time of 9:25.21.
Freshman Mackenzie Cook was SU’s lone runner on the women’s side of the 3,000 steeplechase. Cook managed to avoid last place on the timesheet by six seconds, running an 11:35.94.
The Orange will cross the continent next week to compete in the Stanford Invitational on April 3. Part of the team will remain in New York to compete in the Red Dragon Invitational the next day.
