Mallard sets school record as SU wins 3 races at Duke, Friar invitationals
Elijah Mallard set a school record, capping a weekend in which SU picked up three wins at the Duke Invitational and the Friar Invitational. Daily Orange File Photo
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Elijah Mallard rewrote multiple school records in his 400-meter hurdles win on Saturday at the Duke Invitational. The Orange picked up two more wins in their doubleheader weekend at the Duke Invitational and Friar Invitational.
Mallard clocked a 49.97 Saturday afternoon for SU’s first-ever sub-50-second time in 400-meter hurdles, securing his third program record. The previous time of 50.55 stood since 1989. Mallard also broke the meet and facility records, which have been untouched for 11 years. His run places him tied for seventh in the nation on the 400-meter hurdle timing sheet.
Jamir Brown won the 110-meter hurdles by nearly four-tenths of a second after qualifying with the fastest time the previous day. Brown’s teammate, Isaiah Hayes, barely missed the podium by .04 seconds, placing fourth. However, the 13.99 run was Hayes’ first collegiate sub-14 second 110 hurdles.
At the Friar Invitational in Providence, freshman Luise Hitzbleck gave the distance squad its lone victory on Friday, winning the open women’s mile by over five seconds. Beatriz Fernandes secured a podium in the same race, placing third with a 5:06.64. Blake Parker trailed the podium sitters, running a 5:10.86 for 15th place.
Indie Wallace-Persaud rounds out the podium positions for the Orange, running an 11.67 to take home bronze in the women’s 100-meter dash. In preliminaries, Wallace-Persaud ran a personal-record time of 11.66. Sierra Joseph also put up a personal-best time of 11.96 in the preliminary round, but failed to qualify for the finals.
The Orange had other standout performances at the Duke Invitational, starting with the women’s 100-meter hurdles preliminaries. Peyton Rollins punched her ticket to the finals with a personal-best 13.52 and ended up being SU’s sole representative in that race. But, Rollins suffered a DNF in the finals.
Nicea Jones and Shayla Ford took on the women’s 400-meter, with Jones finishing fifth overall and Ford clocking in a personal-best time.
Ford and Joseph both earned their second personal best later in the day in the women’s 200-meter, running 24.70 for 24th place and 24.74 for 28th place, respectively. Wallace-Persaud led both of her teammates, placing fourth with a 23.85.
SU distance runners had their fair share of notable results at the Friar Invitational.
Tristan Thurneysen had a photo finish against Devin Moreau, with Thurneysen coming out on top by three-thousandths of a second to take eighth place in the open men’s mile.
Billie Frazier and Ivana Richards competed in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, finishing in fourth and sixth, respectively. Richards put a personal-record time of 1:06.79 on the timing sheet.
Mackenzie Cook and Omar Alsaidi joined the personal-best club in the women’s and men’s 3000-meter steeplechase. Cook crushed her previous time by half a minute, while Alsaidi had a 14-second improvement.
The invitational men’s and women’s mile both had a SU runner in the top 10. Carmen Luisi crossed the line in ninth in the women’s competition, while Charles Guerrera powered his way to sixth for the men.
Mia Hernandez tallied one more top-10 finish for the Orange on Friday, placing a comfortable ninth in the women’s 200-meter.
Syracuse is scheduled for another two-meet day next week. Runners will travel to either Charlottesville for the Virginia Challenge or New York’s capital for the UAlbany Spring Classic.
