School Records Fall As Loyola Opens Indoor Track & Field Season At Early Bird Open - Loyola University Chicago Official Athletic Site

Dec. 5, 2009

Normal, Ill. - Loyola opened its 2009-2010 indoor track and field season in style, setting four school records at the Early Bird Open hosted by Illinois State today. Two Rambler women posted record times on the track while a pair of Loyola men established new records in the field.

With its distance runners still rounding into track form after the recently completed cross country season, the Ramblers' squad was comprised, primarily, of sprinters, jumpers and throwers and the group responded with some terrific individual performances.

Junior Nicolle Noelliste and sophomore Brianna Walker were the record-setters on the track. Noelliste's time of 9.00 in the 60m hurdles earned her a third-place finish at the meet while Walker set a new school mark in the 60m dash, covering the distance in a brisk 7.82.

While the female duo excelled on the track, seniors Erik Hernandez and Michael Jarman were taking care of things in the field. Hernandez finished second in the shot put with his record toss of 16.9m (55'5.5'') while Jarman set his new mark in the weight throw with a throw of 18.56m (60'10.75'').

Elsewhere in the field, on the women's side, sophomore Natalie LeFlore took fifth place in the long jump with a leap of 5.09m (16'8.5'') while Jordan Rohfling and Amelia Games each had solid showings in the shot put and weight throw events. Rohfling came up two inches shy of her personal best in the weight throw, finishing fourth with a heave of 14.65m (48'0.75''), and took seventh in the shot put (11.24m, 36'10.5''). Games, in her collegiate debut, finished seventh in the weight throw (12.2m, 40'0.5'') and eighth in the shot (10.26m, 33'8'').

Moving to the track, Loyola was well represented in the 800m run, with sophomore Sophia Holy leading a trio of LU runners. Holy took sixth place in 2:27.47, three spots ahead of senior Tiffany Johnson (9th, 2:29.29). Senior Julia Higgins rounded out the contingent with a time of 2:40.34.

Several men's runner also competed on the track, led by freshman Declan Murray, who finished fourth in the mile run with a time of 4:34.46. Seven Ramblers were part of the field for the 800m run, with sophomore Peter Grimson leading the way (6th, 1:58.82). Junior Ramunas Stanciauskas paced the rest of the group, which finished 8th through 13th in the race. Stanciauskas finished in 2:09.37, ahead of Dennis Kott (2:09.64), Mike Wetzel (2:10.77), Adam McCurdy (2:10.95), Tom Andreoni (2:10.98) and Ricky Headrick (2:11.33).

Both genders also put forth a strong showing in the relays. Loyola's women's squad took second in the 4x400, edging out Saint Louis with a time of 4:07.27. Loyola's men's A team took second by fractions of a second, as its time of 3:23.88 was 0.46 behind champion Illinois State. The Rambler B team finished a respectable fourth in 3:34.75.

The track and field teams take six weeks off to train before beginning the season in earnest on Jan. 15, 2010 at the Notre Dame Opener.