GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Ave Maria Track and Field team had a successful weekend in Gainesville, taking home five gold medals in the Sun Conference Indoor Championships. It is the most first-place finishes the Gyrenes have gotten in a conference championship event in their short three-year history. Along with their five wins, the Gyrenes had one second-place finish and five third-place finishes for a total of 11 podium finishes. As teams, both the Gyrene men and women finished fourth in the conference.
Caitlyn O'Brien got the first gold medal for the Gyrenes on Friday winning the women's pentathlon. O'Brien set a new conference record in the pentathlon accumulating 3296 points. O'Brien outright won four of the five events in the pentathlon, placing first in the 60 hurdles with a time of 8.69 seconds, the high jump with a mark of 1.47 meters, the shot put with a mark of 9.97 meters and the long jump with a mark of 5.61 meters.
O'Brien wasn't done rewriting the record book. Just a few hours after winning the pentathlon, the junior won the long jump with a mark of 5.69 meters, setting another conference record. The previous Sun record was 5.58 meters, which O'Brien beat by 0.11 meter, which is just over four inches.
In between O'Brien's wins, Molly From topped the podium for the Gyrenes in the women's High Jump. From posted a mark of 1.52 meters, which is just shy of five feet.
Michael Long was the final Gyrene to win an event Friday, taking his bread and butter race, the men's 800 meter run. It was a tight race, but the sophomore got it done finishing with a time of 1:53.38. Long beat the second place finisher, Yanis Le Mouillour from Keiser, by 0.58 of second.
Long got back on top of the podium on Saturday, winning the lone event for the Gyrenes on the final day of competition. Long won the men's 1 mile race ahead of Le Mouillour in another tight race. The mile was even closer than the 800 meter, with Long posting a time of 4:17.25 and the Seahawk just 0.38 of a second behind him.
Long's win in the mile was the last first place finish for the Gyrenes, but Ave Maria found the podium in six more events. Individually, Samuel Paga placed second in the men's 3000 meter run, O'Brien placed third in the women's 60 meter hurdles, Alexis Medlik placed third in the 400 meter dash and Sofia Torres placed third in the 3000 meter run. In relays, Ave Maria placed third in the men's 4x400 meter relay and the women's 4x800 meter relay.
The men's 4x400 meter relay had a crazy finish. On the final transfer, the St. Thomas team dropped the baton, allowing Ave Maria to pass them and then edge out Warner by 0.17 of a second to get third place.
After two days of competition, both the men's and women's teams finished fourth in the conference.
With the completion of the Sun Conference Championships, the Gyrenes await to see who makes the field in the NAIA National Championships. Both Long and O'Brien earned qualifying marks throughout the regular season and are looking forward to making the trip to back to Gainesville to compete on the national stage.
