By: Cameron Levasseur and Zachary Carter
Quinnipiac women’s track and field rounded out the indoor season with a second place finish at the MAAC Championships at The Armory Track in New York City Sunday, its 135-point performance seven shy of Rider’s 142.
Playing second fiddle
Sunday’s runner-up performance was a familiar scene for the Bobcats. In fact, it was their fifth-consecutive second-place finish at the MAAC Indoor Championships. In four of the last five championships, they’ve come up just short to the now back-to-back-to-back champion Broncs, falling by 26.5 points in 2024, by 14 in 2023 and by 0.5 in 2020.
“I really don’t enjoy second place,” head coach Carolyn Martin said. “But I think this year probably opened the eyes of our athletes a little bit more, because we’re very close. And being in the hunt is something that I think is really exciting every year. That’s what makes it fun, that’s what makes it worth competing and makes it a championship.”
Sprinting ahead
Senior Rylie Smith continued her run of dominance in MAAC sprints by running an indoor conference record 54.32 in the 400m Sunday to win the event for the third-consecutive season. She beat Rider’s Hailey Palmer, the second-place finisher, by more than two full seconds.
“Riley is incredible,” Martin said. “She is kind of that rock that doesn’t really get flustered. She’s a kid that you can pretty much always count on performing very consistently, and she’s always been that way.”
Smith capped off her weekend with a second MAAC record, serving as the second leg of a 4x400m relay team with juniors Sydney Lavelle and Isabella Anzaldo and senior Alyssa Romagnoli. The group crossed the finish line in 3:45.62, seven seconds ahead of Rider.
In the short sprints, junior Nyasia Dailey set a program record Sunday with her first -place finish in the 60m. She ran a personal best 7.51 for the win, lowering the 7.53 mark the set in prelims the previous day.
Going the distance
Quinnipiac’s distance running is a staple of its program, hence three consecutive MAAC cross country titles. That prowess was no less evident over the weekend.
Junior Rachel St. Germain, who’s fifth-place finish at the MAAC Cross Country Championships in the fall helped the Bobcats claim victory on grass, took home the 5000m title on Saturday and finished third in the mile, earning 16 points for Quinnipiac.
Her classmate Sierra Gray finished the 5000m right on St. Germain’s tail, finishing 16:44, a 14-second personal best and a podium finish.
“(Rachel) absolutely just went after it in the 5k,” Martin said. “And having her teammate stick right on her was huge. The two of them executed a really great 5k knowing that the unseeded section that went before them went actually quite fast … They knew they had to really put in a good race effort. And they really executed well.”
In the 3000m, graduate student Alessandra Zaffina broke away from the field to win her first MAAC title in the event. An NCAA outdoor regional qualifier in the 3000m steeplechase in 2023, Zaffina stamped her mark on the event Sunday — minus the hurdles and water pits.
Zaffina was also a part of the Bobcats distance medley relay team of senior Weronika Lewna, sophomore Madelyn Durkee and junior Sophia Jones that earned 10 points with a 12:13 effort, four seconds ahead of second place Canisius.
‘That’s what makes champions’
Quinnipiac’s silver medal stings a bit more considering the disqualification of Anzaldo in the women’s 400m. In Anzaldo’s first four races this past weekend, she finished either first or second. She and Smith finished first and second respectively in the 200m prelims Saturday before capturing first and third place in the 200m Sunday for a 16-point addition to the team’s total. In the 400m prelims, they once again finished in the top two and had put themselves in prime position to capture another 18 points to draw closer to the Broncs.
“Izzy was on fire. She had a great, great day. We were very excited and proud of her,” Martin said. “She’s working very hard to jump into new levels.”
Smith did her part, securing first place, 10 points and a sparkly new MAAC record — but Anzaldo was disqualified. If she ran a clean race, repeated her success and finished second, the swing would have bumped the eventual second place finisher, Rider’s Palmer, down to third. Eight additional points would be tacked onto the Bobcats’ total and their hypothetical 143 points would have taken home the MAAC championship.
And yet, the possibility of “what if” does not weigh heavily on Martin. It is outweighed by her overwhelming pride for her sprinter’s perseverance.
“For her to come back after being DQ’d in the 400, (run) the 200 and win the 200, I think that’s what makes champions,” Martin said. “Being able to come back from a huge disappointment like that and come out on top, that’s what we talk about. It’s not always about the success that you have, it’s coming back from the failure.”
Room for growth
Martin remains undeterred, confident in her team’s skill, talent and mindset on their collective quest to capture an elusive MAAC championship. As the indoor season gives way for outdoor, there won’t be much alteration to the team’s daily life. If her athletes continue to do what they have been doing — putting each other first, holding each other accountable and embodying physical and mental wellbeing — Martin has no doubts the results will come.
“We really focus on trying to control all the variables that we can control as a team,” Martin said. “Making sure we’re staying focused and fueling properly and sleeping properly, taking care of each other and being good teammates, helping each other out in every way possible. We try to do that stuff all the time, so there’s not too much that we would fix in that…we need to continue to stay positive and continue to go after it.”
In Martin’s eyes, the recipe for success won’t change. There is team-wide potential, apparent in their ability to always finish near the top of the MAAC, but there is also room for growth.
“There’s definitely things that we could do better. I think not having any throwers definitely hurts us,” she said. “As a program, we’ve decided to really focus on the events that we’re really good at and we’re good at coaching, and I think we need to keep doubling down on the events that we’re really good at and that we can really exceed it.”
This Quinnipiac team has teetered on the precipice of first place countless times now. While it can’t change the past — the disqualifications, the injuries — it can only look ahead to the future.
“It’s been tough being second the last few years,” Martin said. “But we have a young group right now, and I think they are opening their eyes to realizing it’s right there.”
Back on the hunt
Quinnipiac still has a chance at team glory on the track in 2025. The Bobcats kick off their outdoor season at the Raleigh Relays at NC State on March 27, hoping to avenge this weekend’s second place finish by winning their first MAAC Championship on the track in May.
The kicker? The Broncs enter the spring back-to-back MAAC champions on the outdoor oval as well. The team who finished second in each of those meets? Quinnipiac, which came up 57 and 18 points shy of a title in 2024 and 2023, respectively. And for the second year in a row, Rider will also host the championship meet. So as the Bobcats aim to make history, all roads lead to Lawrenceville.
“I want to always be in the hunt for the win,” Martin said. “We’ll have that same expectation. I expect my athletes to show tremendous sportsmanship, character is really important for our team. So I want our team to not only be the best team out there. I want our team to have the best culture. I want our team to be the best leaders. I want our team to just be the best people.”
Quinnipiac produced four individual outdoor MAAC champions in 2024, each hoping to double down on their performances this spring.
Smith, now a three-time indoor 400m champion, is seeking her third-straight outdoor title in the event this spring. She won the 400m in 55.35 in 2024.
St. Germain may have won her first MAAC indoor title Saturday’s 5000m performance, but she announced her prowess in the event last spring, topping the field at Rider with a 16:56 mark.
And Lavelle, who podiumed in the 60m hurdles at The Armory, is the defending outdoor champion in the 400m hurdles, while the lethal 4x400m team of Smith, Anzaldo, Lavelle and Romagnoli will look for another relay crown.
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