Both the men’s and women’s track and field teams took to the track Jan. 26-27, resulting in great success. On Jan. 27, both teams participated in the 20th Annual Bison Open & Multi competition at Gerhard Fieldhouse. The Penn State National Open was also on the schedule for the Bison.

In the Bison Open, the men’s track and field team dominated in both the long jump and the triple jump. Steve Bolger ’19 won the long jump with a leap of 22-08. Reggie Harris ’19 won the triple jump with a leap of 46.50.

On the track, Jeffrey Brown ’20 outran the competition, coming in first for the 60 meter sprint. He recorded a time of 6.89 in the short distance race.

The women’s team saw similar success in the home meet. Natalie Waterhouse ’19 won the 400 meter race, beating the other 48 runners in the field with a time of 58.94.

The Bison women also performed well in the long distance races. The Bison represented three of the top four runners in the 1,000 meter run. Delaney Worth ’18, Kaitlin Ryan ’21, and Hope Beyer ’20 finished first, second, and fourth, respectively. Emma Dolen ’20 took the top spot in the mile with 5:13.94 to wrap up the meet.

As for the Penn State National Open, with tough competition to push the pace, the Bison showed impressive performances. On the men’s side, Alex Dessoye ’21 and Robert Dessoye ’21 placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 500 meter sprint. Nick Pacelli ’20 finished in second place in the 1,000 meter run with a time of 2:29.78.

However, the story of the weekend occurred on the women’s side. Christine Bendzinski ’18 set the school record for the mile with a time of 4:44.55. Bendzinski beat her previous record of 4:45.36 by slightly under a second.

“Going forward, my main focus is staying healthy through this week for the invitational on Saturday. Coach and I have been talking, and I’m running the mile again, so with a race under my belt I’m hoping to get an even faster time,” Bendzinski said. “So I’m excited about the prospect of that, but whatever I do I hope to go into the race calm and confident, and this weekend definitely helped with that.”

Up next on the schedule for the Orange and Blue is the the Scarlett and White Invitational, held in Boston from Feb. 2-3.