ROCHESTER, NY – The Houghton University track & field teams closed out their regular season at the Cardinal Classic, which was hosted by St. John Fisher. Some of the throws events were contested on Friday, in which Anna McNamara and Kathryn Evans combined for four personal best performances. The rest of the events were contested on Saturday, in mostly rainy and gray conditions. Being that it is the week before the Empire 8 Championships, some of the athletes moved down in event distances to tune up and/or rest.
 
Alexandria Wisniewski led the women with an Empire 8 leading performance in the 400IH of 1:06.92. This also qualifies her for the All-Atlantic Regional Championships, which are later in May. Noelle Linenfelser led the charge in the 800m. She ran a personal best time of 2:28.33, which could be good enough to get into the 'hot heat' of the Empire 8 Championships next week. Hannah Siewert saw a big personal best in the 200m of 27.19. Only a handful of women have ever broken 27.00 in the 200m in program history. Finally, Hannah Heinl secured her spot in the Empire 8 Championships, jumping a personal best of 4.68m.
 
The men saw some great performances, starting out in the 10,000m run. Caleb Kasper paced Ben Allen and Sam Lyon to top 10 Empire 8 performances. Josh Brito saw a big breakthrough in the 400m, running a life-time personal best of 53.49. This is the 10^th fastest time in program history for the Division III era. Brennan Lewandowski continued his solid senior campaign, just missing a regional qualifying jump in the high jump of 1.91m. He will enter the Empire 8 Championships seeded 6^th in that event. Andrew Ryan jumped his second-best outdoor mark of 6.16m in the long jump, and will look to snab a podium spot at the Empire 8 Championships next week.
 
The Highlanders are back in action at Utica University on May 5^th and 6^th at the Empire 8 Outdoor Track & Field Championships.