Track and Field Wraps Up At Princeton and Bucknell

Friday, April 12

Princeton, NJ

Army West Point

Larry Ellis Invitational

Photo by: Lynn Fern

Track and Field Wraps Up At Princeton and Bucknell

April 14, 2024 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point track and field team was split up this week between Princeton and Bucknell.

Luke Griner brought home the win in the men's 800m at 1:48.03 in a race he led wire-to-wire. He currently ranks 16th in the NCAA East Region. Over at Bucknell Canyon Hall took the crown in the decathlon with 6609 points which is the fifth best in Army history.

Louisa Diamond showed out in the women's 10k, running the second best time in program history at 34:57.56 to win the event. On the men's side Marc Baroncini, Erick Lara, and Anthony Diaz all placed in the top 10.

Next up for Army is another split weekend with some of the team going to the Virginia Challenge and some going to the Bucknell Team Challenge.

COACHES CORNER

We split our team this weekend with half the team competing at Princeton and the other half at Bucknell. The majority of the distance runners went to Bucknell to take advantage of the fast times usually associated with this meet and the distance carnival under the lights on Saturday night. We sent the majority of our speed and power athletes to Princeton.

On Friday at Princeton, we had a number of good competitive efforts and one winner on the day. Luke Griner took home the 800 meter title in a wire to wire win (1:48.03) that was impressive to watch. He took the race from the gun and was never challenged. He finished the race with a strong last 100 meters and looked as good as he has looked all year. His winning time puts him 16^th on the NCAA East regional list and is a good mark for early April. Luke has been building fitness since the end of the indoor season and is just now reaping the benefits of all of the hard work he put in during the month of March. He will be a force to reckon with in May at the NCAA preliminary meet if he continues his aggressive attacking style.

The Bucknell meet also got going on Friday with the start of the combined events (Decathlon, Heptathlon). Canyon Hall brought home the first decathlon title of his young career here today with his 6609 point total. He has been building toward a significant personal best throughout the entire year so it was a satisfying outcome for him. He improved his personal best by (505 points ) and is now ranked #5 on the army all time list. He is a very good day 2 decathlete and that is where he caught and passed the field. There is a lot of development that comes in that event and we are seeing that development now as Canyon has steadily improved in his technique, his speed, and his strength.

The distance carnival at Bucknell took center stage for us on Saturday night. We had been buffeted with strong winds and overcast skies most of the day but in the late afternoon the winds calmed down and the conditions proved to be excellent for distance running as we moved under the lights. We had pointed to this evening meet for our 10k men and women since the beginning of the season and the delivered some outstanding performances. In the women's race, Louisa Diamond started out conservatively and held a comfortable spot in the top 10 of the race. At the midway point, she started to move up and by the 5 mile mark she had caught up to the leader and raced home to victory from there. Her winning time of 34:57.56 vaulted her to #2 on the Army all-time list. That performance is impressive but even more so when you consider that this was the first 10K she had ever run. She has had a terrific first year in our program and continues to impress with not only her versatility but her competitive instincts. In the men's 10k, we got 3 top 10 performances from Marc Baroncini (#7, 29:20.00), Erick Lara (#8 29:26.30), and Anthony Diaz (#9, 29:27.37). Those guys have been consistent performers for us all year long and they each put together a great race tonight.   Erick is a veteran performer in our program and he showed great competitive instincts tonight but that is nothing new. Marc and Anthony were running the first 10k of their lives tonight. They ran with great poise and discipline and although their results are historically good in our program, I think the reality is that those two guys will run faster when they get more experience. On the whole, I thought we had a really good weekend. Both of our teams are continuing to put up great marks as we build toward the conference championship.