The Tulane Green Wave track and field team had multiple top 10 program finishes across both weekend meets.
The Tulane Green Wave track and field team wrapped up a full weekend slate of competition at split sites, with some weather in Houston adding some drama to the monumental weekend for the Wave’s outdoor campaign across two meets, the Tom Tellez Alumni Invitational and the Bryan Clay Invitational. It’s been a storied weekend of competition for the program, to say the least. Despite a weather shortened meet in Houston on the final day on Saturday, Tulane came away from the weekend with four new all-time program marks.
Inclement conditions at the Tom Tellez Alumni Invitational forced them to cut the meet short, cancelling the men’s 200m that had five Tulane athletes slated to compete in it among other events. Despite the impact of weather, the Wave still made a splash on Saturday, highlighted by Sofie Groeninger signing her name in the program record book in top 10 all time in shot put. In the women’s shot put, Groeninger’s 14.04m mark moved her fourth on Tulane’s all-time leaderboard and was good for a fifth-place finish in the event. Sofia Caruso also competed for the Wave and came in 23rd with a mark of 9.41m.
Other highlights from the Invitational include Dumonteil Cabanas winning the women’s 400m hurdles with a time of 1:00.75. Marissa Gordon paced a trio of runners in the women’s 200m, placing 18th with a time of 24.69. in the women’s 4x100m relay, Bella Carroll, Brianna Brand, Cosette Fleury, and Gordon came in fourth with a 49.12 finish, which would be the final event in Houston before weather cut the meet short.
Meanwhile, out in California, the Wave had runners in seven different 1,500m races on Saturday to close out the final day of the Bryan Clay Invitational. Leading the performances out West was Jasper Newton in the women’s open B race, where Newton snuck in a top 10 program performance with a sixth-place finish of 4:28:77. Elena Liano-Rengel entered the program’s top five in the women’s invite, with a 4:23:61 time that is fourth all-time at Tulane and placed her 68th in the event. In the men’s invite, Gilbert Rono also made a splash to hit the program’s top five with a 3:45:02 finish that’s good for third in program history and a 73rd place finish.
The impressive finishes on the final days of both competitions bolstered the already impressive resume the Green Wave built this weekend in their outdoor campaign, highlighted by Silas Kiptanui breaking his own program record in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, and Cara Salsberry breaking her own program record in the hammer throw to win the event, and finish runner up in hammer throw with the second-best distance in school history.
The next action for the Wave will be on April 25 when they’ll head to Baton Rouge for the LSU Alumni Gold with some serious momentum.