NEW YORK/STATEN ISLAND — The New Jersey City University men's and women's track & field programs sent contingents of athletes to both the Ramapo College Opener at the New York City Armory and the NYC Gotham Cup at Ocean Breeze on Friday, Jan. 19. Senior Jaime Tlatelpa (Jersey City, N.J./University Academy Charter) was the NJCU standout at Ramapo, while senior Jake Sisk (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) and sophomore Sirell Clark (Jersey City, N.J./University Academy Charter) stood out at Ocean Breeze.

On the men's side, Clark and Sisk were the only Gothic Knights to compete at Ocean Breeze. Sisk placed 16th out of 32 runners in the 1,000-meter event with a personal record time of 2:35.10 — the also now ranks third all-time in NJCU indoor history. Clark competed in the shot put and weight throw and placed 15th out of 27 and 12th out of 21, respectively. He registered a toss of 11.08 meters in the shot put and PRed in the weight throw with a toss of 12.08 meters, good enough to displace himself for fourth all-time in program history. 

At Ramapo in the Armory, Tlatelpa was 19th out of 38 finishers in the men's mile with a PR time of 4:35.26, which ranks second all-time in indoor program history — he owns six of the top 10 times in the record books, including second, third, fourth and fifth. Sophomore Juan Mercedes Cruz (El Seybo, Dominican Republic/Manville) made his season debut and PRed in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.24 to come in second out of 28 sprinters in the unseeded event. Senior Jason Garcia (Jersey City, N.J./Dickinson) notched a PR of 23.33 in the 200-meter dash to place 28th out of 68 runners.

For the women, throwers sophomore Shyanne Anson (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie) and rookie Lucy Pelaez (Jersey City, N.J./Snyder) competed at the Gotham Cup in the shot put and weight throw. Anson placed 15th in both events (8.35m SP and 9.37m in WT), while Pelaez PRed in the shot put (7.59m) and debuted in the weight throw (6.96m). At the Armory, senior captain Ayriana Young (Jersey City, N.J./McNair Academic) PRed in the 60m with a time of 8.24 to place second out of 14 sprinters in the unseeded event. Junior Reyanna Henderson (Pemberton, N.J./Pemberton Two) PRed in the 200m (27.80) and 400m (1:05.04).

Up Next:
Another contingent of Gothic Knights will be back in action next weekend, Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27, for the John Thomas Terrier Classic, hosted by Boston University.