Men's 1,600-Meter Relay Team Captures First Place at IC4A Championships

3/6/05 -- Long Island University's men's 1,600-meter relay team notched just its second victory in an IC4A Championship event and the women also competed at the ECAC Championships in Boston, Mass.

The men established a new school record by stopping the clock in 3:11.01. The squad consisted of graduate Ricardo Ordain (Brooklyn, N.Y.), senior Allandro Pierre (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and juniors Bryan Steele (Gaithersburg, Md.) and Michael Hillian (Voorhees, N.J.).

The new record bested that set in the preliminary race with LIU closing in 3:12.13. It is the Blackbirds first triumph at an IC4A event since Lamont Benjamin won the 55-meter dash in 1998.

Shaun Johnson (Ontario, Canada) closed fourth in the 55-meter dash in 6.45 seconds and fellow senior Ike Cartledge (Forestville, Md.) ended fifth in the 800-meter dash in 1:53.39.

The women's team was sparked by senior N'Kelle Anderson (Forestville, Md.), who closed 10th in the long jump with a leap of 18' 1.75". The 1,600-meter relay squad finished the preliminaries in 3:54.15 with the team made up of Anderson, sophomore Janel McFarlane (Kensington, Md.), freshman Crista Strachan (Grand Bahama, Bahamas) and sophomore Shaneqwa Warren (Roselle, N.J.).