Mighty Oaks Weekend Sport Recap

02/01/2016

The men's basketball and men's and women's indoor track team were in action this past weekend, Jan. 30-31.

The Mighty Oaks indoor track team participated at the competitive Brockport Invitational Jan. 30. The men's competition featured 17 schools, the women's competition featured 18 schools.

The men's squad finished 16th overall. Freshman Jake Finkelstein set a new school record in the shot put with a distance of 10.31m. Finkelstein's score earned him 38th place out of 60 participants. Senior Nick Giordano finished 12th among 40 runners in the 400m dash with a time of 53.54. Senior Dan McGraw finished 25th out of 66 runners in the 800m dash with a time of 2:06. The men's 4x400 relay team broke the ESF school record by 10 seconds with a time of 3:40. Their effort earned them 14th place out of 24 teams.

For the women, senior Andrea Szweczyk set a new school record in the 3,000m run with a time of 11:35 and 17th place out of 31 runners. In the distance medley relay, ESF finished third out of four teams with a time of 13:52. Freshman jumper Ji Ann Greenberg continued her strong performance in the triple jump, finishing in 15th place with a distance of 9.50m out of 20 participants.

The team travels to Utica College Feb. 6 to compete in the Pioneer's new, state-of-the-art indoor track facility.

In men's basketball, the Mighty Oaks dominated the Cannoneers of Pratt Institute, winning 76-49 Jan. 31.

ESF jumped out to an early 15-5 lead. Junior Jared Bard sparked ESF in scoring with seven quick points. ESF dominance on the glass and strong defense help build a 16-point lead, 26-10, with eight minutes remaining in the half. At the half, ESF led 39-20.

ESF opened the second half of action with a 13-5 run and built its lead to 52-25. After a couple quick turnovers by ESF, the Cannoneers were able to get within 14 points, forcing Head Coach Scott Blair to call a timeout. After the timeout, the Mighty Oaks responded with a three-pointer by freshman Andy Koch. The Mighty Oaks never looked back after that as they rolled to a 76-49 victory.

Bard led all ESF scorers with 15 points. Senior Ryan Caldwell had an all-around strong game with 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists and six steals. Freshman Justin VanDuLuitgaarden, in his first collegiate start, scored seven points and had five steals. His baskets included an emphatic breakaway slam dunk in the second half. With the win, the Mighty Oaks improve to 4-12 overall, 2-1 in HVIAC conference play.

The Mighty Oaks travel to New York City Feb. 6-7 where they will face two tough HVIAC opponents — Vaughn College and Berekley College.