Lions Head To The Armory For The Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge

Friday, January 24

New York, N.Y.

10:00 a.m.

Columbia

Columbia Challenge

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics/Mike McLaughlin

Lions Head To The Armory For The Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge

1/23/2020 1:12:00 PM | Track and Field

Live Results Watch (USATF.TV [$])Watch (NBC Sports Gold [$])Full Schedule (PDF)Full Heat Sheets (PDF)Tickets (Friday)Tickets (Saturday)

Madelyn Sessler gets things started for Columbia Track & Field, with the pentathlon on Thursday, Jan. 23.

NEW YORK – One final time in the 2019-20 indoor season Columbia Track & Field will take to The Armory in competition, this time as the host program for the Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge, set to get started today, Thursday, Jan. 23 and go through the weekend with the final events taking place on Saturday, Jan. 25.

HOW TO FOLLOW
Day One (Jan. 23): Live Stats | Watch (USATF.TV [$]) | Twitter (@ColumbiaXCTF)
Day Two (Jan. 24): Live Stats | Watch (USATF.TV [$]) | Twitter (@ColumbiaXCTF)
Day Three (Jan. 25): Live Stats | Watch (USATF.TV [$]); Watch (NBC Sports Gold [$]) | Twitter (@ColumbiaXCTF)

TWO WAYS TO WATCH: The first two-and-a-half days will be streamed on USATF.TV, with the first day's action of the heptathlon and pentathlon presented by USATF.TV On Demand. During the final day of competition, the day will begin on USATF.TV, but starting at noon, the broadcast will switch to NBC Sports Gold and the remainder of the event will be covered there.

TICKETS INFORMATION: Tickets for the Dr. Sander Invite are sold on a day-to-day basis and start at $32. A link to tickets for Friday's events can be found here and for Saturday fans can head here to get tickets for that day's collection of events.

SESSLER AND THE HEP: The lone two events that are going on day one of the Columbia Challenge is the pentathlon and four events of the heptathlon. For Columbia, that means junior Madelyn Sessler will take to the track tonight, Jan. 23, for the pentathlon, starting with the 60-Meter Hurdles at 5:30 p.m.

Sessler, who enters the event with a personal record score of 3,276 set at the Harvard Crimson Elite on Feb. 1, 2019, has already competed in a pentathlon this season, scoring a 3,128 to finish 12th at the Harvard Multi Meet on Jan. 10-11. In that event, Sessler recorded top five finishes in the 60H (third) and the long jump (fifth).

168th STREET ATTRACTS: The Columbia Challenge is an event that attracts teams from all around the country, with 11 states, three time zones and, when including Columbia, 20 programs represented at The Armory this weekend. Going from east to west, Columbia will be joined by Harvard, Brown, UCONN, Syracuse, UAlbany, St. John's, Iona, Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson, Penn, Princeton, Penn State, Duke, South Carolina, Ohio State, BYU and UCLA, meaning that there will be a high level of competition from across the country competing this weekend at The Armory.

JACK TOSSES: At the Dartmouth-Yale-Columbia tri-meet on Jan. 18, junior Jack Pihlkar tossed a PR mark of 61-10.25/18.85m to take first in the event. What made the toss impressive was that at the time, it was the 54th best performance in the country and best performance in the Ivy League. Since then, the mark has slipped to 57th, and he was passed by Michael Coppolino of Brown for the best Ivy League mark, but Pihlkar's toss still sits as one of the best in the Ivy League so far this season as it is still the second best performance in the league.

COLUMBIA PARTICIPANTS

DR. SANDER INVITATIONAL COLUMBIA CHALLENGE (JAN. 23-25)
New York, New York (The Armory)

Women's Multievents:
Pentathlon: Madelyn Sessler (Jr.)

Men's Track Events:
60-Meter Dash: Chris Balthazar (Fr.); Jahi Hernandez (So.); James Chung (Fr.); Karibi Hart (Fr.); Dante Miller (So.)
60-Meter Hurdles: Moe Abusway (Fr.)
200-Meter Dash: Hart; Balthazar; Hernandez; Brodie Holmes (So.)
400-Meter Dash: Gio Trejos (Fr.); Jemal Vaunado II (Jr.)
800-Meter Run: Jacob Caswell (Sr.); Ian Irish (So.); Nixon McKenzie (Fr.); Jackson Storey (Jr.)
One-Mile Run: Owen Bishop (Jr.); Aaron Breene (Jr.)
3,000-Meter Run: Pat Bayeux (So.); Dominic Dyer (Jr.); Kenny Vasbinder (Sr.); David Vorbachj (So.)
4x400-Meter Relay: (A) Balthazar, Hernandez, Holmes, Vasilis Kopanas (Jr.); (B) Trejos, Vaunado, Troy Martig (Sr.), Chung
DMR (4,000m): Breene, Holmes, Storey, Bishop, McKenzie, Caswell

Men's Field Events:
High Jump: Luke Ciarelli (So.); Nate Gramentine (Fr.); Ernest Robertson (So.)
Pole Vault: Will O'Brien (Fr.); Ben Poth (Jr.); Tiber Seireeni (So.)
Triple Jump: Daniel Igbokwe (Sr.)
Shot Put: Noah Johnson (Jr.); Matt Lange (Fr.)
Weight Throw: Hunter Hasley (Sr.); Johnson; Jack Pihlkar (So.)

Women's Track Events:
60-Meter Dash: Tessa Green (Fr.); Rachel Marsh (Fr.)
60-Meter Hurdles: Lauren Micham (Jr.); Carlita Taylor (Jr.)
200-Meter Dash: Green; Marsh; Micham
400-Meter Dash: Brianna Hodges (So.); Alexis Knight (Fr.); Iman Sule (Sr.)
800-Meter Run: Bianca Alonzo (Sr.); Alex Rodman (So.); Terri Turner (Jr.)
One-Mile Run: Emily Digman (Sr.); Linnaea Kavulich (So.); Rachel Kenny (So.); Angela Saidman (Fr.); Cassidy Williams (Fr.)
3,000-Meter Run: Fiona Danieu (Jr.); Allie Hays (Jr.); Samantha Marin (Jr.); Emily Rooney (So.); Serena Tripodi (Jr.); Katie Wasserman (Sr.)
4x400-Meter Relay: (A) Knight, Sule, Green, Taylor, Turner, Hodges
DMR (4,000m): Alonzo, Sule, Turner, Wasserman

Women's Field Events:
High Jump: Grace Campbell (Jr.); Anna Jordahl-Henry (Fr.); Julia Jordahl-Henry (Fr.)
Long Jump: Tiffany Bautista (Fr.); Casidy Cunningham (So.); Maryam Hassan (Sr.)
Triple Jump: Bautista; Hassan; Kali Hatcher (So.)
Shot Put: Cameron Downey (Jr.); Hailey Montgomery (So.)
Weight Throw: Downey; Kayla-Rae Gordon (Fr.); Gia Monachino (Jr.); Montgomery (So.)

FOLLOWING THE LIONS: Stay up to date on all things Columbia Track & Field by following the Lions on Twitter (@ColumbiaXCTF), Instagram (@columbiaxctf) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).