The Fairleigh Dickinson men's and women's indoor track and field teams competed at the New York City Gotham Cup, held at Armory Track and Field Center, in New York.
In the 400-meter dash, Lordess Shabazz placed 13th with a time of 59.70, while Christine Taylor was 17th (1:00.23). Hawa Massaquoi placed 31st in the 500-meter (1:25.10).
Lena Kraus placed seventh in the 5000-meter run with a time of 19:20.90. Taryn O'Connor threw a mark of 13.38 meters in the shot put to place fourth and took 10th in the weight throw (13.25m). Dwanya Freeland took eighth place in the shot put with a throw of 12.14 meters.
On the men's side, Zacharia Ahmed (Hightstown, NJ/Hightstown) had a personal best in the seeded section of the men's shot put with a mark of 15.48 meters to win the meet. He was just 12 cm meters shy of the IC4A qualifying mark. Nik Berisha (Bronx, NY/Mount St. Michael) had a throw of 13.65 meters in the same event to place 6th.
The men's 4x800-meter relay team of Amarouch, Nico Stabile (Totowa, NJ/Passaic Valley), Weymour Johnson (Queens, NY/Springfield Gardens) and Robert Cherkis came in fifth with a time of 8:12.44. Stabile placed 11th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:00.09, while Johnson placed eighth (1:58.76).
In the weight throw, Berisha placed eighth overall with a throw 14.61 meters, while Ahmed Amarouch was 12th (14.04 meters). Michael Telesford (Queens, NY/ENY Transit Tech) threw a mark of 13.40 meters for 13th place. In the 60-meter, Reyon John (Buccoo, Trinidad & Tobago/Singnal Hill) took 11th place (7.07).
Amarouch took second in the 1000-meter with a time of 2:27.83, which qualifies him for IC4A competition.
The Knights are back in action at the Great Dane Classic on January 22.
