Junior team captain Paul Clarke and freshmen Daniel Pagan, Feguy Magnan and Joshua Beausil finished their heat in a time of 3:25.73 to grab the win, completing the day with the 26th-best time overall in the 4x400s at the prestigious annual event.

Clarke hit the track two hours later alongside Magnan, Pagan and freshman Matthew Nieves of Bishop Ford High School in the College Men’s Sprint Medley Championship of America Invitational, clocking in at 3:34.31 for the 17th-best time in the field.

That marked more than a 4-second improvement over the time Clarke and some of his since-graduated teammates posted in 2017.

“Having ran at Penn Relays before in high school definitely helped their confidence to showcase their talents on the track,” said Clarke of his younger, but fast-improving teammates. Feguy and Daniel definitely pushed their limits even though they had a significant gap between them and the opposing team in our heat for the 4x400m relay, which is sometimes hard to do.

“Training with these guys every day, I know the kind of mentality they have and drive to be better,” he added. “I thought Matthew ran a good 800-meter leg in our SMR. This shows the kind of competitors that we are bringing to the team.”

That competitive spirit should be at an all-time high in Maryland this weekend, when the Terriers try to grab a conference crown for the men’s outdoor team.

“We will get better as long as we put in the work and be ready to compete at a top level like our mentality was this weekend,” Clarke noted.

“Now we need to focus on Northeast Championships and doing even better where it really matters for us. The team is growing and building that mindset that no matter how small of a school we are, we’re gonna bring it each and every day.”

Mills, who ran track for the Terriers before graduating from the Remsen Street school in 1998, likes the mentality of the Terriers heading into the NEC, which will feature several head-to-head showdowns with perennial track and field powerhouse and archrival Long Island University Brooklyn.

“I think [this weekend’s performance] leaves them in the perfect mind frame,” he said.

Of course, the Blackbirds were doing their thing at Penn Relays as well.

Senior standout Kareem Roberts grabbed a second-place tie in the high jump with a leap of 2.16 meters, or nearly 7.1 feet, while the team of Ernest Agyeman, Kwesi Henderson, Caleb Williams and Sean Sinclair finished fifth in the 4×100 Eastern relay with a time of 41.43.

The LIU ladies track squad also scored some quality results at Penns, coming in second in the sprint relays with a time of 3:56.10 behind the efforts of Ashley Blackwell, Toni Glatz, Shantae McDonald and Eugenie Hue.

* * *

The Brooklyn College men’s tennis team, which made an impressive run through the first two rounds of the CUNYAC Championships, finally saw its season end Sunday afternoon at the United States National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.

The Bulldogs, who went 7-6 overall this year, their best finish to a season since 2008, suffered a five-sets-to none loss to top-seeded Baruch in the semifinals.

Baruch advanced to Wednesday’s championship match against No.2 seed Hunter College, which defeated No. 3 College of Staten Island in Sunday’s other semifinal match.

The Bearcats took all three doubles matches before winning straight set shutouts in No. 5 and No. 6 singles to win the day against BC.  

Bulldogs freshmen Justin Vasquez and Rohan Mathur continued to show promise, playing close matches that would not be completed once Baruch closed the match out by taking all three doubles matches and scoring wins in No. 5 and No. 6 singles.

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