This Week in Tartans History - March 29 - April 4, 2019
Posted: Mar 31, 2020

This Week in Tartans History - March 29 - April 4, 2019

With our 2020 seasons cut short, we are honoring our spring athletes with a look back at their many accomplishments during their time as Tartans. We hope you enjoy celebrating these past performances.

Men’s Tennis

The men’s tennis team, then ranked 15th nationally, played crosstown Division I foe Duquesne University and defeated the Dukes, 4-2, with the match played by Division I rules and to decision. The win was the first for the Tartans over the Dukes since the 2012-13 season as it snapped a six-match skid.

Carnegie Mellon earned all four of its points in singles play, with Sam Gibson clinching the win for the Cardinal and Gray with a 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (6) victory at sixth singles.

"Duquesne has been our friendly cross-town rival for as long as I can remember, stretching back to the days when I was on the other side of the coin competing against CMU," said head coach and Duquesne alum Mike Belmonte. "We love having the chance to compete against them multiple times a year, typically at their place in early February and then again at our place in April. This match was unique because we played on a weekday evening after classes, which I deliberately scheduled to help prepare us for our big home match against Division III rival University of Mary Washington a few days later.

"Historically, Duquesne is sharper than us at the beginning of the season and always competes hard, and as a result handed us a tough loss the first time around," added Belmonte. "We knew we would need to play much better when we saw them again, and the guys showed up with an extra chip on their shoulders and a desire to exact some revenge, which translated into a solid home victory for us late in the year."

 

Women’s Track and Field

The women’s track and field team hosted its annual quad meet and won the meet with 232 points. The Tartans swept four events while 2019 graduate Debarati Bhanja broke the 200-meter school record.

Highlights of the meet include:

  • Valerie Reiling winning the 400-meter dash and placing second in the 1,500-meter run
  • Leah Kendrick leading a sweep in the 100-meter hurdles followed by Autumn Hair and Joanna Baranowski
  • The 400-meter hurdles also saw a Tartans sweep with Baranowski placing first followed by Keegan Barone and Diva-Oriane Marty
  • Ally Tully winning the discus and placing second in the shot put
  • Kate Reilly placing second in the 800-meter run
  • Michelle Karabin finishing second in the pole vault
  • In the 3,000-meter run, Abigail Levine finishing second and Parvathi Meyyappan placing third
  • Emmalyn Lindsey finishing second in the steeplechase
  • The Tartans 4x400-meter relay team of Baranowski, Rose Ciriello, Reiling and Bhanja winning the event

 

Men’s Track and Field

The men’s track and field team hosted its annual quad meet and won the meet with 215 points after turning in 11 first-place finishes. The Tartans also swept four events while Bram Miller and Josh Kalapos broke school records in the discus throw and 3,000-meter run, respectively.

Highlights of the meet include:

  • Bram Miller winning the discus and shot put while taking second in the hammer throw
  • Logan Stahl leading a sweep in the hammer throw
  • Josh Kalapos leading a sweep in the 3,000-meter run
  • Fred Dauphin, Matt Sloan and Justin Kiefel finishing one, two, three in the triple jump
  • The long jump also saw a Tartans sweep with Varun Narayan placing first followed by Kiefel and Dhroovaa Khannan
  • Hunter Hartshorne and Harry Branch-Shaw placing first and second in the steeplechase
  • Tyler Waters winning the 400-meter hurdles while Grant Johnson finishing second
  • The Tartans 4x400-meter relay team of Johnson, Graham Eversden, Isaac Mills and Desir winning the event

 

Women’s Tennis

The women’s tennis team, then ranked 10th nationally, won a pair of matches with the first a 7-2 victory at 27th-ranked Denison University. The Tartans followed with a 5-4 win over Division I Saint Francis University (Pa.) a day later in Pittsburgh at the Alpha Tennis and Fitness Club.

In the win over Denison, Janabelle Wu sealed the win with a 7-6 (3), 6-3 decision at third singles. Wu also accounted for a point in doubles play, as she teamed with Alex Iordache for the Tartans second point of the match. The Tartans win over the Red Storm came down to first singles. With the score knotted at 4-4, Carnegie Mellon’s Jaime Vizelman won a three-set match by the scores of 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 for the Tartan win. Vizelman trailed 5-4 in the second set before winning three straight games to force a third.

 

Men’s Golf

The men’s golf team played in the 36-hole Wynlakes Intercollegiate in Montgomery, Alabama, which was at the par 72, 6,979-yard Wynlakes Golf & Country Club. The Tartans placed sixth in the 15-team tournament that featured nine teams ranked in the top 25 nationally. Jason Li led the Tartans with a 148 after firing back-to-back rounds of two-over par 74 and placed tied for 12th individually in a field of 83 golfers.

 

Softball

The Tartans opened up University Athletic Association (UAA) play at Emory University, the eventual Division III runner-up. Although the Tartans were swept, Summer Faille launched her first career homerun in the opening game of the series. Emily Song went 5-of-6 in the final two games of the series, as she collected two RBIs and stole three bases over the stretch. Song ended the series hitting .545.