For the second time this season, the women's track and field team split its squad, competing at the Valentine Invitational at Boston University on Friday and Tufts Invitational III at home on Saturday.
The Valentine Invitational is often a meet at which many athletes are able to give season-best efforts, especially in the running events. Because of the banked track and competition ranging from Div. III to Div. I, the intensity level is usually very high. In addition, athletes are looking to build momentum leading into the championship season.
Senior Amy Wilfert highlighted the running events by running a personal-best 17:26.88 in the 5,000-meter. With the bank, her time converts to 17:30.18 for national qualifying purposes, but still leaves her well under the 17:42 provisional standard. She placed 19th overall in the meet and was just six seconds behind the top Division III finisher, Ali Simone of Amherst.
"5Ks always feel awful, so it was really hard to tell if I was doing well," Wilfert said. "I had a really good pack to run with and even after the leaders took off there were still people coming back to me. I was just trying to move up throughout the race and stay close to the front of the pack."
In the triple jump, the Jumbos now have two provisionally qualified athletes. Junior Nakeisha Jones and senior tri-captain Kanku Kabongo both posted jumps that bettered the standard. Jones jumped 37-7 3/4, half a foot better than just two weeks prior, and Kabongo jumped 37-2 1/4. They were fifth and sixth, respectively, out of 32 entrants. In addition to her triple jump, Kabongo was seventh in the long jump with a jump of 16-9 1/4.
Jones hasn't quite hit the form of last season, but teammates expect her to round into shape as the important meets start to get underway.
"Nakeisha is a diehard competitor," Kabongo said, "She came back from being abroad and she has had less time to get into top form. She is really working hard doing the right things. Every week she is going to continue to get better. Hopefully by the time nationals comes around she'll be where she wants to be."
The Jumbos 4x400-meter relay posted a season-best with a time of 3:59.11. Adjusting the time for the bank leaves the relay barely outside the provisional qualifying standard, but the Jumbos hope that they can hit the standard in the weeks to come.
"Nationals is definitely the goal for the 4x4," Kabongo said. "We had a team set up, but then I made finals in the triple jump so we had to mess around with it a little bit. It wasn't exactly the team we had set up so it was a little bit hectic during the meet. We might still play around with the teams and everything. The team still ran great and we think a few more seconds can get knocked off."
At Tufts, the competition was much less intense and the Jumbos were able to take away five first-place finishes. Freshman Madeline Carey dominated the 3,000-meter race, a day after qualifying for Div. III's in the mile at BU. She led the race from start to finish, aiming at a specific time, not just a victory. The result was a time of 10:53.64, over 13 seconds faster than the 2nd-place finisher.
Most of the day's highlights came in the field events. Sophomore Kelly Allen continued her impressive streak of personal bests in both the weight throw and the shot put, in which she placed second and first, respectively. Her weight throw of 51-5 3/4 extended the school record by over two feet. Allen then won the shot put with a personal best throw of 41-7. Both of Allen's throws are three inches or fewer from provisional qualifying marks.
Junior Ronke Oyekunle's shot put effort of 41-1 3/4 earned her a second-place finish, just behind Allen.
A day after competing in the 4x400-meter relay at BU, junior Dayorsha Collins won the high jump with a jump of 5-4 1/4. She was four inches better than the second-place finisher. Fellow junior Heather Theiss grabbed her third straight win in the pole vault, while senior tri-captain Rosie Xia also got a victory with her jump of 34-03 1/2 in the triple jump.
The Jumbos will stay in Boston for the Division III New England Championship next weekend at MIT. It is the most important meet of the year in terms of team scoring, and the Jumbos expect to go all-out.
"We always want to win; that's just the way we think," Kabongo said. "We are going for the win in a big way."
