For many runners, connecting stellar efforts in practice to race-day success can be difficult. Athletes can be in phenomenal shape and still struggle to reach new heights when the starting pistol fires. Workouts can be great and legs can feel fresh, but sometimes the races just do not come together.
This past weekend at the ECAC Div. III Championships, senior Amy Wilfert had no such issues.
Her performances in two races at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York City led the Jumbos to a second-place finish with 53.50 points, placing only behind The College of New Jersey, which took the team title with 58 points.
"Most of the people were really happy," senior tri-captain Kanku Kabongo said. "Some girls had some of their best performances. [Junior] Heather [Theiss] vaulted great and broke the record again, and [junior] Nakeisha [Jones] improved her provisional mark. The team as a whole performed well and people were generally pretty happy."
Wilfert led the way by anchoring the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) on Friday night and running the mile on Saturday. Her 1,600-meter leg of the medley was clocked at 4:50, a personal best. After receiving the baton well behind the lead pack, Wilfert steadily worked her way up through the field.
"We were in sixth when I got the baton, and we were a good chunk off of the pack," Wilfert said. "I knew we needed to run a fast time, but at the same time I also knew we needed to place well in order for our time to mean anything. Because so many teams from New England have national-caliber DMRs, we needed to beat as many as possible in order to qualify. I was so focused on catching up to people and didn't really notice how tired I was."
The relay — which along with Wilfert consisted of freshmen Laura Peterson and Jana Hieber and senior Kaylee Maykranz — placed second overall with a time of 11:52.87. Including the conversion used for banked tracks, their time translated to 11:55.37, seventh-best nationally. But for a team as young and inexperienced as this one, traveling to Nationals will be no easy task.
"At Nationals the race is going to be a lot different than the ones we've had so far this year," Wilfert said. "The race at ECACs was daunting enough for our relay, and the thought of qualifying seemed like a long shot. Laura is a tough girl and as long as she does what we know she can do then we will be totally fine. I have a lot of confidence in our team."
The next day, Wilfert came back with another strong run in the mile. She earned a second-place finish by running a personal-best 4:55.80. The converted time of 4:56.70 left her ranked 11th nationally, good enough to travel to Nationals.
"I am just going to focus on one race at a time," said Wilfert of the challenge of racing both the mile and the DMR at Nationals. "I'll just focus on qualifying for the finals in the mile first and recover as quickly as possible and run as hard as I can in the DMR right after. That will be pretty tough, but hopefully the next day I can come back and give everything I have left in the finals."
With Wilfert leading the way, other Jumbos followed suit. Jones triple-jumped a season-best 38-9 and placed second in the meet. The jump also leaves her ranked fourth in the country.
In addition to Jones, Kabongo also competed in the jumping events. Her triple jump of 37 1/4 placed her seventh in the meet and was also a provisional qualifying time. She had jumped better earlier this year, however, and remains ranked 20th nationally in the event. Kabongo also long jumped 16-09 1/4, good for 10th place.
Theiss set another personal best and school record in the pole vault with a height of 12 1/2. Theiss placed fourth in the meet, nailing her attempt on the first try. She is ranked 11th nationally, which, given that 10 to 14 athletes are typically awarded bids depending on the event, may not be enough to travel to NCAAs.
The 4x400-meter relay also ran well, placing third overall. Their time of 3:57.50 gave them another provisional qualifying time, but was not their best this season. The relay consisted of sophomore Alyssa Corrigan, Kabongo, junior Dayorsha Collins and Hieber.
"I don't think there was too much extra pressure," Kabongo said. "We were just as stressed as normal. We knew we were in the fast heat and there were certain people we had to beat. We did our best. I don't think we were worn down. We didn't run a slow time, but it just wasn't quite good enough."
This last-chance meet brought a lot of success for the Jumbos and they will look to carry that momentum going into the NCAA Div. III Championships at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, starting March 11. Official national qualifying lists will be posted early this week.
