Despite a solid overall performance at the Division III New England Championships at Smith College this past weekend, the women's track and field team fell just short of its top-three aspirations, finishing in fourth with 64 points. Williams came in first place with 143, edging MIT by a single point. Third place belonged to Bowdoin with 72 points.
"We were thinking, on a great day, we were shooting for a top-three finish," said junior thrower Kelly Allen, who won the shot put event for a second straight year. "Obviously that didn't happen, and I think part of that can be attributed to being physically and mentally fatigued. We had a lot of success this year, but the season definitely took its toll."
The Jumbos were able to fight through some of that fatigue to claim two victories, in the pole vault and shot put, as well as five other top-three finishes.
As has been the case all year long, Allen led the team in points, earning 18 by winning the shot put with a throw of 42-5 1/4 and finishing second in the weight throw with a toss of 57-4 3/4. Senior RonkeOyekunle also stepped up in the shot put, throwing a distance of 40'9 3/4 to take third place.
While the throwing events have been the team's strong suit all year long, the Jumbos knew they were going to need to accumulate points in other areas as well.
Senior Heather Theiss continued her impressive season, winning the pole vault competition with a jump of 11-11 3/4. Over the course of the year, Theiss has racked up five top-five finishes, including two first-place finishes.
While Allen has garnered much of the attention with her record-breaking performances, Theiss has consistently provided the team with key points.
"Twelve feet has been a little bit of a barrier for me all season," Theiss said. "I've only jumped it once before in a meet, and my difficulty has been transferring my practice performance to meets. The key was that I had no misses, as I tied another girl who had a miss."
The Jumbos entered the weekend aiming for the top three, but they came up eight points short of Bowdoin's third-place total.
"We were somewhat disappointed with the final result," Theiss said. "It was a little bit of a blow to come in fourth."
Still, there were certainly some bright spots, including sophomore Jana Heiber's third-place performance in the 600 m with a time of 1:37.67. Senior Nakeisha Jones also grabbed a third-place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 37-11 1/2.
Two relay squads rounded out the Jumbos' top-five finishes for the day. The 4x800-meter relay, consisting of freshman Lauren Gormer, sophomore Laura Peterson, junior Anya Price and senior Sarah Boudreau came in third with a time of 9:35.68. Meanwhile, the DMR team of freshman Lindsay Rogers, sophomores Madeline Carey and Colleen Flanagan and Senior Grace Perry placed fifth, finishing in 12:47.73.
Now, with Div. III New Englands behind them, the Jumbos will shift to a more individual focus for the remainder of the championship season.
"[New Englands] was our team focus," Price said. "Now, individuals will try to improve their marks over the next few weeks to prepare for nationals."
This weekend, the Jumbos will head to Boston University for the third time this year for All New Englands, where they will take on Div. I, II and III teams from throughout the area. The following two weekends, select team members will travel to New York for the ECAC Championships and then Iowa for the NCAA Championships.
