The women's track and field team entered the NESCAC Championships this Saturday at Bates College ready to clean house. They did just that, delivering a total of six wins and five additional top-three finishes in the 21-event, 10-team meet en route to a second-place finish.
"We're really proud of the team," senior co-captain Katherine Tang said. "This has been our focal point all season, to pull off what we did this weekend, and we went out and did it."
In total, the team scored 159 points, edging Middlebury's 157 points for top-two honors and trailing only Williams' 180.
"Williams has always been a very tough competitor, so we're happy to have beat out Middlebury and secured second," senior co-captain Anya Price said. "It was a good day. Everything worked out in our favor. I think we were able to score in just about every event, which is huge for us. We definitely made our presence known."
Freshman Christina Harvey started the Jumbos off by winning the 100-meter dash with a final time of 12.32 seconds, followed by a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.96 to give the team 15 early points.
Sophomore Jana Hieber, who won the 400-meter hurdles last spring, successfully defended her crown with a time of 1:02.83 after placing fifth in the 100-meter hurdles in 15.25 seconds. On the field, she also won the long jump event by clearing 18-1, giving her a total of 24 points for the event. Price wrapped up on the track by earning six points after placing third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:03.14.
On the field, the team also started the championship season strong. Senior Nakeisha Jones added another win for the Jumbos in the triple jump, hitting 39-1 1/4, and senior Heather Theiss claimed runner-up status in the pole vault by clearing 11-9 3/4.
Junior Kelly Allen won the discus with a throw of 158-3, setting a new school record and matching the third-best mark in Div. III competition this season. She also won the shot put with a toss of 41-4 1/2, placed second in the hammer throw with a mark of 158-10 and finished fourth in the javelin with a 113-1, giving the team a total of 33 points.
Junior Ronke Oyekunle backed Allen by placing third in the shot put, with her own toss going 40-1 1/2, while sophomore Robin Armstrong mustered a runner-up effort in the javelin with a throw of 114-1.
"Everyone was on top of their game," Price said. "Everyone was ready to give it their all, their 110 percent, and we just had a great attitude that showed in our performances.
Despite graduating two All-Americans, the team managed to finish one place higher than last year's third-place NESCAC result under head coach Kristen Morwick, a trend that could very well continue into next season.
"We're losing a lot of great seniors this year, but we also have a lot of promising freshmen coming in, so I think we'll be just as good next year if not better," Tang said.
With NESCACs out of the way, the team will now focus on the remainder of the postseason, beginning with next weekend's New England Div. III Championships and followed by the New England Open Championships, both of which will be hosted by MIT. After New Englands, the team will look to improve individual marks at the ECAC Championships at RPI and finish the year at the NCAA Championships in Claremont, Calif.
