The women's track and field team traveled west over the weekend to Springfield, Mass., for the fourth annual Yellow Jacket Invitational. Despite cold and windy conditions, and a meet that lasted well over 10 hours, the Jumbos took second overall with 75.5 points (first among Div. III schools). The team finished behind Div. I University of Vermont, who obliterated the field with 177.5 points.
Sophomore Alexis Harrison ran 12.61 seconds in the 100-meter dash into a 2.2-mph headwind to take fourth in the competition. It was a time comparable to her run at the Snowflake Classic, when she ran a time of 12.37 in the same event with a 2.8-mph tailwind.
In the 400-meter dash, long sprinter junior Lauren Gormer just missed scoring with her time of 61.44. The mark was 0.05 seconds off of her personal best for the event (61.39), which she set outdoors last year at the Fitchburg State Spring meet.
In the 100-meter hurdles, sophomore Marilyn Allen, who this winter broke the school record in the 60-meter hurdles with her sub-nine-second time of 8.99, ran 15.15 for sixth place. Senior Jana Hieber ran her specialty, the 400 hurdles, winning with a time of 62.19. She came back later in the day to anchor the winning 4x400-meter relay in 4:10.27 and also took third in the long jump with her 17' 8 3/4" clearance.
The meet also gave the mid-distance women another chance to translate their speed onto an outdoor track. Sophomore Sydney Smith led from the gun in the 800, going out in a strong-66 second first 400 meters. She ultimately paid for the speedy first lap, though, as she was passed by Vermont junior Sydney Durand in the final 50 meters. However, the fast pace allowed her to hang on for a new personal best time of 2:17.63.
Senior Grace House took home her second-fastest time ever, and ninth place overall, with her 2:26.01 finish. In the absence of two of the team's top runners (sophomore Audrey Gould and senior Abby Barker, who both ran at the Princeton Invitational this past weekend) senior Laura Peterson and sophomore Olivia Beltrani took fifth and sixth in the 3000-meter steeplechase with times of 11:53.19 and 11:53.45.
"My initial strategy was to see if other people would take the race out and lead," Smith said. "I knew I was risking burning out on the second lap by taking the lead on early. But I was confident I could fight through the wind and use it to my advantage on the homestretch."
In the throws, senior Robin Armstrong took home 13 points overall for the Jumbos, as she placed second in the hammer throw with a distance of 146' 11" and fourth in the javelin (112').
"My throws went slightly farther in the trials, which gave me the opportunity to try out more aggressive tactics in the finals," Armstrong said. "As a squad, the more repetitions we can get in practice, the more consistent our throws will become. If we can all learn to throw well in a meet situation, we will do well leading up to NESCACs."
Smith also indicated that overall, the team was pleased with their performance.
"Given the conditions, we had some solid performances across the event groups," she said. "The bad weather gave us a chance to practice racing in poor conditions, which can only benefit us going forwards."
After another week of training, the Jumbos will return to action with their full force at the George Davis Invitational at UMASS Lowell next Saturday. Although this meet will be important, it pales in comparison to the NESCAC Championships, which are only a few weeks away.
"Every point at NESCACs is going to be huge," Smith said. "We need to be prepared to find an extra gear in every event we compete in to get the job done. If we show up and perform at the level we expect from ourselves, I believe we can leave Colby [the site of this year's NESCAC meet] as NESCAC champs."
