With senior leaders Leslie Crofton and Folake Aaron out due to sickness and injury, the women's track team needed leadership this past weekend. They got just that from senior co-captain Sarah Deeb.
On a day in which the Jumbos finally ran in decent weather, Deeb, who normally runs the 400, finished fourth in the 100 and 200 meter dashes at the non-scoring Springfield Invitational. She set a personal best of 12.54 seconds in the 100, well below the Div I. New England Championships qualifying time of 12.94.
Deeb also battered the 26.84 mark for the 200 with her 25.82. Although she qualified for both the 100 and 200 races, Deeb said she will most likely only run the 200 and 400 at the Div. I meet.
Junior Myriam Claudio also emerged at Springfield as a force to be reckoned with. "She had an outstanding day with two personal records; she really rose to the occasion," coach Kristin Morwick said. Claudio finished tenth with a 26.89 in the 200, also a personal best.
But that accomplishment was nothing compared to what Claudio achieved in the pole vault. She jumped 9'.25" feet, finishing second, and not only broke a personal record, but also crushed the school record, set in 1996 at a height of eight feet.
Joining Deeb and Claudio in the 200 was freshman Jessica Trombly, who finished right behind Claudio with a time of 26.95.
"This helps us out for the NESCACs," Morwick said of the three Jumbos who topped 27 seconds in the 200.
Trombly also qualified for the Div. I New England meet by running a 16.14 and finishing fifth in the 100 high hurdles. The standard for that event is 16.24, and Trombly accomplished this feat despite having lost approximately one second after tripping out of the starting blocks.
Two runners, freshman Emily Bersin (400 hurdles) and junior Lauren Esposito (800), qualified for the ECAC Championships in Saturday's contest. It was Bersin's first time running a hurdle race, as she usually runs the 400 or 800, and her time of 69.56 was good enough for fourth in the event and also beat the ECAC standard of 70.20.
"It was okay, fun for the first time; I'm going to stick with hurdles for a while and see what I can do," Bersin said.
Esposito, meanwhile, was the only Jumbo to finish first on the day. She won the 800 with a time of 2:24.06, barely eclipsing the ECAC standard of 2:24:24.
"Esposito led from start to finish; it was nice to see her take control of the race," Morwick said.
In place of Crofton in the 10,000 were senior Jennifer Edelmann, freshman Lauren Dunn, and sophomores Sarah Foss and Kristen Munson, who finished one through four in the event. Edelmann ran a time of 40:49.49, which qualified her for the Div. I New England meets. Dunn, Foss, and Munson all finished under 44 minutes, good enough for Div. III New Englands.
The team's field event members also had an impressive day, and were led by jumpers senior Nadia Samadani, freshman Shushanna Mignott, and freshman thrower Kate Gluckman. Samadani qualified for the ECACs with a 5.11 meter long jump and a 10.37 meter triple jump. She finished second in both events. Mignott finished fifth in the long jump, with a jump of 4.83 meters, and third in the triple jump (10.23 meters), qualifying for Div. IIIs in both. Gluckman qualified for the ECACs in the discus throw with a second-place toss of 36.34 meters.
"It was good for the second meet, the first with good weather. I'm happy with it," Gluckman said. She also finished fourth in the shot put, with a toss of 37'6. 75''.
"It was only our second meet, considering we had personal bests and strong performances, I'm pretty pleased on how well people did," Morwick said.
The team travels to Connecticut College on Saturday to participate in the Conn. College Invitational, the last regular season meet of the year. Like Springfield, the meet will feature mostly Div. III competition, but it will be a scoring competition. "I think we are going to do pretty well in Connecticut; we are not strategizing to win; we are just putting people out there," said Morwick.
