Women's track sprints to 5th at ECAC meet

Upon entering the ECAC Championship meet, the women's track and field team had few expectations. The squad hoped to improve upon a few qualifying times and end the indoor season with a bang. Given that Tufts was hosting the event, there was much organizational work to be done in addition to gearing up for competition. However, the result of the weekend's competition was more than anyone expected as the team ended up fifth in a field of 51 with a total of 39 points.

Amongst the teams that the Jumbos prevailed against was Williams College -- a squad that usually comes out on top -- who finished a place behind Tufts with 32.5 points. Perennial track powerhouse Wheaton College ran away with the ECAC top spot with 73 points. The impressive team performance put forth by the Jumbos was a result of everyone who competed putting in her best effort.

The 4x400m relay team improved on its National provisional qualifying time as every leg improved individually. Even in the field of opponents who qualified automatically for Nationals, the Jumbos came out first and won the 4x400 event.

Comprised of sophomore Sika Henry, freshman Rachel Bloom, and juniors Emily Bersin and Jessica Trombly, the team raced to an event-winning time of 3:56.10. As it stands, the 4x400 squad is ranked eighth in an event in which 10 teams usually make the trip to Nationals. At the ECAC Championship meet the Jumbos beat out teams that qualified automatically for Nationals including York College and College of New Jersey.

"We did really well, we weren't expecting to win at all," Henry said. "We just all ran PRs, [Coach Morwick] told us to run certain times and we just all ran those times."

Trombly improved on her preliminary time of 8.58 in the finals of the 55m hurdles to finish with a time of 8.52, garnering third overall. In other sprint events, junior Katie Higley and sophomore Claudia Clarke took the 500m event by storm. Higley finished fourth overall while Clarke ran to seventh with times of 1:19.98 and 1:20.96, respectively.

Another duo who paired to attain points for the Jumbo team effort was sophomore Katie Sheedy and senior Mary Nodine in the 1000m run. Sheedy crossed the finish line in 3:06.25, good for sixth, while Nodine was one spot behind with a time of 3:06.35. Junior Lauren Caputo contended as the lone Jumbo in the 1500m run, taking sixteenth in the race with a time of 4:54.51.

The multi-event pentathlon saw a successful performance from sophomore Melissa Graveley. She finished third overall with a total of 2805 points. Graveley squeaked ahead of Shannon Corliss of Colby College, who finished fourth with 2801 points. Fellow Jumbos, freshman Megan Sears and junior Amy Spiker, came in ninth and tenth, respectively, overall.

In the throws, sophomore Katie Antle tossed the shot put a distance of 12.09m to get eighth overall. Junior co-captain Jessica Gauthier emerged as the lone Jumbo competing in the weight throw, tying for tenth with a throw of 13.70m.

With the outdoor season starting imminently, the team performance at the ECAC Championship was a fitting end to a successful indoor season. The only fixture of the indoor season remaining is the NCAA Championship meet to which Trombly and the 4x400 team hope to travel. The 4x400 team will find out today whether or not it will be competing next week, but their spot is essentially sealed.

"The team ending together on such a positive note is great; it gives us a positive attitude going into the spring season," Henry said. "Everybody just contributed and everybody competed hard in their events, and its every point that counts so it ended well."