Over the weekend, members of the women's track team competed at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships (ECACs), held at the Reggie Lewis Center on Saturday, and the Tufts Last Chance Meet, held at the Gantcher Center on Thursday. There were tangible goals for the meets, as the Jumbos looked to either end the season on a strong note or improve their seed times to qualify for the NCAA Championships, held next weekend in Lincoln, Neb.
A few Jumbos were in action on Thursday at the Gantcher Center, as they hosted the annual Last Chance Meet, which served as an opportunity for teams to nab fast flat track times to improve on their times to qualify for Nationals.
Senior tri-captain Anya Kaufmann won the 60-meter dash in a time of 7.84, just a few ticks off of sophomore Alexis Harrison's team best time of 7.78. Sophomore Marilyn Allen broke the school record in the 60-meter hurdles, as she ran a time of 8.99 for her first sub-nine time ever, which was good for a second place showing.
Despite the impressive weekend performances from Kauffman and Allen, neither runner will travel to Nationals.
It was a tough day for the distance girls, as they went zero for three in qualifying runners for Nationals. In the 3000-meter run, sophomore Audrey Gould finished first with a time of 10:04.38 while sophomore Olivia Beltrani came in third with a time of 10:24.96.
Trying to shake off last weekend's failure to qualify for Nationals, the distance medley relay (DMR) took a second shot at qualifying but came up short, as the team of sophomore Hanako Shigenobu, senior Jana Hieber, junior Lauren Gormer, and senior tri-captain Laura Peterson took fourth overall with a time of 12:05.33, placing them seventeenth in the country. Since only the top 10 relay teams earn bids to Nationals, the DMR will be watching all of the action unfold trackside this season.
On Saturday, the Jumbos got off to a great start as Harrison and Kaufmann qualified for the semifinals of the 60-meter dash. Harrison bowed out of the semifinals with a solid time of 7.87, good for a ninth place finish. Kaufmann was also out of the semifinals with her 11th place on a time of 7.91, but ran a time of 7.80 in the preliminaries, the second fastest Jumbo time this season. In the 60-meter hurdles, sophomore Marilyn Allen ran her personal best, as she ran a time of 8.96 in the event to take third.
Personally, I wanted to improve my time to help me get closer to qualifying for Nationals
