After a strong showing at last weekend's Snowflake Classic, the Tufts women's track and field team hoped to build on their success Saturday when they traveled to UMass Lowell for the George Davis Invitational. The meet, featuring teams from all over New England, was unscored, allowing athletes to focus on their individual performances. Overall, the team recorded four event wins and 13 top-five finishes.
For the Jumbos, battling the weather was as difficult as battling the other teams.
"It was a pretty tough meet for our team" junior Laura Peterson said. "Not only were we facing competition from all divisions, but we were also battling the cold and wind all day. Even though we didn't have a lot of the performances we're used to, it was good for us to experience adverse conditions like we did."
As always, the senior throwing trio of Kelly Allen, Ronke Oyekunle and Sabienne Brutus led the Jumbos off the track. Allen placed first in the hammer throw and discus, with tosses of 163 feet 5 inches and 144 feet 7 inches, respectively, along with a third place finish in shot put with a throw of 41 feet 4 ? inches. Oyekunle took the shot put victory with a throw of 42 feet 9 ? inches, and placed fourth in the hammer throw with a distance of 146 feet 1 inch. Finally, Brutus placed second in the hammer throw with a toss of 162 feet 11 inches.
The other first-place finish at the meet for Tufts came from junior Jana Hieber, who won the long jump with a distance of 18 feet 1/4 inches. On the track, Hieber continued her successes, placing third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.6 seconds and fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:04.98. Sophomore Caitlin Pohl followed Hieber with ninth-place finishes in both events, crossing the line in 16.24 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and 1:07.22 in the 400-meter hurdles.
Elsewhere, Tufts had a solid showing in the 800-meter, with sophomore Lauren Gormer placing third in 2:18.62, and freshman Hanako Shigenobu placing seventh with a time of 2:20.36. In the 3000, senior quad-captain Lilly Fisher placed third with a time of 10:27.60, and junior Abby Barker placed 8th with a time of 10:36.60.
But the best race of the day for the Jumbos was likely the 3000-meter steeplechase. Peterson placed third with a time of 11:31.66, freshman Olivia Beltrani placed fifth with a time of 12:05.58, and freshman Alexandra Kiesling placed seventh with a time of 12:34.94.
"This was my first steeplechase of the season, and after being sick this week and for how windy and cold the day was, I am pretty happy with how the race went," Peterson said. "There are definitely things I can do to improve, but it was a good starting place for me. I'm really proud of how we all toughed it out and got through a pretty brutal race."
Fisher was extremely pleased with the weekend and the team's progression over the season.
"We're probably the favorites to win NESCACs at this point, and that's both a big incentive and some pressure" Fisher said. "Our team is great about encouraging one another and also not letting anyone sell themselves short, and I think we're all really stoked for a stellar end to the year."
With another strong weekend in the books, the team is performing well and looks poised to be a serious contender for the NESCAC title and beyond.
