Women's track and field hosts Cupid Challenge

The women’s track and field team hosted the Cupid Challenge on Saturday in the Gantcher Center. The Jumbos had four first-place finishes, performing exceptionally well in the jump events. The meet, which had athletes competing mostly from New England Div. III teams, did not have team scoring, 

“I’m excited about the jumps because our coach was pushing us to improve,” first-year Jaidyn Appel said. “It was good to see our results.”

In the high jump, Appel came in first at 5’ 7 ¾”. This mark currently places her No. 4 on the Div. III rankings.

“I’m happy about it,” Appel said. “But it was what I expected of myself, so I wasn’t surprised.”

Additionally, in the triple jump, Jumbos secured the top three places out of a field of 22. First-year Lia Rotti placed first with a 37’ 4½” jump, good for No. 20 in Div. III. Fellow first-year Jen Rotti, who is Lia Rotti’s twin sister, came in second place with a 36’ 11¾” jump. This distance also currently places her No. 29 in Div. III. SophomoreKathryn Ezeoha placed third in the event with a 36’ 6¼” jump. 

This success continued in the long jump event. Continuing her stellar performance from the triple jump into the long jump, Jen Rotti placed first at 17’ 6 ¾”. 

“I’m happy with how it went,” Jen Rotti said about the meet. “It was good to see all of our hard work pay off.”

The Jumbos performed well in many of the sprinting events as well. Sophomore Luana Machado got first place in the 600 meters, finishing in 1:39.24. There were also Jumbos finishing in sixth place, seventh place, ninth place and 11th place in the 600 meters, which had 20 runners total.

For longer distance events, sophomore Tara Lowensohn placed third in the 1,000 meters with a time of 3:01.58. Following only 0.17 seconds behind Lowensohn, sophomore Anna Slager finished in fourth place at 3:01.75. 

In the 5,000 meters, first-year Meghan Davis finished with a time of 18:25.5, placing her third in the race. This was only Davis's second indoor meet and the first time running the 5,000 meters, after running in the fall during cross country season.

In the 4x200 meters relay, the Jumbos came in third place. Machado and first-years Jesse Martin, Cora Kakalec and Julia Perugini ran the relay in a combined time of 1:47.40.

In the distance medley relay, the Jumbos again came in third place. Seniorco-captains Rhemi Toth and Julia Gake, sophomore Hannah Neilon and senior Sabrina Gornisiewicz ran the relay in 12:13.13. This time currently puts them No. 4 in the top 50 rankings for distance medley relays in Div. III. 

With two weeks until the New England Div. III Indoor Championships on Feb. 28 and 29, the Jumbos will send athletes to two different meets this weekend: the David Hemery Valentine Invite at Boston University on Friday and Saturday and the Gordon Kelly Invitational at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Saturday.

“The current goal is to improve our rankings in our specific events,” Jen Rotti said. “Everyone is working hard and hopefully we’ll get to see it pay off.”