Women's Track and Field Look Solid at Home
Members of the women's track and field team built on their solid performances at Dartmouth as they hosted their only home meet of the season on Saturday, competing against Union College and St. Rose. The meet was characteristically low-key, giving athletes the opportunity to strengthen their jumping, running, and throwing before the qualifying meets later in the season. Despite the laid-back nature of the event, many athletes posted break-out performances, attaining New England qualifying marks and "surprising" coach Pete Farwell, who had not expected such stellar performances from his athletes so early in the season. For many athletes the weekend's goal was simply to challenge themselves in new events and to use the meet to discern where they were in their training, so the strong results were exciting, if unexpected. Mid-distance standout Ariel Williams '10, who built on her strong showing in the 800 last week with a third place finish in the 600 (1:39) this week, summed up the general attitude of the team when she commented on her race, saying "it was a good start" and that she was "excited to get some speed under her," but also confident that she still had a lot of untapped potential left.
The day got off to a bang with the field events. Although the women's team lost many of its top field scorers from last year with the departure of '07's Alex Phillips and Caroline Doctor, and Abelee Esparza, the Eph freshman showed that they haven't lost any time in filling the gap left by the outgoing seniors. Julia Cohan '11 claimed a win in the shot-put with her 9.68 m throw, while teammate Katie Stack '08 also posted a strong showing to take fourth in the event. Rachel Teitelbaum '11 netted a first when she cleared 2.90 in the pole vault. High jumper Sarah Turner also turned in a solid performance in the high jump (1.58 m) to take the win and qualify for ECACs in the event. Talented captain Carrie Plitt '08 handily won the long jump in 5.00 m, while also qualifying for ECAC's in the event.
The Ephs dominated their competition in the running events, with many athletes working together to turn-in stellar performances. In the sprints, Williams took the top four places in the 300, with Plitt winning the event in 43.05. Similarly, Williams virtually swept the 600, with Sarah Wild '11 edging Ariel Williams to win the event in 1:38. The 1000 was arguably the most exciting event of the day, the stacked race featured sprinters, mid-distance, and distance runners. Mid-distance specialist Laura Walls '08, who was coming off a great mile a week ago, flashed her speed again as she worked with freshman Lizzy Danhakl during the race, pacing the strong pack of runners behind her for the majority of the race to post an impressive time of 3:03, only a second off of Danhakl's time of 3:02.
The upcoming week will be spent gearing up for Friday's meet at Northeastern, where many Ephs are expecting to post even faster times on Reggie Lewis' legendary banked track.
