DMR 3rd; Wild Advances in 800m at NCAA Championships
ADA, OH – The Williams women's track and field team is
tied for 8th place out of 26 teams scoring on the first day of the
NCAA Div. III Championships being held at Ohio Northern
University.
The Ephs finished third in the distance Medley relay in a time of
11:56.56. NESCAC foe Tufts won the event with a time of
11:46.79.
Sophomore Bret Scofield moved up from seventh to fourth at the end
of her 1200m leadoff leg and senior sprinter Carrie Plitt ran
a strong 400m second leg. "Carrie got us into third and then she
handed off to [senior] Laura Walls who is coming on strong in the
800 and Laura edged us into second before she tied up a little and
[sophomore] Olga Kondratjeva took over in third place," noted
Farwell Kondratjeva held the third place standing throughout her
1600m run and the Eph quartet earned All-America honors with their
finish in the top eight.
The Eohs had two runners making their national debut in the 800m
run in sophomore Ariel Williams and first year Sara Wild. Williams
was timed in 2:17.10 in her heat and did not advance to tomorrow's
finals.
Wild on the other hand had a solid effort in her heat and finished
in a time of 2:13.79 and earned a spot in the 8-person final
tomorrow afternoon. "Sara was phenomenal for a first year at her
first national meet," said Eph head coach Pete Farwell. "She is
very strong but I kept telling her to relax because I thought she
might tie up, but she ran a superb race. Her heat went out fast so
I tried to tell her to keep loose and yet she somehow accelerated
at the end to post the second fastest time of the day."
Along with the 800m final tomorrow, Wild will join Plitt, senior
Veronica Ivey and sophomore Emily Heaslip in the 4X400 relay.
"This was a good day for us and we are looking for another good
one tomorrow," said Farwell.
