Williams Women beat the Heat and the Competition and Dominate Little Threes
AMHERST, MA- The Williams track and field team headed to Amherst on Saturday to face bitter rivals Amherst and Wesleyan in order to reclaim the title of Little Three champions. Conditions were prime for sprinters and jumpers alike which yielded many personal bests and helped fuel the Ephs great performances.
The day started out with the 4X100 meters run by Carrie Plitt, Shawna McArdle, Elise Johnson, and Virginia Cumberbatch with a time of 49.83. In the 100 meter dash Sophomores Elise Johnson and Shawna McArdle had impressive performances with times of 12.66 and 12.76 to blow away the competition. In the 200 meter dash senior Carrie Plitt dominated the competition with a time of 25.73 to be closely followed by McAdle at 25.97 Freshmen Anne Kerth continued her great improvement this season with a time of 27.4, qualifying her for the Division III championships. Kerth also ran a 60.4 second 400, other best for the season as well as another qualifying time for the Division III meet. Also in the 400, captain Carrie Plitt ran a 58.4 overcoming the surprise obstacle of a stray hurdle left in her lane from the previous race. Freshmen Sara Wild also ran a strong 400 with a time of 59.75 seconds taking third place.
In the hurdle races, sophomores Elise Johnson and Katie Dupre ran times of 15.21 and 16.81 in the 100 to take first and third. The results then flipped with Dupre taking second fro the second heat in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:08.44 and Johnson taking third with a 1:08.54. Also in the 400 hurdles, junior Robin Kuntz ran a strong race with a fantastic kick in the back stretch to finish with a time of 108.86. The sprinters relished in the warm weather to yield many personal bests although an unpredictable starting official caused many near disqualifications for the team.
Although the heat was tough to beat for the distance team, they pushed through and ran extremely well. In the hundred meters and exciting finish yielded freshmen Lizzie Danhakl at the top with a time of 2:17.81 followed closely by senior Laura Walls with a time of 2:18.35. In the 1500 a strong Amherst team took first and second but gutsy performances by junior Lauren Philbrook with a time of 4:51.65 and freshmen Meghan Shea with a 4:52.48. Amherst took first and second once more in the 3000 meter steeple chase but sophomore Elly Teitsworth broke the top three with a time of 11:52.36. The day finished out with an incredibly exciting 4X400 meter relay run by Lizzie Danhakl, Katie Nyholm, Sara Wild, and Shawna McArdle with an extremely close finish at a time of 4:01.08 and a second place finish behind Amherst.
In the field events, the Williams women captured many critical points for the team in every event. In the Pole Vault, Williams women took the top four places lead by freshmen Rachael Teitlebaum with a jump of 3.11 meters for the day. In the High Jump, Sara Turner jumped an impressive 1.50 meters on a third attempt after the bar had made a full rotation and but somehow managed to remain in place. In the long jup, Turner placed first wit a length leap of 4. 75 meters followed by freshmen Fhatarah Zinnamon with a jump of 4.67 meters. ZInnamon then placed first in the triple jump with bound of 10.20 meters, another personal best for the season.
In the throws, although Amherst took first in the hammer throw, freshmen Julia Cohan tossed her way to a second place finish and a personal best of 25.83 meters. In the shot put, sprinter thrower senior Halley Smith crushed the field with a throw of 10.83 meters. In the Javelin, sophomore Kristen Baldiga placed second with a throw of 33.47 meters, with Cohan finishing less than a meter short of Baldiga’s throw.
Overall the day was a great success with many personal bests and Division Three as well as NESCAC qualifying times. This was the 23rd consecutive Little Three victory for the Ephs since 1990. The Ephs scored 169 points, to 120.5 for the Lord Jeffs and 93.50 for the Cardinals.
