Ephs Triumph at Division III New England Championships
NEW LONDON CT- The Williams Women’s Track and Field Team was triumphant this weekend at the New England Division III Track and Field Championships at the Coast Guard Academy, facing cold weather and tough competition. However, the women of the field, sprint, and distance teams pulled together their best efforts to beat NESCAC rivals Tufts and Amherst.
Freshmen Rachel Teitlebaum came up big for the Ephs in both points and height, placing second in the pole vault with a height of 11-01.75 feet, a new lifetime best. In the javelin, sophomore Kristen Baldiga and freshmen Julia Cohan hurled their way to third and fourth places with throws of 113-05 and 113-3 feet respectively.
In the sprints senior captain Carrie Plitt single handedly earned 18 points for the Ephs placing 2nd in the 100 meters behind Tufts speedster Logan crane with a time of 12.55 and first in the 200 with a time of 25.35. The sophomores also had strong performances in the 100 and 200 meter dashes by Elise Johnson placing 7th in the 100 with a time of 12.96 and Shawna McArdle. placing 4th in the 200 with a season’s best time of 26.14. In the 400 meter run, freshmen Sara Wild continued her clutch performances for the Ephs placing 5th with a time of 59.60.
The Ephs kept up their quickness in the hurdle races with Johnson placing first in the 100 hurdles with a track record and a time of 14.78, edging out a Trinity runner by a hundredth of a second. Although no Ephs scored in the 400 hurdles, the junior Robin Kuntz and sophomores Katie Dupre and Nora Mitchell placed 11th, 12th, 13th respectively and separated by less than a second.
The distance team also performed extremely well for the women with outstanding performances by freshmen Lizzie Danhakl and Tina Meade. In the 1500 meter run, Danhakl placed second with a time of 4:40.47 after being boxed in at the start of the race and having to fight her way to the front of the pack. Although Meade did not score in the meet placing 9th, the freshmen had a season personal best with a time of 38:44 in the 10,000 meter run.
In the 800 meter run, sophomore Olga Kondratjeva came in a close second with a time of 2:14.67 and senior captain Lissy Robie placed 4th with a time of 2:15.88, maintaining their streak of consistently strong performances for the Ephs. In the 5000 meter run, junior Lauren Philbrook pushed her way to 6th place with a timeof 17.55.98 scoring 3 points for the Ephs. In the crowd pleasing 3000 meter steeplechase, the duo of freshmen Meghan Shea and sophomore Ellie Teitsworth placed 5th and 6th in 11:23.79 and 11:34.95 respectively.
As usual, The Ephs continued their dominant meet performances in the relays placing second in all three events. In the 4X100 Tufts edged out the team of Shawna Mcardle, Carrie Plitt, Anne Kerth and Elise Johnson running a time of 49.59. In the 4X400 Mcardle, Danhakl, Wild and Kerth ran a 4:01 finishing behind little three rival Amherst. Finally, in the 4X800 Jessica Clarke, Lissy Robie, Kathie Nyholm and Olga Kondratjeva edged out Colby by less then a second running a time of 9:25.12 to capture 2nd place.
When all was said and done the Ephs were triumphant with a team total of 111 points with the closest competitor, Amherst, scoring 81 points. The next meet for the Ephs is the All-New england championships this coming weekend at the University of New Hampshire.
