The Final Four at Rose-Hulman
As the indoor track season came to a close there were four woman left. Qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championships were sophomores Lizzy Danhakl and Sara Wild for the 800m run. Junior Elise Johnson qualified for the 55m hurdles, and senior Lauren Philbrook qualified in the 5k run.
The events started on Friday evening as Elise Johnson took the
track at Rose-Hulman. Johnson running in heat one would place 5th
in her heat. Her finish was not good enough to get her into the
finals but she would gain a personal best of the season by running
a time of 8.29. Looking ahead to the outdoor season Johnson
will be competing in the 100m hurdles where she is a returning
All-American and is looking to repeat.
Sophomore Lizzy Danhakl ran 2:15.90 in the second heat 800m
preliminaries. Although Danhakl did not move on to the finals on
Saturday she still finished the year as one of the top 11 800m
runners in Division 3 track and field. Running alongside Danhakl
was friend and teammate Sara Wild ’11. Wild finished third in
her preliminary heat clinching the last spot in the finals on
Saturday with a time of 2:15.35. She had her work cut out for her
as the top seed had a time of two seconds faster than Wild. Wild
would go on to run a time of 2:15.77 placing her 7th overall. With
her 7th place finish Sara Wild is an All-American for the 2009
indoor track and field season.
Last but not least was the senior Lauren Philbrook who entered
this meet off an amazing performance in the New England Division
III Championship meet in which she ran three seconds under the
automatic time qualification for the 5k race. In a battle of 25
laps Philbrook would hold on to tfinish 8th making her
All-American.
Hats off to all the ladies who competed this weekend. Standing as
the last four they did a tremendous job in representing what the
Williams track and field team can do.
For an outlook into the outdoor season -- the road ahead looks bright for the Ephs. As the event numbers grow adding on the 4x100m relay, 100m and 100m hurdles the Ephs look strong. A hard week of spring training is ahead of the Ephs and it is only a start. Williams comes home with two All-Americans at the end out the indoor season and will no doubt come home with more at the end of the outdoorseason.
