GORHAM, ME -- The Ephs traveled to the University of Southern Maine on Friday with the full intent of taking back the Division III New England title after a fateful loss last year to rival MIT and a similar result in 2008 when Williams took runner-up Tufts that ended a 5-year winning streak. Gorham, Maine seems to bring out the best in the Ephwomen, as they outperformed expectations and claimed a decisive victory, beating out MIT 156 to 90 despite entering the meet as underdogs.
Williams started the meet off on the right foot on Friday evening, with Karyn Moss ’12 and Sara Turner ’11 taking second and fifth, respectively, in the pentathlon. Moss earned an NCAA provisional qualifying score of 3119 as she claimed 8 points for the Ephs, edging out Bowdoin’s Annie Huyler by 5 points. Her performance combined with Turner’s fifth-place score put Williams ahead of MIT despite the Engineers’s Hazel Briner dominating the event. Suffice it to say, the Ephs slept soundly Friday night with a slight lead on MIT going into the bulk of the events on Saturday, but they never let their guard down for a moment.
Saturday’s schedule kicked off with the field events, where the jumpers had particularly outstanding performances. Julie Paschal ’13 cleared 1.68m in the high jump for first place, while Tanasia Hoffler ’13 took third in the long jump and earned an NCAA provisional qualifier of 5.46m. Hoffler, Moss, and first-year Brooke Johnson took 5th through 7th in the triple jump, racking up 9 additional points for the Ephs.
The throwing events did not bring quite as many points, as the Ephwomen faced a large field of stiff competition. A highlight was Jasmine Adekoya ’13, who scored in the weight throw and finished 6th, throwing an impressive 13.92m.
Running events began with the Distance Medley Relay, where Lizzy Danhakl ’11, Maya Harakawa ’12, Kathie Nyholm ’10, and Bret Scofield ’10 teamed up to cruise into first place. Danhakl set the tone for the race—and for the runaway outcome of the meet—giving her teammates a substantial lead on the competition as she cruised through 1200 meters in 3:44.
Williams collected several unexpected points in the running events, starting with junior Tina Meade’s 5th-place finish in the 5000m, with a season best time and an indoor personal best of 18:17.20. First-year Jennifer Gossels took second in the same race.
Sophomore standout Hillary Higgs’s first-place performance of 57.10 in the 400m dash was a personal best and bettered her NCAA provisional qualifying time of 57.57 from earlier in the season. Perhaps the greater accomplishment for Higgs, though, was edging out MIT rival Portia Jones; Higgs has yet to lose to Jones in the 400m, despite Jones having the faster seed time. Higgs pulled out another win in the 200m, with only one runner and .39 seconds separating her and senior co-captain Elise Johnson, who finished third.
In the 800m, Danhakl came back from the DMR to try and capture a scoring time despite being placed in the slower heat. She did so effortlessly, cruising through with yet another immense lead on her competition to run 2:17.37 and beat out all but two runners from the fast heat. Her third-place finish overall earned 6 extra points for Williams. The mid-distance squad put it all on the line at this championship meet, with Olga Kondratjeva ’10 and Ariel Williams ’10 pulling out a one-two finish in the 1000m, running season bests of 2:56.64 and 2:59.87, respectively
In the 3000m, Scofield overcame fatigue from running the anchor leg of the DMR to finish 5th in 10:31.11, followed by Elly Teitsworth ’10 in 7th and Emily McTague ’12 in 8th. The Ephs went out with a bang in a set of suspenseful relays. In both the 4x400 and the 4x800, they battled it out to exceed expectations and finish third.
The Williams women will continue the post-season with Open New Englands next weekend at BU, followed by ECACs on March 6.
