SPRINGFIELD, MA—The Williams women edged out MIT to garner a victory at the ECAC Championships Thursday and Friday, hosted by Springfield College. The Ephs earned 73 points to finish on top, ahead of 70 teams, including MIT (66), Moravian (52), and Springfield (48). Among those who captured NCAA qualifiers was Hillary Higgs ’12, who won the 400m in 56.11 setting a Williams College record in the event.
The Ephs headed to the ECAC Championship meet with few hopes in mind besides improving personal bests and garnering NCAA qualifiers. The few athletes who competed delivered some of the best performances of the season and led the team away from the meet with a first-place trophy in hand.
Among the winning performances was Lizzy Danhakl '11, who has continually shaved time off of her 800m time with each race this season. Finishing first, Danhakl won the event and her time of 2:12.79 moves her up even higher in the NCAA rankings.
The 4x400 relay team, consisting of Nora Mitchell '10, Rebecca Fine '13, Tanasia Hoffler '13, and Higgs won their event in 3:50.55 in a dramatic race. In second place after the first two legs, Hoffler closed a sizable gap between the Ephs and rival MIT, and went on to create an even bigger gap as she split 55 high. Higgs maintained the lead and brought it home in the final leg. The team's time is just over the automatic qualifier for NCAAs but places them tenth in the Div. III national rankings.
Jasmine Adekoya '13 also earned an NCAA provisional mark of 137 feet in the discus, good for third place.
In the longer distance events, Williams women took second in both the 5k and the 10k. Annie Dear '13 bettered her personal best in the 5k, capturing second place in 17:46.87. On Thursday evening, Jennifer Gossels '13 ran 36:22.34 to finish less than one second behind the first-place finisher, Johanna Spangler of Vassar.
Some Ephs will compete next week at a "last-chance" meet in order to solidify their chances of going to nationals, while those who have already qualified will have a week off before heading to Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland, OH for the NCAA meet.
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| Co-captains Nora Mitchell
(l.) & Elise Johnson |
