Running on its own track for the first time of the season, the women’s track and field team settled in nicely, finishing Sunday with many strong performances. Competing against some impressive teams, the Yellowjackets’ performance wasn’t scored, but there were quite a few women who finished in the top eight.
“After watching most of the events and checking over the results of the ones I missed while warming up for my own race, I was extremely impressed with our team’s performance,” sophomore Kellie Hasselwander said.
The fair-skied but chilly day started off with sprinting events. Freshman Nancy Tremblay placed second in the 100-meter dash, clocking in at 12.79 seconds. Sophomore Stacie Woods produced the same result, placing second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.60. There were at least 20 women in each of their events.
In the middle distance events, the 1,500-meter runners did well. Hasselwander placed fifth with a time of 4:53.40, and senior Kate Pohlman was seventh, clocking in at 4:59.90.
The distance runners were among the most high-placing finishers. In the 5,000-meter run, sophomore Laura Richenderfer placed third with a time of 19:35.75. Freshmen Lauren Jewett and Rebecca Murphy placed fifth and eighth in the event, respectively, with times of 20:36.41 and 21:35.47. In the 10,000-meter run, senior Jessica VanBinsbergen finished second with a time of 38:12.47.
The top hurdler for the team was sophomore Michelle Andrews, who came in second in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.17 seconds.
The relay team also did exceptionally well, with one of UR’s two first place finishes coming from the 4×800-meter relay team, which ran a time of 10:09.15. The 4×100-meter relay team was second, clocking in at 51.52, and the 4×400-meter relay team finished sixth with a time of 4:22.66.
In the field events, sophomore Anjuli Cheruki was the Yellowjackets’ only individual champion, beating out seven others for first place in the pole vault by clearing 3.10 meters. In the long jump, Tremblay was seventh with a distance of 4.89 meters, and sophomore Kathryn Knowles was sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 10.13 meters.
Finishing off the day, senior Cynthia Gurecki placed sixth out of 26 in the hammer throw, with a distance of 40.93 meters – also, junior Kathryn Odian was eighth, throwing 40.31 meters. Freshman Jamie Landry and Cheruki went 4-5 in the javelin throw.
The day turned out to be a success, as UR faced 25 to 30 competitors in nearly every event.
“We had competitors finish near the top of almost every event,” Hasselwander said. “To see such outstanding performances this early on in the outdoor season is very exciting, especially in preparation for the championship races, which, surprisingly, are not too far away.”
This weekend, the Yellowjackets will once again be close to home, competing at Roberts Wesleyan College on Saturday at noon.
Philbrick can be reached at ephilbrick@campustimes.org.
