For the women?s track team, the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championship three weeks ago was only the beginning of a grueling post-season championship series.
The team continued its post-season at Boston University Armory Track and took on a higher level of competition at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships March 3.
This meet featured 57 Div. III schools from all over the East coast. As a team, the Yellowjackets tied for 29th place with three other schools.
To consistently place at the top of your race is what every runner dreams of, and that is exactly what freshman Mary Lebrun has done so far this year.
Once again, Lebrun was the highlight of the Yellowjackets? day at the ECAC championship. Her time of 10 minutes, 42 seconds earned her a second place finish in the 3000-meter run.
She was edged out by the College of New Jersey?s Lindsay Scarborough who ran a time of 10:34.
?Mary showed extreme focus in her race. You could tell from the start she was a determined runner,? said coach Barbara Hartwig.
Relay bests
The distance medley relay team had the only other top-ten finish.
The team ran a time of 12:56.07. Freshman Erika Wasserstein, juniors Sue Mayo, Ashley Ellms and Amanda Danforth ran to a season-best time and finished ninth-place against the field at BU.
For Wasserstein it was not the first race of the day. Earlier, she ran an impressive 5:03 in the 1500-meter run. Her time placed her nineteenth overall.
UR also set another season best time at BU. The 4×200-meter relay of freshman Michelle Gabrielle, Mayo and sophomores Amanda Schwartzkopf and Lizzy Conway recorded a time of 1:53.15 to finish in fourteenth place.
?Both relay teams ran very competitive races and had some well-deserved success,? said Hartwig.
Other individual place-winners included sophomore Amanda Baran, who jumped 4.64 meters in the long jump.
Junior Megan Sullivan finished the day for UR by placing eighteenth in the 20 pound weight throw with a toss of 12.65 meters.
?The ECAC meet was probably one of the best meets for the women all year,? Hartwig said.
?This was a very satisfying meet. It proved that our women can compete well against top-notch Div. III schools,? she said.
