The women’s indoor track and field team participated in their last regular season invitational last weekend and finished admirably. The Yellowjackets traveled to Cornell University, where one athlete provisionally qualified for NCAA championships and many others were added to the list of New York State Championship Qualifiers and Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship Qualifiers.
Senior Cynthia Gurecki provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships in the weight throw with a throw of 15.33 meters, finishing third. She also finished 10th in the shot put with a throw of 10.10 meters. Junior Kate Odian was 10th in the weight throw with a toss of 13.72 meters. Freshman Bridget Mayne placed 13th in the shot put with a distance of 9.68 meters.
“Overall, the team did very well at the track meet,” Gurecki said. “In general, everyone is beginning to peak at their events, which is great since we are entering our championship portion of our season.”
In the jumping events, junior Anjuli Cherukuri cleared 3.00 meters and placed fourth. She was the first athlete to place who wasn’t from Cornell. Sophomore Kathryn Knowles was sixth in the triple jump with a jump of 10.18 meters and 11th in the long jump with a distance of 4.68 meters. Sophomore Danielle McGinnis placed 11th in the triple jump with 8.96 meters and 13th in the long jump with 4.48 meters.
The leading individual runners for UR both placed in the top ten. Senior Jessica VanBinsbergen finished seventh in the mile run with a time of 5:21.62 and was the first runner past the finish line who wasn’t a member of the Cornell team. Sophomore Michelle Andrews took seventh in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.78 seconds.
Sophomore Kellie Hasselwander, who was racing for the first time since cross country season due to injury, was eighth in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:10.40, qualifying for NYS and ECAC Championships. This addition to the team will be well-appreciated.
UR had three finishers in the top 13 in the 400-meter dash. Junior Allison Altman was 11th with a time of 1:06.37, freshman Bryann Benton was 12th with a time of 1:06.99 and freshmen Sara Myers was 13th, clocking in at 1:07.30. In the 500-meter dash, freshman Kate Medford placed 13th with a time of 1:26.45.
The Yellowjacket relay teams both finished favorably, as the 4×800-meter relay team was second overall with a time of 10:16.71 and the 4×400-meter team finished fifth with a time 4:32.57.
This weekend, the Yellowjackets will be competing in the New York State Championships, but they won’t be traveling far – the Rochester Institute of Technology is hosting the event.
“I’m very excited for next weekend because I know how seriously our team takes the state meet,” Hasselwander said. “We all go out there and do as many events as coach thinks we can score in and, on Saturday night, we’re all exhausted but completely satisfied that we did everything we could for our team.”
Gurecki is just as excited and optimistic as Hasselwander.
“As a captain, I expect fantastic things from the team next week,” Gurecki said. “We have a lot of talent and a lot of depth in all of the events. My guess is that we end up one of the top three schools at the state meet!”
Philbrick can be reached at ephilbrick@campustimes.org.
