Competing against some tough teams over the weekend, the women’s track and field team pulled through with a strong performance at Ohio University to start their season off this past weekend.
“The competition was perfect for us,” head coach Barbara Hartwig said. “The weather was a mixed bag of rain, wind, sometimes warm, sometimes cool – kind of like Rochester!”
UR finished sixth out of eight teams, but three of the five ahead of them were Division I schools, and they finished ahead of two Division II teams. Ohio University took first place with 228 points. The Yellowjackets totaled 42.5 for the meet.
Junior Stacy Allen had the best individual performance of the team. She placed second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 12:31.27.
“Stacy Allen ran a very nice steeple race,” Hartwig said. “She was a little rough on her first lap or two and then settled down and looked great. Her technique on the water barrier really made the difference in the race – and we haven’t had a chance to work with our water barrier yet.”
The sprinters only furnished one scorer, though two athletes came close. Freshman Nancy Tremblay placed sixth in the 100-meter dash, crossing the finish line at 13.41 seconds. Sophomore Stacie Woods missed the top eight in the 400-meter dash by just three-tenths of a second and freshman Chelsea McGuire was ninth in the 1,500-meter run.
The most points were earned for UR in the hurdles races. Sophomore Michelle Andrews was fourth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.60 and the Yellowjackets had three scorers in the 400-meter hurdles. Andrews was fifth with a time of 1:14.42, freshman Alexis Kirk was sixth with a time of 1:14.44 and sophomore Ruth Crabtree was seventh with a time of 1:25.82.
“The 400-meter hurdlers did extremely well in the wind,” Hartwig said. “They haven’t had a chance to work a full set of hurdles yet due to our weather.”
The 4×100-meter relay team also produced some points for the Yellowjackets. The team, consisting of Tremblay, Woods, freshman Joey Flyer and Andrews, was fifth with 52.23.
In field events, sophomore Anjuli Cherukuri was second in the pole vault event, clearing 3.04 meters and junior Allison Altman was sixth, clearing 2.43 meters. Freshman Bryann Benton was seventh, clearing 2.28 meters.
“Our vaulters have been improving very rapidly and Anjuli in particular has made huge improvements in her technique – it’s really paying off,” Hartwig said.
This weekend, UR won’t be traveling – they’ll be competing here at Fauver Stadium in the UR Alumni Invitational, which begins at 10 a.m.
Philbrick can be reached at ephilbrick@campustimes.org.
