Sunday, April 14, 2013

UMass Invitational - PR-fest for Smith!

The Smith Team had an exciting day on Saturday.  The list of PRs kept growing and growing as the day went on...by the end of the day it was almost as long as the walk from the track to the javelin site.

A few highlights from the meet: Paige Sarlandt got the team's PR-fest rolling with a shot put of 11.30m early in the morning.  Then the distance team came to the starting line for the 5k.  Cynthia took 30 seconds off her previous time, finishing in 19:40.  Lotte took 12 seconds off her time, finishing in 20:00.  And Katie D raced thirty seconds faster than during the cross country season, finishing in 20:20.  In the 1500, Katie Ferrall took 8 seconds off her time, finishing in 4:53.15.  That means she is .15 seconds away from qualifying for Div III New England Championships!  Micaela Young also PRed in the 1500, shaving six seconds off her time from two weeks ago.  She finished 5:10.34.  Although Abby just missed her 5k PR, this was her first meet back from being injured, so it was exciting simply to have her in the race, not to mention a stellar and gutsy performance to boot.

First year Kristi Hammond had a personal best in the 400 (66.56) and the high jump, where she cleared 1.41m.

Although Kirsten did not set a new PR, she came pretty close in both of her hurdles events.  She came in fifth in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.98 seconds.  She finished second in the 400m hurdles with a time of 63.26.   These times qualify her in both events for Div III New Englands, ECACs, and Open New Englands.  Kirsten also anchored the 4x400 team through an exciting final lap to a first place win in their heat.

There were other performances of note: Meadeshia is back!  After several weeks of injury, she was able to race in the 800, finishing in 2:26.82.  Although this is a teaser of what her legs can actually do, it was exciting to have her racing again.  In the javelin, Becca had a season best of 30.79m, with each throww landing farther than the previous one.  And Amanda made her first 100m hurdles appearance this season.  She is ready for the heptathlon next weekend!

While the team normally goes to Maine for the invitational at Bowdoin next weekend, Carla made a wise, wise decision this year to go south instead.  Since we are still wearing tights and long-sleeves at practice and wondering if spring will ever actually appear, we are looking forward to competing at Connecticut College instead of Antarctica, I mean Maine, next weekend.

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