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Volume CXXXIII, Number 16 |
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Polar Bears place fifth in region
ALLIE YANIKOSKI
STAFF WRITER
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| The Bears are at the head of the pack. They placed fifth out of 23 teams in the New Englands. (Courtesy of Eric Sofen) |
In the first meet of the championship season, the women's track team finished an impressive fifth place out of the 23 teams that attended the New England Division III meet, behind Williams, Tufts, Amherst, and Colby.
The Bowdoin women eased up on their training and heightened their intensity for Saturday's meet and saw results. Several women set personal records, and most improved their seeds to move Bowdoin up in the overall score.
Jane Cullina '04 ran her best race ever in the 600-meter to finish second overall with a time of 1:40.22. Cullina ran in the second-fastest heat and went out quickly with the leaders, then held on patiently through the first 400 meters. In the last lap, she passed a couple of women on the back straightaway before accelerating past the rest of her competitors in the final 50 meters to win her heat and displace everyone except for the winner from the seeded section.
In her first race after taking four weeks off due to a dislocated shoulder, Emily Sheffield '06 finished tenth in the 600-meter, running 1:42.15.
Neoma Palmer '07, the only other female to place second individually ran in the front of the pack of the 3000-meter before taking the lead. Palmer held the lead and paced the race until the final straightaway, when Lauren Caputo of Tufts edged past her for the win. Palmer finished less than a second behind Caputo in a personal best time of 10:12.58.
A few seconds behind Palmer, Ellen Beth '05 also set a personal record with her fifth place finish in a time of 10:15.89. In a very intelligent and tactical race, Beth went out in the middle of the pack and moved up throughout the 15 laps to finish within four seconds of the winner and ten seconds ahead of sixth place (also 25 seconds ahead of her Bates rival Julie Dutton).
The distance medley relay team of Kala Hardacker '04, Kat Martens '04, Allie Yanikoski '06, and Gessy LePage '07 earned the final second place for Bowdoin with a time of 12:48.66. Hardacker ran the first leg of the relay, the 1200, and quickly moved into second place. Martens and Yanikoski maintained the lead in their 400- and 800-meter legs, setting up LePage to begin lapping teams. As the anchor runner from Williams gained on LePage, she tenaciously kept up her pace to cross the line in second place to Amherst.
In the open 800-meter, Katie Walker '05 ran aggressively for a fifth-place finish and a seasonal-best time of 2:18.65. In the fastest section of the race, she ran in the middle of the pack and moved up in the second half to finish in a tight group between Jess Silva from Westfield State (2:18.42) and Laurie Yorgenson (2:18.71).
Kate Halloran '07 also earned a fifth-place finish in the 55-meter dash. Undefeated until this meet, Halloran improved her seed by several places. She set a personal record in the trials with a 7.42 then nearly repeated it in the finals, running a 7.43. Ruth Jacobson '06 also competed in the dash. She finished 14th and also set a personal record with a time of 7.79.
Laura Perovich '05 continued her success in the weight throw, placing fifth with her throw of 47'05.5''. Perovich has already hit the provisional qualifying mark for Nationals. Louise Duffus '07 just missed scoring in the weight throw, finishing ninth overall with her throw of 43'11''. Duffus and Perovich also teamed up in the shot put, in which Duffus placed 12th overall (39'00'') and Perovich 25th (33'10.75'').
Livy Lewis '07 finished sixth in the 1000-meter with a time of 3:05.69. Lewis ran toward the front for the entire race, and finished just behind Heather Lindermann from Williams and Johanna Thomas from Mount Holyoke, the fourth and fifth place finishers, and a significant two seconds ahead of the second pack. In her second race of the day, Hardacker also competed in the 1000-meter, placing 12th overall in 3:10.68.
Shortly after the 1000, Lewis ran in the 4x800-meter relay with Yanikoski, Cullina, and Walker for a third place finish. In their first time running together as a relay, the four finished within six seconds of winner Amherst and second place Trinity for an overall time of 9:39.27.
On the back straightaway, Erin Prifogle '07 flew across the 55-meter hurdles to nab a seventh place finish in the finals, running her personal best time of 9.05. Prifogle was not seeded to score, and she improved on her previous best by two-tenths of a second, a huge margin in such a short event.
Allison Cherry '04 and Natasha Camilo '06 also competed in the hurdles. Cherry claimed 16th place in 9.51, while Camilo set her new personal record when she finished 17th in 9.56.
The 4x400-meter relay ran the fastest time of the season thus far, finishing fifth. Martens led off the relay, then passed the baton to Sheffield, who handed off to Gina Campelia '07. Fresh for the event, Campelia exploded off the line, running the fastest split of the relay with a 59.60 (which would have placed her in the top four of the open 400-meter). Campelia passed off to Emily Hackert '06 who powered through the final two laps of the relay to cross the line in 4:07.24.
Lynne Davies '04 represented Bowdoin in the 1500-meter. In the second-fastest section, Davies took the lead for the first couple of laps, then held on for a strong finish in a seasonal-best of 5:02.67, 11th place overall.
After demonstrating their talent and drive in front of all the Division III teams in New England, the women and men will face Division I and II teams tonight and tomorrow in the Open New England Championships held at Boston University.
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