Women's track and field wins third at Sabock Challenge Cup

Women’s track and field impressed this past weekend at the Sykes and Sabock Challenge Cup in University Park, Pa., claiming the third place title and pushing three individual athletes through to win in their respective events.

The Tigers garnered a total of 110 points as a result of impressive performances across the board. Sophomore Ashley Forte won the 600m race at a personal record of 1:32.78. Forte was followed by freshman Anna Jurew in fourth place at 1:33.24, senior Meghan McMullin in sixth at 1:34.69 and sophomore Mattie Baron in eighth at 1:34.24.

In her first time competing in the 800m event, junior Katie Hanss won the event with a 2:11.52 time and was followed shortly by freshman Jackie Berardo, who won fifth place at 2:13.63.

With a personal record of 9:37.62, sophomore Melinda Renuart won the 3,000m. Junior Ally Markovich placed third with a time of 9:42.01, and freshman Allie Klimkiewicz was fourth at 9:56.97.

The Tigers claimed the second and third titles respectively in the triple-jump with freshman Kerri Davidson’s jump of 12.22 (40-1.25) and junior Alexandra Lanzafame’s jump of 11.59 (38-00.25)

The Tigers also finished back-to-back in the women’s mile with junior Jessica Ackerman finishing in fourth at 4:56.97, junior Zoe Sims in fifth at 4:57.12 and senior Birdie Hutton following in sixth with a personal record of 4:58.18.

Sophomore Melissa Reed came in third in the 5,000m race with a personal record of 17:26.19.

Baron, Forte, McMullin and junior Elisa Steele teamed up in the 4x400m relay and finished with an impressive second place finish at 3:50.44.

While their teammates placed during the second day of the cup, competing separately at the Armory Invitational in the Bronx, senior Cecilia Barowski came in sixth place in the 800m race with a time of 2:06.59. Greta Feldman followed in seventh at 2:07.39.

Senior Taylor Morgan, team captain, was proud of her team’s overall performance this past weekend. “Overall the team performed quite well,” she said. “The most exciting performance of the weekend was junior Allie Harris's 4.20m clearance in the pole vault, which set a new Ivy League record by 8 centimeters.” Harris also came in first place for the pole vault at the Tiger Open two weeks prior.

Morgan also praised her team’s performance throughout the season so far and attributes their success to their hunger for growth and for more titles. “The team has been performing quite well this season. Coming off of an Ivy League title in cross country, everyone is hungry for a victory during both the indoor and outdoor seasons,” said Morgan. “Many PRs have been written and rewritten already, which is awesome, because through this point most of us have been training through these meets, the idea being to peak at the Ivy League championships. Performances and competition really begin to start up around now in preparation for [the Heptagonal Championships]. Pretty much everyone will keep training hard for the next week or so, then begin to back off in order to be rested enough to compete at our championships.”

Morgan, however, also acknowledges cohesion and unity within the team as another contributing factor to its overall success. “With so many different events in the sport of track and field, we are quite diverse, but nonetheless we are still a family. We make efforts to learn about each other's events and PRs in order to support one another on the track, but we also have team bonding to bring us together in general. It is important to us to bridge event group gaps and create a more cohesive unit not only in order to win championships, but to care for each other as well.”

Based on the team’s collective hunger and dynamic, Morgan looks to the remainder of the season with hopeful eyes. “Indoor Heps is in three weekends, so that is the next big meet for us. The ultimate goal is to win the triple crown (where one school wins cross, indoor and outdoor Heps in one year), so winning indoor is the next step in that conquest. We are a dedicated, passionate and talented bunch, and I have faith that we can come together come Heps and take home the crown!”