Photo courtesy of GoRhody| In the pole vault, senior Karlee Fowler had a mark of 11′ 11/75″
The University of Rhode Island women’s track and field team had a big weekend two weeks ago setting program records at the Raleigh Relays in North Carolina, while also finishing third at the Black and Gold invitational at Bryant.
At the Raleigh Relays, an invitational for select athletes based on scores from the indoor season hosted by North Carolina State, the Rams represented well with the Sprint Medley Relay team finishing second out of eight teams in the event with a time of 3:58.51. The team, consisting of sophomore Kristina Maclure, and juniors Katie McNulty, Keilan Nova and Greta Scott, was able to beat out teams such as Boston College, Howard and East Carolina.
The Rams time of 3:58.51 was a program record for the event, which was set back in 2004 at a time of 4:02.63. What makes this even more remarkable was this is an event that the team only actually runs at Raleigh Relays so they usually don’t even practice it.
“It is an event that we usually don’t see,” said Head Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick. “Because we hardly ever see it, it isn’t something we practice, so it isn’t something they were used to doing. But they were very competitive, and setting the program record was very impressive.”
Maclure, who was on the relay team, also made her debut in the 100-meter hurdles finishing 15 out of 49 runners with a time of 14.74. Maclure was able to beat out 16 placed Catherine Jackson of George Mason by just .02 of a second.
“Kristina is very talented and very versatile,” said Melnick. “She really has a huge range, she runs, throws and even though she did do hurdles in the indoor season, this is her first time doing the 100-meter hurdles outdoors where there are more hurdles. She’s been great and really exciting to watch.”
Other notable finishes for the Rams at Raleigh include Breann Burns, who finished seventh in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.58, Mikaila Amerantes finishing 10th in the 400 with a time of 56.84 and Rebecca O’Donnell who finished fifth in the triple jump at 38’ 6.75.
Meanwhile back in Rhode Island, the other part of the team finished third out of 11 teams at the Black and Gold invitational, with only Brown and Holy Cross finishing above them.
“We really didn’t know how the chips would fall in this one with quite a few girls down in Raleigh,” said Melnick. “I am happy with how they finished. We had a lot of good performances, especially from the throwers. It was a good meet for us at the beginning of the year to see where everyone is.”
One of those throwers that did so well was junior Leah Wolf, who finished first in the javelin with a personal best throw of 144’10. Her throw also placed her fifth all time in program history for javelin.
“Leah has shown so much improvement,” expressed Melnick. “ To open the season with a personal best throw is very exciting. She is someone that has the ability to throw the javelin, hammer, and discus; she has a lot of talent.”
Some of the other notable finishes for URI included the 4×100 meter relay team, which finished third with a time of 48.62, Samantha Andrews, who earned second in the hammer throw reaching 163’ 10 and Elaina Hobbs, who finished third in the high jump with a height of 5’3.
The Rams season continues next weekend at the UMass Quad meet on Saturday April 7, at 12 p.m.