This past Saturday the University of Rhode Island’s Women’s Track and Field team finished in third out of 72 teams at the University of Connecticut Northeast Challenge in Storrs, Connecticut.
The Rams recorded 19 personal or season bests on the day as well as two URI top ten marks and one class record.
Although the Rams did not finish the meet in first place Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick was pleased with the individual performances from her team.
“We had some really solid performances,” Melnick said.
One of these performances that stood out was junior Lotte Black’s performance in the 800 meters where she placed second with an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) time of two minutes, 8.95 seconds. This mark is the team’s second best mark all-time.
The Rams also finished in second place in the 4×400 relay. This team consisted of sophomore Bethany DeLoof, juniors Kelly MacDonnell and Kristina MacLure and senior Mikaila Amerantes. They finished with a New England and ECAC mark of 3:46.53. MacDonnell also finished third in the 200 meters with an outdoor personal best and New England time of 25.10 seconds. MacLure also competed in the 400 meters and finished third with a personal best and ECAC time of 55.70 seconds. DeLoof also ran a personal best and New England time 25.52 seconds in the 200 meters.
MacDonnell, MacLure and Amerantes also competed in the 4×100 relay along with freshman Ciara French and placed third with a time of 47.58 seconds. Amerantes also finished in fourth place in the 400 meters with a time of 56.07 seconds. Besides competing in the 4×100 relay, French also competed in the 100-meter hurdles and finished with a personal best and New England time of 14.94 seconds.
Freshman Trinity Smith had a standout weekend as she set a season best, personal best and broke a freshman class record. Smith’s season best mark that she set came in the 400-meter hurdles when she recorded a New England mark as well with a time of 64.53 seconds and finished sixth.
Smith set a personal best mark and ECAC mark in the 100-meter hurdles when she finished seventh with a time 14.36 seconds. This recorded time made Smith the ninth best URI individual in this event and broke the previous freshman class record that had been held by Michelle Trefz since 1997 when she recorded 14.42 seconds in the event. Fellow freshman Sara James also set a season best mark in this event with a time of 17.22 seconds.
Several Rams also set personal or season bests in the throwing competitions. Senior Leah Wolf finished third in the javelin and also set a season best and ECAC mark of 43 meters, 56/142’11. Fellow ram, sophomore Julia Campezato finished fourth in the same event. Sophomore Molly Botts placed fifth in the hammer throw with a mark of 51 meters. Botts set season best and ECAC mark with this throw.
Freshman Nicole Valdez finished two spots behind Botts in the hammer throw in seventh and set a personal best and New England mark of slightly over 50 meters. Freshman Noeyla Delacruz also posted a personal best throw in this event when she earned a mark of 41 meters. Sophomore Kayla Ezeama set a season best in the triple jump with a 10 meter mark while freshman Jianna Peno also set a season best in the shot put with a throw of 11 meters.
Eight other Rams set season bests on Saturday. Freshman Lexi Luna ran personal best in the 100 meters when she finished sixth with a time of 12.23 seconds. Luna also set a season best mark of 25.92 seconds in the 200 meters. Senior Alyssa Brehler set a season best time of 4:42.98 seconds in the 1500 meters where she placed ninth. Senior Carleisha Forteau and freshman Xiana Twombly both set season bests in the 100 meters as they both finished in 12.62 seconds.
Senior Saige Grazia and freshman Kaylen Hughes also set second best marks in the 800-meter with Grazia recording a time of 2:21.13 and Hughes finishing in 2:29.47. Seniors Natalie and Sydney Sopchak both ran personal bests in the 400 meters with times of 60.92 seconds and 61 seconds, respectively.
Coach Feit-Melnick was pleased with the way her team performed this past Saturday.
“This was one of the first meets where we were all together,” Feit-Melnick said. “We took advantage of the decent weather. Our hurlers and sprinters both had good marks on Saturday. We’ve all been training really hard.”
The Rams return to action on Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20 in Princeton, New York as part of the Larry Ellis invitational and in Worcester, Massachusetts as part of the Holy Cross invitational, also on Saturday.