The University of Rhode Island women’s track team continued their indoor season this past weekend competing in the Riverhawk Invitational and John Thomas Terrier Invitational in Boston, Massachusetts.
On Saturday, first-year Madeline Till who placed 58th in 800 meter, second-year Lily Saul who placed 17th overall, third-year Erin Hurley who placed 70th in the 800 meter and fifth-year Hanna O’Connor who placed 48th competed at Boston University in the 800 meter and 4×400 meter events.
Second-year distance runner Lily Saul broke a Rhody record at the event, where she set a new second-year class record in the 800 meter with a time of 2:07.77. The time now sits as the third fastest time in program history and led all Atlantic 10 runners in the event in the race.
“In high school in Pennsylvania she was a soccer player and emphasized outdoor track over indoor track,” URI Head Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick said. “She’s making huge improvements now and we are just really excited about the future.”
Saul was equally proud of her performance and the achievements that came with it.
“It means a lot to me,” Saul said. “This is only my second ever season competing in indoor track… everybody has pushed me so that I could be where I am at right now, so it means a lot that I can finally do what I knew what I was capable of doing.”
Fifth-year distance runner and captain, Hanna O’Connor, also set a new personal best in the 800 meter with a time of 2:14.57.
The team ran a 3:59.96 in the 4×400 meter on Saturday, putting them in 22nd place out of 31, which was impressive as this was the first time the four athletes had competed in the 4×400 meter together according to Saul.
“I normally do [the event], they normally don’t because they are more distance runners so it’s normally different people,” Saul said. “But I was proud of our 4×4[00 meter] time because we broke four minutes which was cool.”
The team sent a majority of its athletes to the Riverhawk Invitational the day before, including fourth-year captain Megan Wood, who placed first in her section of the weight throw with a distance of 16.59 meters. Wood was one of three athletes who finished top 10 in their events on Friday, as first-year Alyssa Yankee placed sixth in the shootout with a distance of 11.88 meters and third-year Sofia Piccone placed seventh in the mile with a time of 5:07.74. With that time, Piccone set a new personal best in the mile event.
Fellow fourth-year Elise LePage competed in the 800 meter and was less than a second off from a top 10 finish with a time of 2:19.33.
First-year Lilly Pittakas and Second-year Linsey Arends also competed in the 800 meter with LePage, finishing 15th and 17th respectively.
“I’m really excited about the performance,” Feit-Melnick said. “We had some new class records, new URI top-10 all-time marks, multiple personal bests, and New England and Eastern College Athletic Conference qualifying times.”
In the second longest race of the event, fifth-year Daniella Napoli finished fifth in her section of the 3000 meter with a time of 10:24.07, which was good enough for a top-20 placement across all sections.
In the pole vault event, second-year Katie Walsh and fourth-year Caroline Larkin both cleared a height of 3.30 meter. This finish placed the teammates at a tie for 20th place.
The Rams will be back at Boston University on Saturday when they compete at the Terrier’s Scarlett and White Invitational.