The University of Rhode Island women’s track and field team split the squad Friday, with runners and jumpers competing at the Friar Invitational in Providence and throwers competing at the Wilton Wright Invitational in Southern Connecticut.
“They have limited events at the Friar Invitational,” Rhode Island head coach Laurie Feit-Melnick said. “There are no throws offered, and there’s no pole vault; that’s why we had to send some to Southern Connecticut.”
Many field athletes had outstanding performances. Third-year thrower Alyssa Yankee took first place in the discus at 140’ 2” and won the hammer throw at 169’ 6”.
Third-year thrower Brooke Rubush placed sixth in the javelin at 101’ 1” and ninth in the hammer throw with a mark of 132’ 1”. URI also had a second top-10 finish in the javelin. Second-year thrower Norah Kobaly finished third at 108’ 6”.
Third-year thrower Rachel Federico finished 10th in the discus at 115’ 2”, and third-year thrower Maddie Boucher placed 16th in the discus throw.
“Alyssa did super well with her performance in the throws,” Feit-Melnick said. “ Maddie had a [personal best] in the discus. It was pretty solid.”
Rhode Island jumped high and far; three Rams were in the top 10 of the pole vault, including second-year pole vaulter Allison Vigue, who finished first after clearing 11’ 11.75”. First-year pole vaulter Sarah Shipton placed third, and fourth-year pole vaulter Makenzie Wagner took seventh place.
“Vigue won the pole vault with a solid mark,” Feit-Melnick said. “They did vault indoors, based on weather decisions, but the three of them did well competing.”
In Providence, the Rams took home the top three finishes in the 400-meter dash, all within seconds of each other.
First-year Reagan Garibaldi took first place in 55.73 seconds, making her the team’s seventh-best individual all-time. First-year Keira Cleary came in second in 56.15 seconds and second-year Nyah Santana finished third in 56.86 seconds.
Garibaldi was also the top freshman in the 200-meter dash, securing fifth place with a 25.24-second finish.
“They ran really well,” Feit-Melnick said. “That was an outdoor [personal best] for Reagan, and that’s a good, solid freshman record that she broke. Keira had a huge [personal best] to place second, and that was really awesome for that sweep.
URI had three top-five finishes in the 100-meter hurdles. First-year Zarah Singleton finished in second place in 14.37 seconds. Fifth-year Kayla Clark was right behind her in third, with a time of 15.18 seconds. Rounding out the trio was second-year Lily MacDonald, who placed fifth in 15.62 seconds.
Distance running opportunities were limited, but successful when they arose. Second-year distance runner Gwen McCloughan placed fifth in the open 3,000-meter run with a final time of 10:24.13. Fifth-year Sofia Piccone placed eighth in the invitational, with a personal best time of 9:55.48.
“That makes her the third-best individual all-time,” Feit-Melnick said. “She broke the senior class record, so that was pretty huge.”
In the high jump, third-year jumper Josie Allred took second place with a leap of 5’ 1.25”. Fourth-year jumper Alexis Zarr finished third at 4’ 9.5”.
Rhode Island shined in the sand, with all competitors in the long jump representing the Rams. MacDonald placed first in 17’ 10.75”. Second-year Lexi Best finished second with a jump of 16’ 10.5”, fourth-year Kiley Mironenko took third place in 16’ 10.5”, and second-year Emma Halsey rounded out the top four with a finish of 16’ 0.5”.
“Lily did well, but there was no competition,” Feit-Melnick said. “It was just kind of low-key in the sense that we knew going in, we’re the only ones in the long jump. We’ll take advantage of an outdoor facility.”
Rhode Island will jump back into competitive action next weekend to compete in the Holy Cross Invitational in Worcester, Mass., on Saturday.
“We’re excited, Holy Cross has always been a good meet for us,” Feit-Melnick said. “We have to take advantage of every opportunity because we’re less than three weeks out from A-10s. We’re looking forward to a really good team meet to run fast, jump far, throw high.”
Last year, URI placed third at the Holy Cross Invitational. The Rams won the 4×100-meter relay, and Federico won the 400-meter dash.
