Ithaca Wins Tenth E8 Indoor Title, Graves & Scheemaker Claim Top Honors

2/1/2014 7:50:00 PM

Complete Women's Results

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's track & field team secured its seventh consecutive Empire 8 Indoor Track & Field Championship title scoring 168.50 points Saturday at Glazer Arena. The Bombers have won the crown 10 of the 11 times it has been contested.

Juniors Harmony Graves (Ithaca, N.Y./Ithaca) and Emilia Scheemaker (Scarborough, Maine/Scarborough) claimed the top women's awards. Graves was named Empire 8 Track Athlete of the Meet and Scheemaker E8 Field Athlete of the Meet.

The Bombers won six of the meets' 15 events. Nine individuals and one relay team tallied All-Empire 8 selections during the victory. Ithaca hit 14 ECAC qualifiers during the meet.

Ithaca had three hit the ECAC qualifiers in the 60-meter dash. Graves ran second in 8.03 and junior Rachel Friedman (Stone Ridge, N.Y./Rondout Valley) followed in third with a time of 8.08. Sophomore Sarah Werner (Bath, Pa./Northampton), who finished fifth in the finals, ran her qualifier of 8.05 in the preliminaries.

Graves and Friedman also clocked ECAC finishes in the 200 dash. Graves won gold in the event in 26.23 and Friedman placed fifth in 26.82.

Graves was joined by juniors Brittany Greene (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield) and Alex Lewis (Montrose, Pa./Montrose Area) and rookie Julia Jones (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield) on the winning 1,600 relay team. They crossed the finish line in an ECAC-good 4:08.89.

Junior Alexa Rick (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria Catholic) earned silver in the 5,000 run with a time of 18:34.15 to meet the ECAC qualifier.

Closing out action on the track, junior Christine Benway (Queensbury, N.Y./Queensbury) was the runner-up in the 60 hurdles with a time of 9.68.

Scheemaker won back-to-back events, hitting the ECAC standards both times. She took gold in the long jump with a leap of 5.50 meters and won the triple with a mark of 12.07 meters, a Glazer Arena record.

Freshman Natalie Meyer (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Mendon) placed third in the long with an ECAC-qualifying distance of 5.18 meters. Meyer also qualified for the ECAC Indoor Championships with a third-place clear of 1.60 meters in the high jump.

Freshman Brandy Smith (Miami, Fla./Ransom Everglades School) won the weight throw and was the runner-up in the shot put. With a pair of ECAC qualifiers, Smith heaved 14.39 meters in the weight and tossed 11.81 meters in the shot put.

Junior Alex Rechen (Simsbury, Conn./Simsbury) won the pole vault with an ECAC-qualifying clear of 3.45 meters.


Team Standings