Records Fall on Day 1
The first day of action at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) indoor track and field championships is complete. The ECAC championships are being held Friday and Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston.
ALFRED
On Friday's opening day, AU junior
Miasia Hillman (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech) and freshman
Mary Baughman (Henrietta, NY/Rush-Henrietta) each broke school records they set at last weekend's New York State championship meet: Hillman in the 60-meter dash and Baughman in the 5,000-meter run.
Hillman won her preliminary heat of the 60-meter dash in 7.84 seconds, which tied her school record and sent her to the semifinals. The top eight runners in two semifinal heats advanced to Saturday morning's finals. Hillman ran a school record-setting 7.81-second race to finish fifth and send her to the finals. Baughman finished 24
th in the 5,000-meter run in 18:38.97, which broke her school record of 18:44.12, set at last weekend's state meet.
AU senior
Rebecca Graudons (Mayfield, NY/Mayfield) finished eighth in the pole vault (3.38 meters). Graudons, who won the pole vault at the state championships with a school-record vault of 3.60 meters, will now see if that height is good enough to earn her a spot in the NCAA Division III championship meet, March 14 and 15 in Lincoln, NE. Her 3.60 meters is currently ranked 15
th in the nation for Division III.
ITHACA
Junior
Emilia Scheemaker paced the Bombers with a first-place finish of 11.99 meter in the triple jump to earn 10 points.
Classmate
Alex Rechen improved her season-best in the pole vault. She placed fifth in the event with a clear of 3.53 meters.
Ithaca's distance medley relay of graduate student
Carly Graham and juniors
Brittany Greene,
Emily Smith and
Hannah Wright teamed together to cross the finish line sixth with a time of 12:28.45.
Junior
Harmony Graves will advance to the finals of the 60-meter dash. She clocked a season-best 7.96 finish in the preliminaries.
Rookie
Brandy Smith was just 5 centimeters shy of points in the shot put with a heave of 11.76 meters good for ninth.
NAZARETH
ST. JOHN FISHER
Morgan Mastin took part in the 60 meter dash, finishing with a time of 8.08. The junior sprinter was Fisher's lone entry in the event and made the most of it, establishing a new program record in the process.
Paige Willson medaled and earned a third place finish in the shot put after shattering her own record with a throw of 12.68 meters – less than a meter out of first place.
The Cardinals continued to break records, this time in the medley relay, as
Sarah Coon,
Sydney Saccone,
Kaitlin Rizzo and
Kaylee Zbytek sprinted to a new program-best and a 14th place finish after crossing the finish line in 12:51.16.
Chelsea Cleveland,
Ronni Ehlers,
Nicoletta Lattuca and Mastin placed 26th overall in the 4x200 relay after completing the event in 1:48.37.
STEVENS
UTICA
Sophomore
Sarah Wiatr led the Pioneers with an impressive third place finish in the triple jump leaping 11.44 meters and is awaiting NCAA qualification.
Wiatr collected the only points of the dfay for the Pioneers grabbibg six as the women's team is currently 21st after seven events scored.
Other notables for the women included, sophomore
Ashton Villeneuve who placed 21st in the 5000 meter run with a final time of 18:31.90, just under one minute of first place (17:36.27).
The women's 4x200 meter relay team consisting of freshmen
Nikiya Harris and
Brenna Stewart together with senior
Anastasia Bowden and sophomore
Sarah Wiatr registered a time of 1:45.78, placing 11th out of 33 teams.