By Katherine Harris
Writer
After winning the indoor Patriot League title in the winter, the women’s track and field team started off its outdoor season strong last Saturday with many impressive performances at the Towson Invitational.
“After the layoff between the indoor and outdoor season, I was very pleased with the result,” head coach Kevin Donner said. “We looked at this first outdoor meet more as a rust-buster and did not worry too much about times and distances.”
Even with the team not as worried about individual times and distances, there were still many shining moments on the day in Towson, Md. The Bison ended the meet with three gold medals, including a time of 48.43 seconds in the 4 x 100 meter relay that missed breaking into the program top-10 list by one hundredth of a second.
Another of the victories for the Orange and the Blue came from Rebecca Misko ’12 with her throw of 41.44 meters in the discus. Her mark was closely contested by teammate Abby Monaghan ’13, whose second-place throw of 41.43 meters just barely missed Misko’s distance.
The Bison continued their success in throwing events as they took the second through fourth spots in the javelin. Tayler Siegrist ’13 led her teammates with a throw of 137’ 8’’, while Sarah Trahan ’12 threw 127’ 5’’ and Erin Norris ’15 came in at 125’ 8’’.
In the pole vault Yanelis Mestre ’15 earned sixth in the school records books with a career best 11’ 1.75’’. Mestre earned the fourth place spot in the meet, while Autumn Schellenberger ’14 grabbed fifth on the day.
The Orange and Blue also had strong performances on the track, with Hana Casalnova ’14 leading the way with her winning time of 4:38.19 in the 1500 meters. Casalnova was also followed in the event by teammates Emily Waksmunski ’14, placing fourth, and Stephanie Fulmer ’12, coming in at fifth.
“I thought that the team performed really well in the meet this weekend,” Beth Braunegg ’14 said. “We are ahead of where we were last year at this time so this is setting us up for a strong showing at the league meet in a few weeks.”
The Bison also had three members place in the 800 meters. Braunegg led the way with her time of 2:16:09, while Caroline Tolli ’13 came in close behind in third at 2:16:70. Rounding out the top five was Emily Liggett ’12, whose 2:18:29 earned her the fifth spot in the race.
“We just wanted to be competitive, which we were,” Donner said. “The times and distances will come as we get into mid-season form by mid-April. Next weekend … will give us a good gauge on where we are at as a team.”
The team will seek to continue to improve its marks this weekend at the Colonial Relays, taking place on Friday and Saturday at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.