NEWPORT NEWS, VA– The St. Mary’s Women’s track and field team competed in the final day of the Coast to Coast conference championships Saturday morning at Christopher Newport University. After breaking two records yesterday, the Seahawks went on to break four more before the end of the meet. St. Mary’s ended the championships tied for 5th place with Pratt Institute with 9 points each.
Christopher Newport took home first place with 184 points in the meet. UC Santa Cruz came in second place with 126 points while Mary Washington walked away with third place at 88 points.
How it Happened
- Seahawks Jordan Bailey, Kendal Eldridge, Stacie Lally and Jason Sprague lined up to race in the one mile event. Eldridge earned 11th place at a time of 6:25.77. Stacie Lally crossed the finish next for the Hawks in 12th place at 6.34.03. Teammate Jason Sprague was right on Lally’s tail, finishing at 6:34.83 to secure 13th place. Jordan Bailey rounded out the competition in 14th place with a time of 7:04.90.
- Elizabeth Marchbank, Ariat Ojulu, Natalie Romero and Alana Thompson set up alongside seven other athletes for the 400M dash. Ojulu just missed out on third place by .27th of a second, crossing the finish line at 1:05.81 for fourth place. With this finish Ojulu broke her previous record in the event, shaving roughly four seconds off her time. Alana Thompson came in sixth for the Seahawks, crossing the finish line at 1:07.07. Natalie Romero held pace right behind her teammate, coming in eighth place at 1:08.27. Marchbank closed the event in 11th place with a time of 1:19.34.
- Alana Thompson and Natalie Romero moved on to compete in the 200m dash for St. Mary’s. Romero placed ninth of the 10 runners, crossing the finish line at 30.20 seconds. Thompson stayed close behind, finishing at 31.01 seconds.
- Betsy Robey stood alone for the Hawks in the 800m run. Robey took 14th place at 2:47.63. There were 17 runners total in the event.
- Ariana Lecouras broke her own record in the 3000m race. Lecouras finished in 14th place today, setting the record at 12:16.41. Her previous record stood at 2:21.62.
- New addition Meaghan Collins continued to make an impact, breaking the record in the shot put. Collins placed sixth of the nine throwers competing in the event and set the new record at 9.43 meters. Morgan Marzec also stepped up to the plate in the shot put. Marzec beat her previous record as well, throwing a distance of 8.91 meters to secure seventh place. The previous record stood at 7.74 meters.
- Ariat Ojulu, Natalie Romero, Betsy Robey and Alana Thompson lined up one last time to compete in the 4×400 relay race. This team worked together to take 5th place of the six teams racing and broke the previous school record with a time of 4:34.65, shaving 10 seconds off the previous record.
Coach’s Words
Coach Reava Potter shared her pride in this team’s performance stating, “they fought hard and gave their best, they went out and held their own against the competition.”. Coach Potter is excited for this team and looks forward to what they will do in their upcoming outdoor season.
Up Next
The Seahawks close their inaugural season here at the conference championships. St. Mary’s will begin their outdoor season in March, competing in their first meet March 18th and 19th. The meet will be held in Myrtle Beach, SC.