Sports
Ohio Track and Field Competes On Both Coasts
By: Nick Komjati
Posted on:
From the campus of Winthrop University on the east coast to Stanford University on the west coast, the Bobcats of the women’s track and field team competed over the weekend.
Four Bobcats traveled to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Invitational and put on a very strong showing Friday.
Junior Juli Accurso, competing in the highly competitive Section One of the 10,000m run, finished 20th, two seconds off of an Ohio school record. The result puts her in a strong position to earn an NCAA first round berth in the 10,000m.
Freshman Kayla Scott debuted in the 3,000m steeplechase with a strong 13th place finish, automatically qualifying her for the MAC Championships in that event. It was the second-fastest time for a Bobcat over the past two outdoor seasons.
Competing in the Section Four final of the 5,000m run, junior Melissa Thompson placed 14th and achieved a personal best time of 17:05.32.
The final Bobcat participant, sophomore Morgan Reichert, participated in Section Four of the 10,000m run. She finished 30th with a time of 36:05.70
At the Winthrop Invitational in Rock Hill, S.C., Bobcat athletes dominated a number of events and posted strong results.
In the 5,000m run, four Bobcat runners placed in the top-10.
Freshman Krista Roehlig finished best out of the Ohio runners in second-place with a time of 17:47.09, followed by junior Morgan Meade in third with a time of 17:51.03.
Senior Ashley Waddington finished fourth with a time of 18:05.80, and freshman Caroline Hildebrand finished in ninth with a time of 18:55.03.
Sophomore Janiece Rose took the top prize in the shot put throw with a throw of 12.68m, and sophomore Chanda Cuckler came in second in the high jump with a leap of 1.65m.
Two Bobcats, senior Alexis Geiger and sophomore Morgan Overbey, finished second and sixth respectively in the long jump with leaps of 5.71m and 5.19m.
Rounding out Ohio participants, senior Lauren McCullough finished sixth in the hammer throw at 46.50m.
While competition at the Stanford Invitational wrapped up for the women’s track team on Friday, other members of the team still had work left to do in the closing rounds of the Winthrop Invitational on Saturday.
The Bobcats competed in many final rounds of their respective events, some taking top prizes.
Senior Danielle Winningham won the title for the 400m run with a personal best time of 56.04, while freshman Tessa Weigand also captured her personal best time in the 1,500m run, crossing the finish line at a time of 4:42.70.
Winningham’s performance qualifies her for the MAC Championships later on in the season.
Chuckler, competing in her first-career 100m hurdles race, finished third by clocking a time of 14.48 and fellow sophomore Karissa Conrad took fourth in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:05.13.
Freshman Allison Roeth also finished fourth in her event, the 3,000m steeplechase, with a time of 11:50.45.
In the 800m run, Weigand and Delaney Bolger finished in sixth and seventh place with times of 2:17.89 and 2:20.65 respectively.
In field events, McCullough placed fifth in the javelin throw with 36.75m and senior Alexa Macri enjoyed a second place finish in the discus with a throw of 42.13m.
The Bobcats hit the track again next Saturday, April 6, when they host their first home event of the outdoor season, the Ohio Team Challenge and Distance Open.