Snow, bad roads and limited rest seemed to have no effect on the Massachusetts women’s indoor track team, as they cruised to a first-place finish with 59 points in a meet against Boston University and Maine Saturday afternoon in Boston.
The Black Bears finished the day with 58 points, while the Terriers settled for last with 34. The other three teams scheduled to appear at the meet – New Hampshire, Providence and Central Connecticut State – were unable to show up due to the snowstorm.
“[Overall] I was very pleased with the win,” said coach Julie LaFreniere. “They’ve been working hard all fall, and I wanted to see the fruits of their labor, so I’m glad it wasn’t canceled. Everything worked out well. They got the meet in, they got back on the road, and they got home safely.”
Junior Christina Huff had the best performance of the day for the Minutewomen, taking home first place in the 55-yard and 200-meter dashes with times of 7.26 and 25.58, respectively, and anchoring the second-place 4×400 relay team. Because of the small amount of athletes participating in the meet, Huff literally had no time to rest between the back-to-back events, as there were fewer heats for each race.
Freshman Troyanah Evans and senior Kishana Hudson complimented the effort in the 55-meter dash with times of 7.51 and 7.54, respectively, to give UMass a 1-2-3 sweep in the event. Evans also placed third in the 200-meter dash and tied for fourth in the long jump with Minutewoman senior Chante Soares to round out a remarkable indoor track debut.
“[Evans] seemed a little nervous when she first got out there, but she pulled it together and did a nice job,” LaFreniere said.
Senior Kyanna Stallings and senior Staceann Brown went 2-3 in the 400-meter dash with respective times of 1:02.04 and 1:02.50.
Senior Kate Markopoulos placed third in the mile run with a personal-best time of 5:11.89, and came back to help the 4×400 team place second.
The Minutewomen went 1-2 in the 500-meter dash on efforts from sophomore Elizabeth Budd (1:19.49) and senior Shannon Jackson (1:20.03). Maine’s Shira Panelli led for the majority of the race, but the two stormed by her in the end to win the race.
“Neither [Budd nor Jackson] really knew how to run the 500-meter,” LaFreniere said. “They are more 400 runners, I think that extra hundred threw them off a bit, mentally … they got the job done, and now they got that experience under their belt.”
Jackson also won the 55-meter hurdles and was the third leg in the 4×400, rounding out a stellar performance on the day in which she too, like Huff, barely had time to catch her breath in between events.
“I really liked [her effort],” LaFreniere said. “She’s very competitive, and even though she was very tired, she went back out in the 4×400 and came back really strong for us.”
Senior Kristen Ford finished highest in the 800-meter for the Minutewomen with a third-place time of 2:19.45.
Tricia Silva led the way in the 3,000-meter with a first-place time of 10:48.84. Silva fell behind early in the race, but the closely-trailing junior Amanda Dahlberg stayed right on Black Bear Charlotte Howley’s shoulder to allow Silva to regain the lead in the end. Dahlberg finished third with 10:52.71.
“Amanda is much quicker already at the first meet,” LaFreniere said. “She’s picked up right where she left off last season. I was very pleased.”
Freshman Melissa Oliveira made sure her collegiate debut counted with a remarkable series in the shot put, finishing second with a throw of 11.92 meters. Junior Jen Iasello won the event easily with a throw of 13.89 meters.
