WILLIAMSTOWN, MA. — After two weeks of spectacular weather in Wilmington, North Carolina, the women’s track and field team was not sure what to expect returning to western Massachusetts. They were pleasantly surprised to see the sun and have temperatures approaching the 70’s for their one and only home meet of the season. Many schools traveled to Williamstown to compete in the annual Williams Relays including Union, Westfield State, Union, Colby Sawyer, and Middlebury. With three weeks of hard training under their belts the Ephs competed well, with many athletes meeting or surpassing championship qualifying standards, but are looking ahead in the season to run, jump and throw their best marks. The meet also featured many fun events including a community run, throwers’ relay, jumpers’ relay and the Williams Fastest Sports Team relay, bringing many community members out to the track for a great day of competition. The meet opened with the grueling 10k in which four Ephs were the only competitors entered. Susie Theroux ’05, Lisa Davenport ’07, Sara Morrissey ’07 and Emily Welsh ’05 worked together throughout most of the race, with Theroux pulling ahead the last two miles and taking first. The distance women took another first in the 5k with Caroline Cretti ’06 crossing the line in 17:24 more than a minute ahead of second place. Teammate Mallory Harlin ’08, placed fourth overall with a time of 18:52. Kali Moody ’05 moved up in distance from her usual 800 race, running a terrific mile. Taking an early lead, Moody ran alone for much of the race and paced herself to a 5:07 finish. The Ephs collected two more first place finishes from Lissy Robie ’08 in the 800 and Jenn Campbell ’05 in the steeplechase. Robie used her patented kick to break away from the competition with 300M to go and crossed the line in a time of 2:22. A past national champion in the event, Campbell led from early on in the race and finished with a time of 11:25.

The sprinters had a solid opening meet. After battling with injury toward the end of the indoor season, Katie Fulton ‘06 burst out with a first place finish in the 100M dash. Katie Howard ’07 battled with Smith’s Tanya Nesbitt over 400 meters, with Nesbitt coming out on top, just 0.3 seconds ahead of Howard. The Ephs dominated the sprint relays taking first in the 4x100, 4x200, Sprint Medley Relay, and second in the 4x400. A trio of seniors made their presence felt in the 100M hurdles. Julie O’Donnell ’05, Joyia Chadwick ’05 and Afton Johnson ’05 placed first, second and fourth. Johnson also took first in the 400m hurdles.

In perhaps the best performance of the day, Anna Morrison ’07 threw a national qualifying mark in the discus. Morrison threw 143 feet and was joined by the efforts of Anna Swisher ‘05 and Abelee Esparza ‘07 to win the discus relay. Esparza and Swisher were then joined by Katie Stack ’08 to take first in the team hammer throw relay.

Over Spring break the Ephs has a chance to compete in two meets, the first at Virginia Commonwealth University the opening weekend and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington the weekend of March 25th and 26th. Both meets were under less than ideal competing conditions, the first after many hours on a bus and the second after a week of immense training, but the Ephs still competed well with many athletes still posting qualifying marks and times. Cretti was the solo Eph to compete at the famous Raleigh Relays against tremendous Div I competition. Cretti ran a 35:02, crushing the Div III National qualifying time of 36:00 by almost a minute.

The spring season is incredibley short. Coming back from spring break there are only three for athletes to get the qualifying marks needed to continue the season, so the Ephs took advantage of their two weeks in North Carolina and are ready to reap the benefits of their hard work as the season continues. Next weekend the Ephs head to UMass Lowell and to Amherst the following weekend to compete with Amherst and Wesleyan for the Little Three Championship.

Here are the results of the "Williams Fastest Team Competition" run by other athletic teams at Williams. 4x100 women 1. Nordic Ski 56.63 2. Soccer 57.36 3. Basketball 63.96 4x100 men 1. Basketball 47.83 2. Soccer 48.13 3. Swimming 50.06 4. Squash 51.15 5. Nordic Ski 52.45

Click here for full results

Click here for link to field events