The Bowdoin women’s track and field team has achieved a large amount of success over the past two weekends. The Polar Bears swept their final home invitational on January 30 and then finished third at the Maine State Meet on February 5.
“It’s been hard work by the runners mixed with the plans we have for training,” said Head Coach Peter Slovenski. “This is the time of year we want people to be having their best performances, and they are.”
Katie Krupp ’16 believes that the level of training during the offseason this year set up the team for success. The team held training in the fall and a two-week preseason at the end of Winter Break.
“We came into this season in better shape and also better prepared than we have in other years,” Krupp said.
On January 30, the Bowdoin Invitational III was held at Farley Field House, where the Polar Bears totaled 193 points to defeat Husson (144), Colby (65) and New England College (36). First year Samantha Schaefer won both the 60 meter dash (8.25) and the 200 meters (27.28). Carolyn Brady ’19 won the triple jump (10.32 meters), setting a personal best.
“A definite strength this year is that the freshmen class is really strong,” said Sarah Kelley ’18. “A lot of girls have come in that have been really contributing.”
There are 13 first years in total this year, and Krupp agrees that this has been a huge development, helping the Polar Bears become a strong and well-rounded team with talent across many different events in both track and field.
Bowdoin won numerous first places on behalf of Allyson Fulton ’16 in the 400 meters, Meghan Bellerose ’17 in the 1000 meters, Kelley in the mile and Sarah Kinney ’19 in the 3000 meters. Bowdoin won the 4x200 meter relay, Sara Ory ’19, Shekinah Pettway ’18, Schaefer and Naomi Jabouin ’18 finishing in 1:52.17. The Polar Bears also received first-place finishes in the high jump on behalf of Addison Carvajal ’16, pole vault from Madeline Schuldt ’18 and long jump from Heather Chan ’17.
“[The success of that meet] gave people a lot of confidence going into the State Meet, where a lot of people rose to the challenge,” said Krupp. “A lot of people improved upon their seeds.”
At the Maine State Championship last Friday, Bowdoin finished third out of six team competing. Despite a lack of numbers, which is a potential disadvantage at a state meet where larger teams can enter more competitors, the Polar Bears earned seven first-places finishes out of 19 events, the highest number of first places of any team.
Krupp and Kelley were both double winners at the meet. Krupp claimed the state title in the long jump (5.36 meters) and the triple jump (11.55 meters), where she also set a new state meet record. Kelley set state meet records in the mile (4:59.96) and in the 1000 meters (2:55.29). Kelley is the third Bowdoin woman to cross the 5:00 barrier, falling six seconds short of breaking the record time set by Joan Benoit Samuelson ’79 in 1979. She also broke the Bowdoin record for the 1000 meters, last set in 2011 by Chantal Croteau ’12.
Another impressive event was the 4x400 meter relay race that Jabouin, Eleanor Brakewood ’19, Ory and Carvajal completed in 4:12.13, beating Bates by just over a second. In addition, senior Meredith Ott earned a personal best, placing sixth in the 5k and Bellerose won the 600 meter run (1:38.90).
“The captains this year have been great doing a lot more team bonding, which I think adds to cheering at meets and people performing their best,” said Kelley.
“I was impressed at the number of personal bests we had in the state meet across the events,” said Slovenski. “We like to be a well-balanced team, and I think we’ve had success in having improvement in all the event areas.”
Looking forward, the team will compete in the Dave Hemery Invitational at Boston University this weekend. The rest of the team’s meets will be away. According to Krupp, the team is excited to get on the road and compete against bigger schools outside of Maine.
“As a team, we’re hoping to perform well and place well at the New England Division III meet at Middlebury,” said Krupp. “That is a meet where having people who can perform at a high level in their events will really help us out.”
In addition, Slovenski said the team hopes to ultimately be in the top five out of the 25 teams in the region. Looking forward, he believes the team is rested and in a very good rhythm for championship races.