The women's track team ran away with first place out of a field of six last Saturday at the annual Aloha Relays, which took place at Magee-Samuelson Track and marked the team's only home meet of the season. The meet was also the final tune-up for the NESCAC Championship competition, which will take place this Saturday at Wesleyan.
Fans who turned out in spite of the weather—which was anything but Hawaiian—were treated to several noteworthy performances from the Polar Bears, as the team outscored second-place Bates 227.5-128. Elsa Millett '12 and Laura Peterson '12 stood out, each winning two events.
Millett won the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.18 seconds and outran Colby's Brittney Bell by over two full seconds to claim the 400-meter dash as well. While neither time marked a season-best, both performances were impressive given poor conditions on the track.
Seniors Molly Duffy and Grace Kerr took first and second in the 800-meter run, while Caroline Tory '12 crossed the finish line just seconds behind them in fourth place. Although not at her strongest, Chantal Croteau '12 aided the mid-distance barrage by taking second in the 1500-meter run.
Michele Kaufman '13 and Molly Harkavy '14 placed first and second in the 100-meter hurdles. Harkavy added to her strong day by winning the 400-meter hurdles.
The Polar Bears' highest-scoring event of the day, though, was the grueling 10,000-meter run, in which Christina Argueta '11, Holly Jacobson '11, Michelle Lawson '12 and Molly Porcher '13 took the first four places, respectively. Argueta crossed the finish line in 38:05, over three minutes ahead of the rest of the pack.
Meanwhile, although the rain drove away most chances to improve seed distances in the field events as well, the Polar Bears still managed to dominate the long jump and triple jump. Peterson won both with distances of 5.13 and 10.74 meters, respectively. Hannah Peckler '11 also helped the cause, taking second place in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump.
Finally, Annie Huyler '12 won the Heptathlon, which combined the high jump, long jump, shot put, javelin, 100-meter hurdles, 200-meter dash and 800-meter dash. Huyler won four of the seven events en route to accumulating 3,831 points.
The Polar Bears will begin their stretch of championship meets this Saturday with the NESCAC Championships at Wesleyan. Last year's team finished in fifth place out of a field of 11 teams.