On January 11, the women’s track and field team finished first with 246 points in a meet against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) (163) and Connecticut College (107). In their most recent meet on January 18, the women finished second out of four schools with 152 points, losing only to defending D-III national champions MIT (283.50), while defeating Springfield (81) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) (55.5).
In the first meet, Bowdoin finished first in several field events. Hayleigh Kein ’15 finished first in the long jump, Erin Silva ’15 finished first in the pole vault, and Katie Krupp ’16 won the triple jump. Addison Carvajal ’16 and Krupp placed first and second respectively in the long jump. Carvajal also won the pentathlon, and Randi London ’15 won the shot put.
Bowdoin also claimed first in numerous track events in the RPI meet. Captain Emily Clark ’15 won the 200-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles. First year Meghan Bellerose won the 600 meter run, Alana Mendendez ’15 the 800, and Lucy Skinner ’16 claimed the mile. Cleo Daoud ’15 and Liz Znamierowski ’16 placed first and second respectively in the 400, while Bowdoin’s relay team of Znamierowski, Daoud, Clark and Bellerose also took first in the 4x400.
According to Head Coach Peter Slovenski, the victories on the track are demonstrative of the team’s effort in practice.
“The sprinters have been working hard in the weight room and on the track and I think they gave the team a big boost in the RPI meet,” he said. “The great thing about having healthy and improving sprinters is that sprinters can do more events, we’re fortunate to have a lot of depth there. Some of them are also jumpers; it’s really lucky that we have talented sprinters in all four classes this year.”
The team will also benefit from the return of five juniors who had been abroad.
“All of our juniors who were abroad were back and competing, which was good to see,” said captain Samantha Copland ’14.
Bowdoin was less successful in the second meet, but the Polar Bears still had several strong individual performances. Clark, who holds the 12th-fastest time in D-III, won the 200 for the third consecutive meet. All-American thrower and captain Katherine Harmon ’14 won the 20-pound hammer throw. In addition, Skinner finished first in the 3K, and the team of Znamierowski, Daoud, Clark and Bellerose captured the 4x400 relay for the second meet in a row.
“MIT is the defending D-III champion; they are the best team in New England,” said Slovenski. “We competed very well but MIT is a really strong team. Any event against MIT requires a practically all-American level performance.”
Bowdoin also had a strong performance in the mile. Skinner finished second, Camille Wasinger ’15 took third and Lucy Knowlton ’16 finished fifth.
Strong performances from many underclassmen have contributed to the team’s early success.
“I would say the last two years we graduated a lot of good athletes, so it’s great to see so many talented freshmen and sophomores,” said Harmon. “It seems like new people are stepping up in every meet.”
“I think we’re pretty balanced,” added Clark. “We have people that can perform well in every event.”
The women will compete tomorrow at home against Tufts, Coast Guard, USM, and Colby.