Women's Track Sees Nine Personal Records in Final Tune Up at UMass on Saturday
CCSU highlights nine different PR's in its final regular season meet at UMass on Saturday
The Central Connecticut women's track and field team took home nine personal records across the board and finished sixth overall at the 2017 UMass Pre-Conference Meet with a total of 60 points on Saturday, April 29. Sophomore Abrah Toomey walked away from Amherst, MA with two collegiate best performances. Toomey demolished her previous best hammer throw of 33.46 meters set at the UMass Pre-Conference meet in 2015 with a sixth place distance of 42.97 meters on Saturday. The sophomore threw a career farthest 11.10 meters to come in ninth in the shot put.
Junior Melissa Wolliston made the most of her final tune-up before the 2017 Northeast Conference Outdoor Championships next week with a personal best 100 meter hurdle time of 14.13. Wolliston placed second overall in the event while surpassing her old top mark of 14.51 set back in the 2015 at the NEC's.
Following Wolliston in third and fourth, was senior Sarah Hicks (14.64) and freshman Hailey Rospierski (14.69) with a pair a PR's. Senior Sherise Truman took bronze in the 100 meter dash with a new career best time of 12.20.
The Blue Devil 4x100 quartet of runners made up of Hicks, Truman, senior Erica Snape, and rookie Wileshka Samuel took second place overall and qualified for the ECAC's with a season best time of 47.30.
Samuel and Snape also competed in the 200 meter dash for the Blue Devils, with Samuel pacing in fifth place with a season best time of 25.71. Snape took ninth with a time of 26.10. Freshman Gianna D'Amato was solid in the javelin with a third place throw of 38.98 meters.
Junior Tayler Boncal was the lone CCSU representative in the 400 meter dash, and ran a time of 60.0 seconds to come in ninth overall.
Sophomore McKenna Kilian helped herself to a personal best time in the 400 meter hurdles, while taking fifth and finishing at 1:05.96. Freshman Megan Brawner crossed the finish line in 2:17.83 in the 800 meter run, cutting almost two seconds off of her previous fastest mark of 2:19.75.
Out in the field, rookie Kadizha Benjamin placed seventh with a season best jump of 1.56 meters, and sophomore Sierra Nesmith grabbed a fourth place finish with a distance of 11.00 meters in the triple jump.
Rounding out the top individual results was a freshman Valeria Hernandez who highlighted the shot put with an 11.25 meter throw to take eighth. Junior Brittany Mendelson took 10th in the 1,500 meter (4:44.90), along with sophomore's Madeline Mondo (4:55.10) and Dawn Hubbell (5:07.75).
The Central Connecticut women's track and field team will next prepare for a championship road trip down to Emmitsburg, MD for the 2017 Northeast Conference Championships held at Mount St. Mary's on May 6-7.
