HANOVER, N.H. - Led by four individual wins and a relay victory, the Yale women's track and field team bested Columbia and barely fell to Dartmouth in the YDC tri-meet on Saturday at Leverone Field House.
Pole vaulter Erin Gerardo, long jumper Sydney Kunkler and thrower Emma Vasen kicked off the meet scoring points for Yale, with Gerardo clinching a second-place finish in the pole vault and Kunkler and Vasen finishing third in their respective events. First year Abrianna Barrett kept the momentum going, grabbing a second-place finish in the high jump with a jump of 1.70 meters. In addition to her third-place finish in the women's weight throw, Vasen also grabbed second place in the shot put. Rounding out the day's field events, Tessa Malone finished third in the triple jump with a jump of 11.40 meters.
On the track, the Yale women dominated the 60 meter dash, taking four out of eight qualifying spots into the finals. Lillian Enes, Libby McMahon, Sophie Isom and Ava Thomas all qualified for the finals, with Enes eventually winning the event and Thomas finishing in third place. Later in the day, McMahon returned to the track to win the 200 meters in a new personal best of 25.38.
In the first distance event of the day, Gemma Shepherd ran a tactical race in the mile and closed hard for a third-place finish in a time of 5:03.17. After both qualified into the final, Emma Osborne and Addison Coy finished second and fourth respectively in the 400 meter dash.
In the 500 meters, middle distance runners Samantha Friborg and Chloe Jensen shined despite both running a new event. Friborg closed hard to claim a second-place finish with a time of 1:17.32. Next up in the 800 meters, Arianna Lord finished third in a time of 2:21.77, with Shepherd and Hannah Steffke finishing just behind Lord in 2:22.38 and 2:23.09 for both of their second races of the day.
Yale dominated the 1,000 meters. Kayley DeLay won in a personal best time of 2:54.90, cruising to the first-place finish, with middle distance stars Megan Quimby and Kosana Weir claiming third and fourth places respectively. The Bulldogs claimed another win in the 3,000 meters, with Jane Miller running a personal best of 9:46.24
Closing out the day, Yale's 4x800 meter relay team, consisting of Weir, Quimby, DeLay and Friborg cruised to a six-second win over second-place Columbia, with Dartmouth's team crossing the line 13 seconds later. In the 4x400 meter relay, the Bulldogs finished in a close second place, just falling to Columbia by three-tenths of a second.
Full results can be found here.
