W&M Women's Track and Field Stands First At Half-Way Point of CAA Championships

Emily Anderson, Nicole Kazuba Win Gold in Record-Setting Fashion

04/17/09 10:08PM

TOWSON, MD - William and Mary’s women’s track and field team rode a very strong performance across all events Friday to stand in the lead at the 20th annual Colonial Athletic Association Championships after six events. The Tribe won gold in two of the six events completed on Friday, and is ahead of UNC Wilmington and the rest of the conference, 68-52.5. Seven preliminary events were held during the day to cut down to a final heat on Saturday, and W&M had nine athletes make it back through the heats.

Complete First Day Results

Friday’s Final Events
5,000m Run
Junior All-American Emily Anderson (Golf, Ill.) cruised to her second conference title on the track, winning the 5,000m with a meet-record time of 16:40.99. Classmate Kayley Byrne (Oak Hill, Va.) also earned all-conference recognition with her third-place finish of 16:46.20. Both athletes met the qualifying standards for the NCAA East Regional as well as the ECAC Championships while coming in under the old meet record of 16:50.19, set by Julia Cathcart in 2006. Senior Lynn Morelli (Philadelphia, Pa.), who qualified for the NCAA Regional in March at the Raleigh Relays, finished sixth in 16:56.05 to score three points for the team.

10,000m Run
Two Tribe harriers also earned all-conference honors in the 10,000m with second and third place finishes. Junior Sallie Ford (Lynchburg, Va.) made her first attempt at the distance since the 2007 Championships a successful one, timing 36:44.66 for the silver medal and qualifying for the ECAC Championships. Freshman Sara Lasker (Fredericksburg, Va.) was right behind in 36:45.06, claiming third and also qualifying for the ECAC Championships.

Pole Vault
Junior Nicole Kazuba (Chantilly, Va.) vaulted herself into rare territory with her third consecutive gold medal in the pole vault, clearing the bar at a school and personal-record tying 13-1.5 (4.00 meters) to break the conference record and qualify for both the NCAA Regional and ECAC Championships. Sophomore Emily Jeremiah (Mechanicsville, Va.) also moved past the old conference record of 12-7.5 (3.85m) to qualify for both the regional and ECAC meets with a career-best vault of 12-9.5 (3.90m).

Hammer Throw
Junior Ashley Williams (Williamsburg, Va.) led the Tribe in the hammer throw, claiming All-CAA honors and the silver medal with her throw of 162-5 (49.50m). The throw re-affirmed her qualification to the ECAC Championships that she picked up earlier this season. Senior Abby Lemon (Berryville, Va.) was fourth with a throw of 160-1 (48.79m), and freshman Natalie Baird (Sterling, Va.) gave the Tribe three scorers with her fifth-place throw of 154-1 (46.97m). Baird’s effort also gave her the W&M freshman record in the hammer, surpassing the 149-2 showing by Lemon at the 2006 CAA Championships. Baird now owns the freshman record in every event she has competed this season.

Preliminaries and Multi-Events
Heptathlon
Sophomore Katie Guevel (Burlington, Kan.) took firm control of the heptathlon in the first event and never let go. She posted the top time in the 100m hurdles with 14.03, just behind her own school record set last season, and opened a 14-point lead on the field, 974-960. The second event of the day was the high jump, and Guevel was again right near the top, tying for second after clearing 5-1 (1.55m) for 678 points. As her opponents reshuffled themselves, Guevel’s lead had grown to 123, 1,652-1,529.

Guevel had her career-best put of the shot in the day’s third event, winning the competition with an effort of 38-11 (11.86m) to add 652 points to her total and forge ahead of the next competitor by 165 points. Back on the track for the day’s final event, the 200m dash, Guevel posted the Tribe’s season best time of 25.30 seconds to win, scoring 859 to bring her first-day total to 3,163 points and set the lead at 268 with three events left. She is on track to post a career-high score of 5,189 points, right near the meet record of 5,192 points set in 2007 by W&M’s Bonnie Meekins ‘07.

400m Prelims
Senior Ashley Madonick (Seaside Park, N.J.) broke the career-best she set just last week in qualifying for Saturday’s championship heat, timing 55.91 seconds to earn the fourth seed and qualify for the ECAC Championships in May. She now stands only .47 seconds off of Uche Uwah’s school record of 55.44 (55.3 hand-time) set in 1986.

400m Hurdle Prelims
Just like Madonick, junior Dana Harvey (Mechanicsville, Va.) also improved her career-best by .04 seconds, running 1:02.72 to earn the fourth seed in tomorrow’s finals of the 400m hurdles. Harvey is now only .18 seconds off of qualifying to the ECAC Championships, and 1.58 seconds behind the school record.

800m Prelims
Juniors Kelly McElroy (Wyomissing, Pa.) and Ariel Burbey (Blacksburg, Va.) both qualified for Saturday’s finals in the 800m by winning their preliminary heats. McElroy posted the day’s second-best time of 2:14.29, while Burbey is seeded eighth after running 2:16.65.

1,500m Prelims
William and Mary had five athletes qualify for the finals of the 1,500m run, with all five finishing among the top seven seeds for the 12-athlete final. Senior Emily Schroeder (Midlothian, Va.) had the day’s top time, running 4:39.06 to lead all athletes. Juniors Meghan Burns (Coopersburg, Pa.) and Anderson were third and fourth, respectively, in 4:39.82 and 4:40.37. Freshman Heather Beichner (Cary, N.C.) timed 4:40.57 for fifth place, and sophomore Betsy Graney (Harper Woods, Mich.) came through in seventh with a time of 4:41.14.