W&M Women's Track and Field Wins Ninth CAA Title in 11 Years

Emily Anderson Named Track Athlete of the Meet

04/18/09 9:05PM

TOWSON, MD - The William and Mary women's track and field team again proved to be the class of the Colonial Athletic Association Saturday, winning its ninth title in the past 11 years 181-122 over UNC Wilmington. Tribe All-American Emily Anderson (Golf, Ill.) was named the women's track Most Outstanding Performer after becoming the first female and second athlete overall to complete the 1,500m/5,000m double win, joining 11-time All-American Matt Lane '01.

Complete Meet Results

Event-By-Event Recap
400m Dash Finals
Senior Ashley Madonick (Seaside Park, N.J.) registered a massive 0.8 second improvement over the career-best she set yesterday, and broke Uche Uwah's 24-year-old school record with her time of 55.11 seconds. Madonick's effort was good for second place and her first all-conference award, and qualified her again to the ECAC Championships.

800m Run Finals
Juniors Ariel Burbey (Blacksburg, Va.) and Kelly McElroy (Wyomissing, Pa.) each earned all-conference honors placing second and third, respectively, in the finals of the 800m run. Burbey's silver-medal effort was a career-best 2:11.23, qualifying her to the ECAC Championships and ranking her ninth on the Tribe's all-time list. McElory was just shy of the ECAC qualifying time, crossing the finish in 2:11.76.

1,500m Run Finals
Anderson won her second career 1,500m title and became the first woman in CAA history to win both the 1,500m and 5,000m crowns at one meet with an NCAA Regional-qualifying time of 4:26.54 to lead three teammates in the top five finishers. The win also cemented the MOP award for the junior, who joined Ali Henderson '03, Emily Furia '01 and Lisa Rayner '95 in the Tribe record books with the award.

Senior Emily Schroeder (Midlothian, Va.) also earned all-conference honors with her third-place effort, timing a career-best 4:28.29 to qualify for the ECAC Championships. Schroeder's time ranks her sixth in school history, just ahead of her coach, Kathy Newberry '00 (4:28.37 in 1997). Junior Meghan Burns (Coopersburg, Pa.) also came in under the ECAC standard, taking fourth in 4:30.90. Freshman Heather Beichner (Cary, N.C.) took fifth in 4:33.17, just behind the ECAC cutoff but the second time this season she's qualified for the U.S. Junior Championships.

400m Hurdles Finals
Junior Dana Harvey (Mechanicsville, Va.) also improved on the career-fast time she put up yesterday in the preliminaries, dropping her personal record to 1:02.64 while taking sixth in the 400m hurdles. Already the number-two hurdler all-time at W&M, Harvey is now only 0.1 seconds behind the ECAC standard, less than the total time she's dropped over the course of this weekend.

3,000m Steeplechase
Sophomore Betsy Graney (Harper Woods, Mich.), last year's CAA Rookie of the Year, won her first conference title this afternoon by taking the 3,000m steeplechase in 10:50.07. The time was enough to re-affirm her qualifications to both the NCAA Regional and ECAC Championships. Last year's champion, senior Emily Arena (Manassas, Va.), earned all-conference honors again this season with her third-place showing of 11:04.53.

Relays
The Tribe's 4x100m relay started the day's running events by taking sixth in 48.40, just off of the season-fast 48.34 W&M timed two weeks ago at the Colonial Relays. The runners on the team included Harvey, freshman Elizabeth Crowley (Blue Point, N.Y.), senior Mallory Hogan (West Hartford, Conn.), and Madonick. Later, as evening stole over the stadium and the team outcome was already decided, the 4x400m relay ran a relatively sedate 3:54.26 for seventh place. That team was comprised of Harvey, sophomore Katie Guevel (Burlington, Kan.), Hogan, and Madonick.

Shot Put
William and Mary's throwing corps opened a very strong day by sweeping the shot put and claiming 24 team points before many of the athletes even arrived to begin warming up. Junior Ashley Williams (Williamsburg, Va.) put the shot 44-7 (13.59 meters) for her first conference title, and also earned automatic berths at the NCAA Regional and ECAC Championships with the win. Classmate Carly Morse (Sumerduck, Va.) finished second with a put of 44-3.25 (13.49m), and freshman Natalie Baird (Sterling< Va.) earned her first all-conference accolade with her third-place effort of 43-7.75 (13.30m).

Discus Throw
Baird earned her second bronze medal of the day a few short hours later, spinning the disc out 141-3 (43.06m) to earn All-CAA honors and six team points for the Tribe. Her throw also surpassed the ECAC qualifying standard. Morse was seventh with a throw of 127-3 (38.80m) to score two points for W&M.

Heptathlon
Katie Guevel started her day by becoming the first athlete in conference history win back-to-back heptathlons, qualifying for the ECAC Championships and provisionally to the NCAA Championships with her scored of 5,051 points. After taking sixth in the day's first event, the long jump, with a leap of 16-3 (4.95m), Guevel quickly got back to winning the events with victories in both the javelin (123-11, 37.77m) and the 800m run (2:28.09). Guevel finished the weekend having won five of the seven events in the heptathlon, and won by a margin of 560 points.

With the CAA Championships now complete, W&M has three more weekends to try and qualify athletes to the ECAC Championships or farther, to the NCAA East Regional. Next weekend brings several opportunities for qualifying meets, including the world-famous Penn Relay Carnival Thursday-Saturday, April 23-25.