The William & Mary women's track & field team sprinted its way to a starring role at the Bob Davidson Memorial meet on Saturday at High Point, opening the outdoor campaign with 18 top-10 performances and six new entries in the record books.  In the unofficial team scoring, W&M ranked fourth among 13 teams.

The Tribe sprinters turned in a number of top performances on the day, led by redshirt-freshman Amaya Johnson (Sterling, Va.), who finished fifth overall in the 200m dash.  She ran 24.63, a personal-best by more than two-tenths of a second, and the eighth-fastest single race in school history.  Johnson now ranks third all-time among W&M athletes.  Also in the 200m, redshirt-freshman Carly Swierbut (Newtown, Conn.) ran 25.39 seconds, and improved to 13th all-time at W&M.  In the 100m dash, Felecia Hayes (Chesapeake, Va.) ran a lifetime-best 12.49 for 20th overall, and improved to a tie for 12th all-time among Tribe Athletes.  The 400m dash saw freshman Grace Bir (Falls Church, Va.) take third overall in 57.51 seconds, and improve to 15th in school history.  Her classmate Mary Gregory (Reston, Va.) was ninth in the event, timing 58.71 seconds.

Moving up in distance, redshirt-junior Lauren Finikiotis (Gibsonia, Pa.) won the 800m in a lifetime-best 2:14.43, while in the 1,500m run, her classmate Taylor D. Jones (Virginia Beach, Va.) led three from W&M in the top-10 with her lifetime-best 4:39.35 for third overall.  Freshman Lily Schlossberg (Virginia Beach, Va.) was sixth in 4:44.09, and freshman Kyra Holland (Warrenton, Va.) was right behind her in 4:44.39 for seventh overall.  Redshirt-freshman Kaycee Cox-Philyaw (Linden, Va.) earned the silver medal in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 11:57.13, with her classmate Megan Dougherty (Sinking Spring, Pa.) third in 12:14.11 and freshman Emily Morris (Glen Allen, Va.) took fourth overall in 12:26.46.

The track races also saw redshirt-senior Josie Landis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) take eighth overall in the 400m hurdles, clearing the course in 1:06.11.  In the 4x100m relay, the team of Jadyn Currie (Virginia Beach, Va.), Johnson, Chelsea Mitchell (Canton, Conn.), and Hayes combined to take seventh with a time of 48.01 seconds.  The final event of the day was the 4x400m relay, where the quartet of Gregory, Bir, grad student Gabby Runge (Midlothian, Va.), and Makenzie Joiner (Mechanicsville, Va.) ran 3:51.63 for third overall.  Johnson, Swierbut, Jones, and Landis also ran an aggregation in the mile relay, taking fifth overall in 3:53.59.

In the field events, the freshman Mitchell had the top finish of the day, taking fourth overall in the long jump with a jump of 5.43m (17-9.75).  In the pole vault, Olesya Sitkowski (Phoenixville, Pa.) was eighth overall with the bar at 3.48m (11-5), ranking 14th all-time outdoors at W&M.  Redshirt-junior Taylor E. Jones (Fairfax Station, Va.) was seventh in the triple jump, hitting the sand at 11.29m (37-0.5), and redshirt-freshman Liliana Klemanski (Cicero, N.Y.) was ninth in the high jump, topping the bar at 1.46m (4-9.5).

William & Mary is back in action next Saturday, March 27, competing at the Navy Spring Meet in Annapolis, Md.