Owls Win Three Individual Events, Finish Second at MASCAC Championship
The Westfield State women’s track and field team won three individual events and secured a team relay title as the Owls finished in second place at the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship meet from Fitchburg, Mass. on Saturday.
WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Westfield State women's track and field team won three individual events and secured a team relay title as the Owls finished in second place at the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship meet from Fitchburg, Mass. on Saturday.
The Owls finished with a total of 162 points and were narrowly edged by Bridgewater State as the Bears won the conference championship with 189 points. Framingham State finished third with 92 points to round up the top three.
Molly Kennedy (West Springfield, Mass.), Shea Hamel (Longmeadow, Mass.), and Brynne LeCours (Haverhill, Mass.) won individual titles for the Owls.
Kennedy crossed the tape first in the 1500m at a time of 4:59.55 and also finished as the runner-up in the Owls-dominated 5000m event.
Hamel was the leader of the Owls pack at the 5000m, cruising to a first-place tally with a 32-second lead by posting a time of 19:09.47. She also added a fourth-place finish in the 1500m (5:04.79).
B. LeCours topped the 800m (2:28.07) by finishing .62 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. She was also apart of the Owls team-winning 4x800-meter relay along with Tealei Chandonnet (Dracut, Mass.), Ariann LeCours (Haverhill, Mass.), and Alison Downin (Hudson, Mass.).
Paige Moroney (Sterling, Mass.) qualified for the New England championship meet in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.55 seconds to finish third in the event. She also posted eight points in the 200m by crossing the tape second in 26.29 seconds.
Vicky Marin (Greenfield, Mass.) was a significant contributor to the Owls scoring on the afternoon, recording points in five different events. She qualified for the New England championships in three separate events in the 100-meter hurdles (15.74), long jump (5.34m), and the triple jump (10.95m). She also added third in the 400-meter hurdles (1:15.85) and fourth in the high jump (1.57m).
Rebecca Patel (Belchertown, Mass.) and Grace Poplawski (Rowe, Mass.) both earned spots at the New England Championships in the 10,000m. Patel raced to a second-place time by crossing the tape in 39:59.01. She was also third in the 5000m (19:47.10) to complete a sweep of the top three positions for Westfield. Poplawski was fourth in the 10,000 at a time of 40:55.86 to qualify for next week's meet.
First-year Eliza Lee (Walpole, Mass.) piled up a trio of third-place tallies in the 400m (1:02.01), long jump (5.11m), and triple jump (10.84m). Savannah Campbell (Walpole, Mass.) added a fourth-place finish at the 400-meter hurdles as well to cap a strong outing for the women's team.
Next weekend, women's track and field athletes that qualified for the New England Championships will compete at Springfield College.