Women's Track
The women performed outstandingly this weekend as they combined to beat three school records and prepared for the future by qualifying two more competitors for Nationals. Sophomore Shauneen Garrahan, who recently set a new school record in the 800-meter run, followed her two first-place finishes last weekend with another at BU. Her mile time of 4:49.98 set a new Amherst record and earned her an automatic qualification for the NCAA Championships. Junior Ginger Polich set a school record of her own while earning an NCAA provisional qualification in the 800-meter run, finishing in a swift 2:15.61. The Jeffs topped off their record-breaking weekend with a new mark in the 4x400-meter relay. Senior co-captain Lee-Jay Henry, juniors Julia Rucker and Lyndsey Scott and Hannah Campbell '07 sprinted to the record at 4:01.31.
"We're really excited about setting the record," said Rucker. "We went out there to run fast, and we did."
The women also had a number of strong, if not record-breaking finishes. Senior co-captain Carter Hamill finished fourth in the 3,000-meter run, improving upon her first-place time from last week's Div. III New England Championships by four seconds.
Men's Track
Senior co-captain Jack Morgan earned a provisional qualification for the NCAA Championships in the 800-meter run with his eighth-place finishing time of 1:53.23. Morgan earned a provisional qualification for this event two weeks ago but shaved a bit off of his previous time of 1:53.92. Sophomore John Babbott followed Morgan in the 800-meter by taking home 15th place. Morgan, Babbot, sophomore Sam Hayman and first-year Rom Cabeza combined to finish sixth in the 4x800-meter relay. Senior Mike Page took eighth in the 3000-meter run, and classmate Matt Katz took 19th in the mile run.
Next week, the Jeffs will try to take advantage of their final opportunity to qualify for nationals at the aptly named Trinity Last Chance Meet hosted by Yale University.