Women’s Track and Field Qualifies Two Runners for Nationals in 800 Meters
Issue   |   Tue, 02/20/2018 - 19:51

The Amherst women’s track and field team competed at the competitive DIII New England Championships meet this weekend on Saturday, Feb. 17 at Springfield College. Although the Mammoths’ overall score placed the team in the bottom half of competitors, the women secured four individual top-10 finishes.

On the track, the Mammoths excelled in the distance and mid-distance events, with first-year Haley Greene recording an eighth-place finish in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:31.14. Meanwhile, classmate Olivia Polischeck claimed 17th in the 5,000-meters with a 18:52.75 finish.

Kristin Ratliff ’20 ran to a 13th-place finish in the one-mile run, while Paige Reddington ’21 and Adele Loomis ’18 finished back-to-back in 19th and 20th places in the 1,000-meter run with times of 3:09.28 and 3:14.44, respectively.

Jenny Mazzella ’20 and Christina Scartelli ’19 finished 12th and 15th, respectively, in the 800-meter run with times of 2:24.70 and 2:25.62 to add to the Mammoth’s total score. In addition to their individual performances, Mazzella and Scartelli helped the women’s 4x800-meter relay to an 11th-place finish with a 10:08.61 mark.

Amherst’s top finish of the day on the track came from standout first-year Ella Rossa, who placed third in her preliminary 60-meter hurdles heat to qualify for the finals, where she took eighth overall in just 9.09 seconds.

Finally, rounding out the meet for the Mammoths, senior Becki Golia continued her impressive final collegiate season, registering a 1.60-meter leap to place fifth in the field of 27 competitors. Sophomore Kaitlyn Siegel held her own in the high jump behind Golia, earning ninth overall.

The Mammoths return to the track this weekend on Saturday, Feb. 24, when the team will travel north to compete at the Maine State Open. This will be Amherst’s last meet before the Last Chance Qualifier and NCAA Indoor Championships in March.