Over spring break, women’s track and field concluded its indoor season in Birmingham, Alabama, competing at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships.
The meet was hosted by Birmingham Southern College and took place March 9 and 10.
Seniors Danielle Griffin and Leonie Rauls, who qualified for the 800-meter run, represented the Mammoths at the championships.
At the Maine State Open hosted by Southern Maine University on Feb. 24, the pair swept the top two spots of the 800 meters, with Griffin logging a time of 2:15.40 to hit the finish line first and Rauls coming in just behind her to clinch second with a 2:15.91 mark.
With their victorious bids in Maine, Griffin headed into the championships as the No. 11 seed with a seed time of 2:13.46, while Rauls arrived in Alabama as No. 16 with a seed mark of 2:14.36.
The action began at the Birmingham on Friday with the preliminaries at 4 p.m. Both harriers excelled, with each woman outperforming her seed time in the run.
Rauls had an excellent race, once again posting a personal best time with a 2:15.56 mark that saw her finish 11th overall in the event.
Meanwhile, Griffin beat her seed mark by just over two seconds, finishing in 2:11.82 to lead the pack and finish first in the qualifying round, earning herself one of eight spots in the finals.
The next day, at 3:50 p.m., Griffin took to the track to represent Amherst in the finals of the 800-meters run.
Griffin ended up posting a time of 2:12.84, slightly slower than the previous day, but still fast enought to break records and make Amherst history.
The time was good enough for sixth place overall in the event, and as a result of finishing in the top eight of the event, Griffin garnered All-American honors.
Additionally, with her mark, Griffin eclipsed the school record time of 2:13.81 set by Shauneen Garrahan ’07 in 2005. Griffin is also the first Amherst women’s harrier in program history to garner All-American honors in this specific event.
The track and field team will rest for the next week to prepare for the start of outdoor season, which will commence at Tufts in the Outdoor Snowflake Classic on Saturday, March 31.
