Stonehill captains (l-r) Elizabeth LaRegina, Amanda Egesi, Angelina Comei, and Chelsea Bishop accept the NE-10 Championship trophy, Stonehill's first in program history. |
Skyhawks rack up eight school records, 173 team points in victory
BOSTON, Mass. (February 22, 2014) – The Stonehill College women's track and field team, ranked second in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association East Regional Computer Rankings, captured its first ever Northeast-10 Conference Indoor Track and Field championship tonight at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center in Boston, Mass.
Led by seven event wins and eight school records, Stonehill won its first conference championship with a total of 173 points. Southern Connecticut State University finished second with 143 points, followed by the University of New Haven (98 points), Merrimack College (77 points), and American International College (68 points).
Senior Chelsea Bishop (Suffield, Conn./Suffield) collected Stonehill's first event win of the evening, as she finished first in the 5000-meter run with a time of 17:33.14. Bishop's time improved her NCAA provisional qualifying mark, which currently ranks as the 20th fastest in the country. Her effort also broke the meet record by almost 15 seconds. Bishop collects All-Conference honors for the second time in her career, as she placed second in the 3000-meter run at last year's NE-10 Championship. Freshman Alexandra Grimaldo (Marlborough, Mass./Marlborough) and junior Brittany Venturo (Taunton, Mass./Coyle Cassidy) also competed in the 5000-meter run, earning points with fourth (18:13.6) and fifth (18:15.72) place finishes, respectively.
Junior Sarah Wilson (West Suffield, Conn./Suffield) won the 800-meter run with a school-record time of 2:13.21, improving on her NCAA provisional qualifying time by 1.28 seconds. She now ranks ninth nationally in the event. Wilson earns her second career All-Conference honor in the 800-meter run, as she placed second as a freshman in 2011-12. Senior Melissa Ulcena (Billerica, Mass./Billerica) also earned points in the event after placing sixth in 2:24.86.
Senior Chelsea Bishop won the 5000-meter run with a time of 17:33.14, improving her NCAA provisional qualifying time. |
Junior Maria Curit (Biddeford, Maine/Biddeford) won her second career NE-10 Championship in the long jump with a school-record distance of 18 feet, 7.75 inches. Curit's effort was good enough to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships, and currently ranks 21st nationally. The junior won the event as a freshman as well, before placing sixth last year. Curit also registered school-record efforts in both the 200-meter and 400-meter dash. She placed second in the 400-meter with a time of 55.76 seconds to earn All-Conference honors, and third in the 200-meter with a time of 25.11 seconds. Both times meet the provisional qualifying standard, and her time in the 200-meter currently ranks 17th nationally.
Junior Emily Anderson (Manchester, Conn./Manchester) took the top spot in the 1000-meter run with a time of 2:56.50, while sophomore Molly Hellman (Rumson, N.J./Rumson-Fairhaven Regional) added two points to Stonehill's tally after placing seventh in 3:07.78.
Sophomore Jordan Gray (Warwick, R.I./Toll Gate) won the 500-meter dash with a school-record time of 1:14.83, and classmate Erin Carberry (Milton, Mass./Thayer Academy) posted a scoring effort with her seventh place finish in 1:21.13.
As expected, Stonehill also got strong efforts from its three relay teams. The 4000-meter distance medley and 4x800 meter relays, which were seeded first entering tonight's action, both won their respective races. The distance medley relay team of Wilson, sophomore Jeana Esernio (Stony Brook, N.Y./Ward Melville), Hellman, and junior Brianna Venturo (Taunton, Mass./Coyle Cassidy) set an NE-10 Championship record with their time of 12:31.06, while the 4x800 team of senior Elizabeth LaRegina (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield), Ulcena, junior Erin Rielly (Burlington, Mass./Burlington) and Anderson earned a time of 9:47.49. The 4x400 meter relay team of senior Katie Polakowski (Essex Junction, Vt./Essex), Curit, sophomore Leanne Kent (North Andover, Mass./Central Catholic) and Gray placed third in 3:53.87.
Junior Maria Curit won the long jump with her school-record distance of 18 feet, 7.75 inches. Curit also set school records in the 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash. |
Polakowski also competed in the 60-meter hurdles, earning All-Conference honors after placing second in a school-record time of 8.95 seconds. Esernio placed fifth in the same event with a time of 9.07 seconds.
LaRegina earned All-Conference honors in the 1-mile run, as she placed second in 5:02.25, while Brianna Venturo finished right behind LaRegina in the event, placing third in 5:07.48.
Stonehill placed three in the top six of the 3000-meter run, led by senior Emily Regan (Hanson, Mass./Whitman-Hanson), who earned All-Conference honors with her second place finish in 10:36.90. Bishop, who won the 5000-meter run, posted a fourth place finish in 10:43.34, while Brittany Venturo took sixth place in 10:51.46.
Sophomore Trisha Pierson (East Hanover, N.J./Hanover Park) placed third in the shot put with her school-record throw of 39 feet, 9.75 inches, breaking her previous mark of 38 feet, 6.25 inches. Freshman Nicole Gilcoine (Rockland, Mass./Rockland) also scored points in the event by placing sixth (36-3.50).
Senior Meaghan Olin (Goshen, N.Y./Goshen) matched her third-place finish from last year's NE-10 Championship in the pole vault, tying her own school-record with a height of ten feet even.
Senior Angelina Comei (Bradford, Mass./Haverhill) placed fifth in the triple jump with a leap of 36 feet, 4.25 inches. Sophomore Stephanie Fitzgerald (Coventry, R.I./Coventry) collected a point in the event as well with her eight place finish (34-6.25).
Senior Amanda Egesi (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) finished sixth in the 60-meter dash in 7.88 seconds, while sophomore Jenn Tenczar (Chicopee, Mass./Chicopee) placed seventh in the weight throw with a distance of 39 feet, 3 inches.
Stonehill will be back in action next weekend at the New England Track & Field Championships, hosted by Boston University at the BU Track & Tennis Center in Boston, Mass.
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