Senior All-American Maria Curit will be looking for her third career NE-10 Indoor title in the long jump on Saturday, and she is also seeded third in the 400-meter dash and sixth in the 200-meter dash.

Skyhawks picked first in NE-10 pre-championship coaches poll with 95 points and six first-place votes

NE-10 Indoor Track & Field Championship Preview

EASTON, Mass. (February 19, 2015) – The Stonehill College women's track & field team, ranked No. 19 in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) NCAA Division II National Computer Rankings, will look to defend its Northeast-10 Conference Indoor Championship on Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Stonehill, which captured its first NE-10 Indoor Track & Field title in program history last February, was selected to finish first in the league's pre-Championship Coaches Poll with 95 points and six first-place votes. Southern Connecticut State University was picked to finish a close second to Stonehill with 94 points and four first-place tallies, while the University of New Haven received 83 points and the final first-place vote. American International College (71 points) and Merrimack College (64 points) rounded out the top-5 of the poll.

Stonehill is also currently No. 2 in the USTFCCCA East Regional Computer Rankings, and features four individuals that have provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships to be held on March 13-14 in Birmingham, Alabama, as well as one automatic qualifier. Stonehill's 4000-meter distance medley relay and 4x400-meter relays have also provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Senior All-American Maria Curit (Biddeford, Maine/Biddeford) is seeded third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.24 seconds, which was set on January 30^th at the Boston University Terrier Invitational. Curit has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the event and currently ranks seventh nationally. She will be looking to earn All-Conference honors in the 400 for the second consecutive winter and third time in her career after placing second last February with a time of 55.76 seconds.

Curit is also seeded fourth in the long jump with a mark of 18 feet, one inch, an event in which she has captured two NE-10 indoor titles (2012, 2014), and sixth in the 200-meter dash, and is expected to compete with Stonehill's second-seeded 4x400-meter relay. Her 25.03-second effort in the 200 at the Terrier Invitational is tied for 41^st nationally and meets the provisional qualifying standard for the NCAA Championships.

Borofski	Buonfiglio
Pierson	Brianna Venturo

Sophomores Nicole Borofski (Plymouth, Massachusetts/Plymouth North) and Alexandra Buonfiglio (Lynnfield, Massachusetts/Lynnfield) are seeded first in the 1-mile run and 1000-meter run, respectively, with times of 4:58.05 and 2:59.45. Borofski turned in her NCAA provisional qualifying effort on February 7^th at the University of Rhode Island Coaches Tribute Meet, while Buonfiglio set her mark last weekend at the BU Valentine Invitational. Junior Molly Hellman (Rumson, New Jersey/Rumson-Fairhaven Regional) is expected to join Buonfiglio in the 1000 and is seeded third with a time of 3:01.33, while freshman Julie Schultz (Billerica, Massachusetts/Billerica) is seeded fourth in the 1-mile run with a time of 5:18.86. Hellman posted seventh and eighth place finishes at the past two NE-10 Indoor Championships, respectively.

Junior Jordan Gray (Warwick, Rhode Island/Toll Gate) will look to defend her NE-10 title in the 500-meter run, as she is seeded third with a time of 1:16.70 that was established on February 7^th at the URI Coaches Tribute Meet.

Senior Brianna Venturo (Taunton, Massachusetts/Coyle & Cassidy) is attempting to claim her first career All-Conference honor at the Indoor Championships, as she is seeded No. 1 in the 5000-meter run with a time of 18:19.18. Classmate Brittany Venturo (Taunton, Massachusetts/Coyle & Cassidy) is ranked fifth in the event with a time of 19:19.98, and placed fifth and sixth in the 5000 as a junior and freshman, respectively.

Stonehill has three entries seeded in the top-6 in the 3000-meter run, led by sophomore Aisha McAdams (North Kingstown, Rhode Island/North Kingstown), who is No. 2 with her mark of 10:07.01 from the Coaches Tribute Meet. Freshman Emily Knox (Worcester, Massachusetts/Notre Dame Academy) is seeded third with a time of 10:31.59, while sophomore Alexandra Grimaldo (Marlborough, Massachusetts/Marlborough) is slated sixth with a time of 10:56.64.

Junior Jordan Gray will attempt to capture her second consecutive NE-10 indoor championship in the 500-meter run, as she is seeded third with a time of 1:16.70.

Junior Erin Carberry (Milton, Massachusetts/Thayer Academy) and senior Sarah Wilson (West Suffield, Connecticut/Suffield) are seeded third and fourth, respectively, in the 800-meter run with identical marks of 2:19.03, while senior Erin Rielly (Burlington, Massachusetts/Burlington) and freshman Erin Colford (Epping, New Hampshire/St. Thomas Aquinas) are ranked eighth and ninth in the event. Wilson will be looking to take home her third career All-Conference honor in the 800-meter run, as she captured the NE-10 title last winter and placed second as a freshman in 2011-12.

Junior Trisha Pierson (East Hanover, New Jersey/Hanover Park) aims for the first All-Conference finish of her career in the shot put, as she is seeded second with a program-record distance of 41 feet, 3.25 inches, set at the season-opening UMass Boston Indoor Open. Pierson narrowly missed All-NE-10 honors last winter with her third-place finish. Joining Pierson in the shot put will be freshman Gaelin Farrell (Baldwinville, Massachusetts/Narragansett Regional), who is seeded fourth with a mark of 39 feet, one inch.

Junior Jeana Esernio (Stony Brook, New York/Ward Melville) is seeded sixth in the 60-meter hurdles prelims with a time of 9.13 seconds, while freshman Alison Tobin (Hudson, Massachusetts/Hudson) is ranked fifth in the pole vault with a height of ten feet. Esernio has qualified for the finals at each of the past two NE-10 Indoor Championships, placing fifth on both occasions.

Stonehill will be looking for strong performances from all three of its relay entries, as the 4x800-meter and 4000-meter distance medley relays are each seeded first, while the 4x400 is ranked second.

The 4x400 relay team of Curit, Gray, Esernio, and junior Leanne Kent (North Andover, Massachusetts/Central Catholic) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships on February 7^th at the URI Coaches Tribute Meet, before topping that effort with a program record time of 3:49.60 last weekend at the Valentine Invitational. Stonehill improved its standing from 23^rd to 14^th among the Division II leaders in the event.

The DMR also provisionally qualified for NCAAs with a time of 11:43.44 on January 31^st at the BU Terrier Classic. Saturday's DMR team is expected to consist of McAdams, Hellman, Grimaldo, and freshman Victoria Sheridan (Great Meadows, New Jersey/Pope John XXIII Regional), while Wilson, Borofski, Buonfiglio, and Carberry are slated to run the 4x800 relay.

Following Saturday's NE-10 Indoor Championship, Stonehill will return to action on February 27^th-28^th at the New England Championships.

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