W. Track jumps for more ECAC berths

The women's track team traveled to Virginia last Friday to compete in the Virginia Tech Invitational against some of the top teams in the country, including Georgia, Tennessee and Miami. The weekend concluded with three Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship qualifiers. The team had hoped that the high quality facility and top participants would bring up its level of competition, as well as its times. Junior Lisa El qualified for the first time in the triple jump with a distance of 39 feet 4.25 inches. El also managed to set a personal record, out-jumping her previous best distance by almost five inches. The 4x400 relay team also secured a position for ECACs with a time of 3 minutes 53 seconds. The team was made up of senior captain Jen Roy, juniors Jessica Mitchell and Vicki Moore and freshman Bassey Adjah. All of the members of the relay team, except for Adjah, are current record-holders in the 4x400, set last year. In addition to qualifying in the relay for ECACs, Mitchell also qualified in the 800 meter run and set a personal record. Mitchell didn't need the time to go to ECACs, since she already landed a position in a meet at Delaware, but she improved her personal time. In another leg, Moore missed qualifying by less than a second, although she did manage to set a personal record. "I plan to qualify for the 400 open. I missed it by .3 of a second," Moore said. "I want to keep running well, and eventually set a new record for the 4x400 for the school." Other highlights of the weekend include the fifth and sixth place finishes of junior Lindsey Anderson and senior Satsuki Mitchell, respectively. Anderson qualified for ECACs at the first meet of the season. Despite the high finish, Mitchell was not completely satisfied with her performance. "In placing, I did pretty well. But, it's more about your own personal score or time," Mitchell said. "I haven't been jumping what I'd like to be jumping. It's amazing to see that kind of caliber (of competition) up close." Freshman Ami Desai finished fifth in the pole vault. This is the first year that pole vault is part of competition at the collegiate level. For many of the team members, participating with some the top teams in the country proved to be a valuable experience. "They really learned how to handle themselves in their nerves against schools like this because a lot of times you've never seen them before unless you go to nationals," coach Tony Tenisci said. "They learned how to prepare themselves, race against these people and do a very competitive job with that." The eight hour trip to Virginia took a toll on the team. This week it hopes to recuperate yet practice hard, as it has another meet this Friday night.