NEW LONDON, Conn. (Apr. 30, 2011) – Led by Jacinta Edebeli, the Mount Holyoke College women's track and field team grabbed eighth place at the NEWMAC Championships today. The senior took home top honors in the shot put with her toss of 11.42 meters. By doing so, she earned First Team All-Conference honors and contributed 10 points to the Lyons' team total.
MIT piled up 216.5 points en route to its third straight NEWMAC title. The Engineers finished in front of Springfield College (154), Wheaton College (103.5), Smith College (77), WPI (77), Wellesley College (68), the Coast Guard Academy (47), Mount Holyoke (17) and Babson College (15). This year's championship meet took place at Coast Guard.
Edebeli added to her fine day with a ninth place finish in the javelin (28.37) and a 14th place showing in the 200-meter dash (27.46). She will represent the Lyons at next weekend's New England Division III Championships in the shot put and heptathlon. The meet is slated to begin on Thursday and run through Saturday at MIT.
With her results today, Edebeli established a new school record with 3,534 points in the heptathlon. The previous high of 3,458 points was set by Carrie Turban in 1995.
Sophomore Angelica Pascual also enjoyed an outstanding day for Mount Holyoke. In addition to earning one point with her eighth place time of 26.71 in the 200-meter dash, she also joined forces with Kathleen O'Connor, Bianca Routt and Whitney Bailey to secure a pair of points in the 4x100-meter relay. The quartet took seventh place with their time of 54.64. Pascual narrowly missed the finals in the 100-meter dash, finishing in ninth place with a time of 13.17. With her times today, she qualified for the New England Division III Championships in 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash.
Junior Gizelle Fletcher also made herself eligible for the New England Division III Championships with her 12th place time of 27.11 in the 200-meter dash.
Mount Holyoke's remaining points came from junior Felicia Cordeiro, who added four with her fifth place time of 12:55.43 in the steeplechase.
Sophomore Connie Ward and junior Alicia Forrest joined Edebeli in the shot put. They finished 10th (10.16 meters) and 12th (9.99 meters), respectively. Meanwhile, sophomore Jillian London earned 12th place in the javelin (25.94 meters), and classmate Maddie Ballon picked up 11th place in the pole vault (2.60 meters).
On the track, Routt crossed the line 10th in the 400-meter dash (1:02.34), junior Emily Follo secured ninth place in the 5,000-meter run (20:26.46), and first year Lucia Garcia finished 12th in the 1,500-meter run (5:16.93).
Mount Holyoke athletes racked up 17 season bests and eight personal records on the day.
Final Standings
1. MIT (216.5)
2. Springfield College (154)
3. Wheaton College (103.5)
4. Smith College (77)
5. WPI (77)
6. Wellesley College (68)
7. Coast Guard Academy (47)
8. Mount Holyoke (17)
9. Babson College (15)
Outside photo by Doug Keller