Track & Field Opens Season at Smith College Winter Invitational

Track & Field Opens Season at Smith College Winter Invitational

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - The Mount Holyoke College track & field team opened its 2016-17 season on Saturday, competing at the non-team scoring Smith College Winter Invitational. Pacing the way for the Lyons was sophomore Donari Yahzid, who had a number of solid performances throughout the day.

Yahzid (Atlanta, Ga./Fountain Valley School of Colorado) saw her top effort of the day come in the long jump. Posting a distance of 5.15 meters, she finished third overall. That mark was also a New England Division III qualifying mark. She also placed 13th in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.61, while finishing 18th in the 200-meter dash with a mark of 28.64.

In addition to Yahzid, the Lyons saw junior Shante Henderson (New York, N.Y./Brooklyn Theatre Arts School) and first year Obaa Yaa Anin-Yeboah (Accra, Ghana/SOS Hermand Gmeiner Intl School) place 10th (4.44 meters) and 12th (4.37 meters) in the long jump.

Henderson went on to post 11th in the shot put with a throw of 9.54 meters, while sophomore Julia Hecking (Greenville, Pa./Greenville) was 13th overall with a distance of 9.31 meters.

The 5,000-meter run saw junior Mia Barnes (Thornville, Ohio/Monteverde Friends School) finish ninth with a time of 19:52.13, while first years Kayla Dillon (Great Barrington, Mass./Monument Mountain Regional) and Caitlin Lynch (Worcester, Mass/Doherty Memorial) finished well in two different events. Dillon was seventh in both the 1-mile (6:07.65) and the 800-meter run (2:48.21), while Lynch posted eighth in the 1-mile (6:14.59) and the 800-m (2:48.99).

In the 400-meter dash, first year Saarah Omar (Kotte, Sri Lanka/Colombo International School) was 19th (1:19.22), followed by sophomore Sophie Desnoyers (Bronx, N.Y./High School for Medical Science) in 20th (1:23.80) and first year Anne Demosthene in 21st (1:26.08).

First year Minerva Veeser-Bobea (Arlington, Mass./Arlington) finished seventh in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.32 and was also ninth in the 600-meter run with a mark of 1:49.72.

The 3,000-meter run saw sophomore Corrin Moss (Columbus, Ohio/Columbus Alternative HS) placed 11th with a time of 11:30.19, while classmate Emsie Cronin (Ledyard, Conn./Ledyard) was 16th (11:58.80), followed by first year Emma Raney (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto) in 17th (12:02.02).

Mount Holyoke is now idle until January 21st when it returns to action at the Smith College Beynon Invitational.