By Staff Writer Thomas Griffin
A wonderful weekend for New England sports began not with Sunday evening’s Super Bowl festivities, but instead at a Saturday afternoon women’s invitational track meet.
Headlining the women’s team’s accomplishments is Ella Rath, whose posted time of 2:42.64 earned her a second-place finish in the 800 meters. Making UMass Dartmouth history for her third-place showing in the 600 meters, Taylor Walsh’s 1:46.50 ranks her as the eighth all-time fastest female Corsair in the category. Further accolades include Emilea Lauzon’s 27.54 fourth-place finish in the 200 meters, Caitlyn Demers’ 1:05.66 eighth-place finish in the 400 meters, and Allison Leal’s 3:03.34 sixth-place finish in the 800 meters.
UMass Dartmouth’s endurance runners nevertheless put up impressive numbers in equally impressive finishes. Taylor Walsh, hot on the heels of her 600-meter success, placed sixth in the mile with a time of 5:34.32.
A few feet ahead of Walsh was junior Jess O’Reilly, finishing the mile in fourth with a marginally better time of 5:27.26. Victoria Spitaels and Clara Anderson combined to finish the 5,000 meters in sixth and seventh, with times of 20:29.11 and 20:33.89, respectively.
Corsair field events featured two athletes showing up in multiple back-to-back placings. In the strength events, MacKenzie Garvey found herself placing fourth in the shot put with a distance of 11.58 meters, later going on to place eighth in an 11.31-meter weight throw.
In the agility events, junior Danielle Devine held a standout triple-header, placing top nine in the high jump, triple jump, and 60 meter hurdles, at 1.50 meters, 9.52 meters, and a time of 10.38 respectively.
This performance that the Women’s track and field team put on display is telling of what is to come from them in the future. These athletes have serious talent, talent that is extremely obvious considering that the Corsair track and field team is only five meets into a lengthy season. Given that their conditioning will likely improve over the four months and countless remaining meets between now and the middle of May, these Corsairs have serious potential to turn heads.
Their next meet, the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational on the 8th, will be their next chance to prove that they truly are something special.