The William and Mary women's track and field team wrapped up the regular season this weekend at a pair of meets, with two athletes competing at the ECAC Championships in Princeton, and a handful more at the UVA Challenge in Charlottesville on Saturday.
ECAC Championships
Along with junior
Natalie Baird's (Sterling, Va.) fifth-place performance in the discus on Friday night, sophomore
Nicole Dory (Fort Worth, Texas) also competed at the ECAC Championships this weekend, but was unable to clear the opening bar in the pole vault at 3.68 meters (12-0.75). As a team, the Tribe finished tied for 41st among the 46 scoring teams.
UVA Challenge
The UVA Challenge on Saturday mainly saw W&M's middle-distance and distance runners in action, as well as Baird taking another try at the discus.
-In the discus, Baird took second overall with a throw of 46.48m (152-6). It was the eighth-longest throw in school history, and of Baird's career.
-In the 800m, junior
Katie Buenaga (Greenville, Del.) led five Tribe harriers who all ran career-fast times. Buenaga was 13th overall in 2:11.39, a lifetime-best by more than 3.3 seconds, and now ranks 11th all-time at W&M outdoors at 800m. Classmate
Michelle Britto (Woodbridge, Va.) was right behind her in 2:12.63, a career-best by 1.44 seconds, and now ranks 16th in school history. Senior
Brittany Sevachko (Centreville, Va.) ran 2:13.85 in her final race to finish 17th, and set a lifetime-record by .58 seconds.
Avery Mattingly (Blacksburg, Va.) improved her career-best by .86 seconds, down to 2:15.99, and sophomore
Christina Lee (Sterling, Va.) ran .53 seconds faster than she ever had outdoors to cross the finish line in 2:16.36.
-Sophomore
Clarissa Schick (Richmond, Va.) wrapped up a strong closing month with another lifetime-best at 1,500m, running 4:34.13 to lower her personal-record by 1.91 seconds.
-Wrapping up the day's competition was the 5,000m run, where sophomore
Elaina Balouris (Allison Park, Pa.) took fifth overall in 16:27.24. It was the 13th-fastest 5K ever run outdoors at the College.
Next up for the Tribe is the NCAA Championship East Preliminaries, to be held in Jacksonville, Florida, in two weeks (May 24-26). Final declarations will be announced later this week, with the top 48 declared athletes in each event making the preliminary field. The top 12 finishers in each event will then advanced to the NCAA Finals, June 6-9 in Des Moines, Iowa.
