Three More All-East Performances Highlight Women's Track and Field On Final Day of ECAC Indoor Championships

Ali Henderson, Meghan Bishop, DMR Capture All-East Accolades

03/07/04 8:05PM

BOSTON, MA - Three-time All-American Ali Henderson (Parkville, MO), freshman Meghan Bishop (Blue Bell, PA), and the members of the College's distance medley relay squad—freshman Heather Stevenson (East Lyme, CT), junior Naomi Mattos (Woodbridge, VA), sophomore Lauren Heron (Manlius, NY) and freshman Julia Cathcart (Starkville, MS)—all earned All-East honors today as three-time defending CAA Champion William and Mary women's track and field competed on the final day of the two-day Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships. An elite field of individual qualifiers representing nearly 70 schools from across the eastern seaboard gathered for the meet hosted by Boston University, with Pittsburgh taking the team title with a winning score of 62. West Virginia claimed second with 51 while another Big East program, Georgetown, took third with 48 points. William and Mary tied Rutgers for 16th with 17 points. All-East honors were awarded to the top-eight finishers in each event.

Henderson, competing in the 3,000m, grabbed yet another All-East honor for her career by clocking a 9:29.53 for fourth place. The time, some 11 seconds better than her previous season best, provisionally qualifies Henderson for competition at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, as she broke the provisional mark of 9:35.80. Bishop, competing in the mile, had her sights set on grabbing All-East honors after clocking a 4:52.87 in yesterday's mile prelims and accomplished that feat in the exclamation point to a strong rookie indoor season. Pacing a 4:54.02 in the finals, Bishop claimed fifth in the mile. In the distance medley relay, Stevenson, Mattos, Heron and Cathcart combined to run a 12:04.57, claiming an All-East paying eighth place finish.

Yesterday the Tribe had two athletes earn All-East honors as junior Ayanna Jones (Richmond, VA) claimed fifth in the shot, with an indoor school record of 47'2.25", and senior Charlotte LaRoche (Centreville, VA) took sixth in the pole vault.

Head coach Pat Van Rossum commented despite the strong performance of the squad, the meet was still bittersweet because of the team could have attained even greater success.

"Bonnie Meekins (Herndon, VA) rolled her ankle last week, and consequently couldn't complete the pentathlon, where she would have had a very good chance to place," noted Van Rossum. "Heron was knocked to the track just as she received the baton in the DMR, and Emily Halm (Massillon, OH) was tripped and knocked down with four laps to go in the 3000m. However, we did represent well in this elite meet and I know our team will benefit from this ECAC experience."

The Tribe currently has two provisional qualifiers for the next scheduled, and final, meet of the indoor season, the NCAA Indoor Championships. Henderson ran her provisional qualifying time (9:29.53) in the 3,000m today while LaRoche met the provisional mark in the pole vault (12'11.5") at Christopher Newport on February 8. The two will have to wait until Monday, March 8, when the NCAA releases the list of accepted athletes into the championships based on field size to see if their provisional marks make the cut. The NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship will be hosted by the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR, March 12-14.

The next full field event for the College will mark the start of the outdoor season as the team competes at the nearby Virginia Commonwealth Ram Invitational on March 19-20 in Richmond, VA.

Top Five Teams
1. Pittsburgh 62
2. West Virginia 51
3. Big East 48
4. Penn State 47
5. Northeastern 46

T16. William and Mary 17