Philadelphia, PA. - The Messiah Women's Track and Field Team competed on both Friday and Saturday at the Widener Winter Invite, a selective meet with difficult entry standards and lots of strong Division II and III competition from the Metro and Mid-Atlantic Regions. The running and throwing events on the schedule were hosted on Friday night at the brand-new indoor track facility in the Ott Center at the University of Pennsylvania, providing the Falcons with an excellent opportunity to compete against strong competition on a fast, banked indoor track. Meanwhile, the throwing events were held at Widener's indoor track facility the next day. The Falcons made the most of the trip into the city, running a series of quick times and submitting a number of strong field event performances. Across the weekend, the Falcons registered 5 new MAC Qualifications and 3 Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten list performances.
On the Track
The Falcons had a trio compete in the opening event of the day on the track, the 5000m.
Aubrey Yeager finished as the top of three with an indoor personal best time of 19:51.43, breaking 20 convincingly and running a season-best by nearly a minute, easily qualifying for MACs in the process.
Olivia Miller finished with a time of 20:40.35, an excellent time that stands as a lifetime best, indoors or outdoors.
Samantha Mynio finished close behind, narrowly eclipsing 21 minutes with a final time of 20:57.75, a season best.
The Falcons had a single competitor in the 60m, with
Arwyn Gruenwald's 8.24 clocking in the event representing a strong run that Gruenwald will look to improve upon in subsequent races. In the women's 60m hurdles,
Kara Brown represented the Falcons very well with a 5th-place finish in the event amongst the whole field with a personal best time of 9.41. Brown's time stands as a personal best time by a margin of 0.03 as well as her second personal best clocking this year, once again updating her own Messiah Indoor All-Time Top Ten performance in 7th.
Elizabeth Voegele also raced in the hurdles for the Falcons, finishing with a time of 10.41 that stands as a season best for the sophomore.
In the Mile,
Madison Kimmel led the charge for the Falcons with an excellent race and finishing time of 5:27.46, an indoor personal record and an improvement of 15 seconds on her time in the Mile from last weekend.
Kayra DeVries and
Allison Keller also raced in the Mile, finishing with respective times of 6:02.39 and 6:09.31.
Clara Benner was the only Falcon to compete in the 400m, finishing with a season-best time of 1:05.18 that serves as an improvement of a couple of tenths on her season-opening race in December.
One of the highlights on the day for the Falcons took place in the 800m, just as was the case for the men's team.
Elana Pineda finished as the top of a very strong trio of Falcons, running an incredible time of 2:22.80 that sits just 0.06 seconds outside of a placement on the Messiah Indoor All-Time Top Ten list. Pineda also finished 4th overall in the event, easily winning her heat and surpassing the time of all but three runners from the fast heat.
Kerrigan Lebo also returned from injury with an individual race with a MAC-qualifying 2:28.28 clocking, an excellent result for the junior after spending so much time out due to injury.
Meagan Kime also accompanied her teammates with a MAC-qualifying time of her own, crossing the line with a time of 2:31.68 that just narrowly eclipses the MAC qualifying time after being converted for the bank. Kime's time was also an indoor personal record.
The 200m was also a very strong event for the Falcons, with
Halle Jennett running an indoor personal best time of 26.15 that improves her standing on the Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten list from 4th to 2nd.
Arwyn Gruenwald also ran a very strong race, crossing the line with a MAC-qualifying time of 27.05
The women's 3000m was another highlight for the Falcons, with all three Messiah racers finishing with personal best times in the event.
Delaney Turk led the trio of underclassmen, eclipsing the 11 minute barrier with a searing 40 second last lap to finish with a time of 10:56.67.
Ella Swayne came extremely close to the same with an 11:00.65 clocking, still finishing with a personal record by a margin of 9 seconds.
Ava Shirk also finished with a sizable personal record, stopping the clock at 11:06.78 to take 7 seconds off her personal record set last week.
The 4x400m was the final event on the track, with the Falcons fielding a very strong team in
Clara Benner,
Elana Pineda,
Meagan Kime, and
Halle Jennett. Behind stellar splits of 63.2 from Pineda and 60.6 from Jennett, the team finished with a time of 4:16.20 to take sixth overall in the field.
In the Field
Kara Brown was the sole Falcon representative in the high jump, tying her season-best of 1.50m (4' 11") to finish sixth overall. The pole vault was also strong for the Falcons, with
Hannah Witter jumping just one height short of her personal record with a first-time clearance of 3.35m (10' 11.75") to finish in 4th overall.
The Falcons had a large contingent in the women's shot put, with
Leah Ferster finishing as the top of the group with a distance of 10.45m (34' 4.75").
Leah Ritzman was the second Falcon in the finishing order, putting a distance of 10.13m (33' 3") to finish with a new personal record distance.
Ayva Sechman finished with a distance of 9.45m (31' 0"), while
Ella Axtell ended up with a mark of 9.06m (29' 8.75").
Leah Ferster also turned in an excellent performance in the weight throw, tossing a distance of 13.24m (43' 5.25") to improve on her season best by over two meters and draw within half a meter of her personal record in the event. Very close behind,
Jaclyn Steenstra had an incredible performance in the weight throw, finishing with a distance of 12.84m (42' 1.5") that improves on her previous best by over a meter and a half and vaults her from 7th to 4th on the Messiah All-Time Indoor Top Ten list.
Sidney Avers and
Ella Axtell also competed in the weight throw, with the former finishing with a distance of 9.45m (31' 0") and the latter debuting with a personal record distance of 9.30m (30' 6.25") to qualify for MACs.
What's Up Next
The Falcons will return to action the following weekend, competing on Friday, January 31st and Saturday, February 1st at Bucknell University for the Bison Open & Multi. After a weekend of excellent competition at UPenn, the Falcons will have more of the same next weekend against what promises to be a very strong field in many events at Bucknell, another meet with entry standards that make entry into the meet fairly difficult for many Falcons. The Falcons will look to improve on their efforts from this weekend's competition with another week of training, with just about a month left until the indoor season's culmination.
