Solid Start for Women's Track & Field
- fsubobcats
- Dec 7, 2016
- 5 min read
This weekend the women’s track & field team kicked off the Indoor Track & Field season at the 2016 Marty Pushkin Open, hosted by West Virginia University. Due to some injuries and some of our XC ladies waiting to start competing, we only had 15 women competing – however, even with that number it was still the most amount of women we had compete in the 1st meet of the year since before the 2010-2011 Indoor season.
While the meet was fairly small, it was a good meet to start off the year. The performances across all the event groups were great for the beginning of the year. It’s a great beginning, and the coaching staff has high hopes that we’ll continue to see improvements throughout the season. Coach Luy felt it was “a solid start to the season. A number of PRs and some good performances from some newcomers.” Here are some of the highlights:
In the Distance events:
Faith Thackston and Laurie Gotte started the day out for our women on the track running the 5k. The ladies finished 1-2 in the event. Thackston running a 20:52.70 and Gotte finishing barely 4 seconds behind her teammate.
Gotte came back later in the meet to run the 1 mile. She took 7th overall with a time of 6:11.93.
Freshman Sidonie Brown had an impressive start to her collegiate track career. She clocked a 2:45.25 in the 800m run to take 7th place. Distance coach, Kevin Scola said “Sidonie had a great race for her first time at the distance.” For anyone that knows Coach Scola – that’s high praise so you may want to take a picture of this and file it away Sidonie!
In the Hurdles:
Erin Early made her return to the track in the 60m hurdles. She qualified for the finals in the event after running the fastest time in the prelims (10.15). Early went on to win the event with a time of 10.05.
Teammates Keileen Estrada and Sam Gittere also qualified for finals. Both ladies ran faster in the finals – Estrada took 4th overall and Gittere took 5th.
Amy Virostek took home 7th place with a time of 11.43.
In the Jumps:
Freshman Keileen Estrada had a good day in the triple jump – taking 2nd with an almost 34 foot jump.
Sophomore Heather Martin took 7th place overall. Martin’s longest jump was her 6th and final attempt – jumping 7.93m.
In the Sprints:
Kayla Truesdel won both the 60m and 200m dashes.
Destiny Logan took 2nd in the 400m with a time of 1:04.48 and then came back to take 4th in the 200m with a finishing time of 28.35.
Senior Amy Virostek ran a 1:15.38 in the 400m dash to finish 4th overall.
Freshman Kenzi Smith clocked a 29.52 in the 200m and placed 10th overall.
For the first time in some time, we were able to run 2 women’s 4x400m relay teams. The A team took 3rd place with a finishing time of 4:35.73. The A team consisted of Erin Early, Destiny Logan, Sam Gittere, and Kayla Truesdel.
In the throws:
Junior Zoe Harris had an impressive start to the season. She had one of the most consistent series of throws in her career – throwing over 10.15m in 5 out of 6 attempts. Harris threw 10.28m to make finals and in her first throw of finals she threw a PR of 10.75m to take home her first win in the shot put.
After only 1 week of practice, sophomore Holly Van Wie took 2nd place in the shot put and 4th in the weight throw. In the shot, Van Wie captured 2nd place with her final throw of the competition, throwing 10.04m. In the weight, her second throw of prelims was her farthest at 9.81m.
Junior Elaine Saxton took 3rd in the weight throw with a PR of 10.20m. She also took 4th in the shot put with a toss of 9.07m.
Freshman Keirstin Tawney took 7th place in both the shot put and the weight. In weight, throwing from only a wind and release, she threw 8.36m. Her 2nd throw in shot was her longest, with a distance of 8.38m.
Freshman Emily Brecht placed 5th in the weight throw. She had an impressive series – each throw going further than the one before. By her 6th throw (which was her farthest) she threw 9.35m.
Standout performances:
There were two standout performances on the women’s side – one a returner and one a newcomer. Returner Kayla Truesdel turned in solid performances in both individual events. She won both the 60m and 200m. Not too happy with her time in the 60m prelims, she came back in the finals and ran a 7.88 (.14 off her PR set last season). In the 200m, she easily took home the win with a time of 26.22. Her times in both events qualified her for ECACs, which will be held at Ithaca College in the beginning of March. Her performances also got her selected as the CAC Track Athlete of the Week. After just the first meet of the season, Truesdel is ranked 3rd in NCAA Division III in both the 60m and 200m.
Newcomer Keileen Estrada had an impressive collegiate debut. She competed in 3 events (4 if you count the prelims and finals of the 60m hurdles). In her first college event, she ran a 10.93 in the 60m hurdle prelims. Later in the finals of the hurdles, she had a significant drop in her time – running a 10.27 to take 4th place overall. She would finish her track events by running the anchor leg of the “B” team 4x400m relay. Estrada also competed in the triple jump – which was her best finish of the day. She finished runner-up in the event behind a 10.29m jump. She started off relatively strong with a 9.41m jump and just got better, with the rest of her jumps being all over 10 meters. In just her first college meet, she is currently ranked 30th in NCAA Division III in the triple jump.
PRs:
Sam Gittere – 60m hurdles (10.77 --> 10.39)
Laurie Gotte – Indoor 5k (21:11.21 --> 20:56.34)
Zoe Harris – indoor shot put (10.08m --> 10.75m)
This is also an overall shot put PR for Harris.
Elaine Saxton – weight throw (10.02m --> 10.20m)
*All of our newcomers also set COLLEGE PRs this weekend.
Congratulations to all that set PRs in just the first meet of the season!
Coach Luy’s Top-10:
For the last several years, we’ve been keeping track of some of the best performances since Coach Luy took over the track & field programs in the 2007-08 school year. After each meet, we go through the top-10 list and make changes based on the performances from that meet. These lists are only the top-10 lists since Coach Luy took over the programs, beginning with the 2007-08 Indoor season (it is by no means a comprehensive list – our goal is to use these to help create an all-time top-10 list for each team). That is why after each meet we’ll have a section titled “Coach Luy’s Top-10”…and after only the first meet of the Indoor season, we have 11 performances to add to those lists:
Keileen Estrada – 2nd in Triple Jump (10.29m/33’9.25”)
Zoe Harris – 2nd in Shot Put (10.75m/35’3.25”)
Sidonie Brown – 5th in 800m (2:45.25)
Keileen Estrada – 5th in 60m Hurdles (10.27)
Elaine Saxton – 5th in Weight Throw (10.20m/33’5.75”)
Faith Thackston – 6th in 5k (20:52.70)
Sam Gittere – 7th in 60m Hurdles (10.39)
Laurie Gotte – 7th in 5k (20:56.34)
Emily Brecht – 9th in Weight Throw (9.35m/30’8.25”)
Kenzi Smith – 10th in 60m dash (8.64)
Keirstin Tawney – 10th in Shot Put (8.38m/27’6”)
The team will return to the track and field on January 14th at the WVU Open.
