University of Delaware Athletics
Big Weekend Leads Blue Hens to Top-Four Finish at CAA Championships
5/5/2018 11:42:00 PM | Track & Field
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Personal bests. School Records. Gold Medals.
All of those were captured by the University of Delaware track and field team this past weekend at the CAA Championships en route to a fourth-place showing, in what turned out to be a battle to the end between the top four teams. The Blue Hens finished with 116.5 points, their best showing since 2014.
“I'm so incredibly proud of the fight and determination our team put on display this weekend. We knew coming in that it would be a battle with Northeastern being a strong squad and Elon and Towson having a lot of talent,” head coach Wendy McFarlane-Smith said. “We had a great championship experience and this group were outstanding ambassadors for our program and university.”
The Blue Hens blistered out of the gates on Friday with three top-eight finishes in the javelin to grab an early 11 points. Sophomore Niyah Cosme led the way with a third-place finish (132' 3”), while Kristina Valko placed fifth (127' 3”) and Alexis Lipnicky rounded out the group in eighth (124' 10”).
Delaware's first day success continued when junior Ashley Bailey added to her outstanding spring by taking the CAA Championship in the pole vault. The Middletown, Del. native cleared 12' 11 ¾” en route to the title. Teammates Jenny Hineman (second – 12' 1 ½”) and Rachel Moroknek (seventh – 11' 5 ¾”) helped the Blue Hens claim 20 points in the event.
Bailey wasn't done as she turned around and grabbed a point in the long jump with an eighth place finish with a distance of 18' 4 ½”.
Senior Melissa Zegeer unleashed a throw of 161' 5” in the hammer to claim two more points in the Blue Hens before juniors Emily Paolucci and Leanza Lopez both went top-5 in the 10000m to give Delaware a huge first day with 43 points.
Saturday started with just as much momentum as freshman Myrissa McFolling-Young broke the school record in the shot put en route to a fifth-place finish (47' 9”). She followed that up with two more points in the discus (142' 9”) in her first CAA Championships appearance.
Four of the top eight places in the 3000m steeplechase went to the Blue Hens to keep Delaware rolling. They did the exact same thing in the 800m to continue to pile up the points.
Senior Liz McGroarty continued her strong season with a second-place finish in the 1500m with a time of 4:41.02, just .08 seconds behind the winner.
After barely being able to run on the track for the past two weeks due to injuries, junior Lauren Zodl clocked in at 17:31:08 to claim third-place in the 5000m.
Senior London Freeland claimed the second-best time in school history in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:00.92, good for third place in the event and six more points.
Freeland also anchored the 4x400 relay (Nadia Khoury, Sydni Stovall, Michaela Meyer and Freeland), which posted a season-best time of 3:46.20 for a fourth-place finish.
Khoury also grabbed a fourth place showing in the high jump (5' 5”) and freshman Halimah Roberson finished fourth in the triple jump (37' 5 ¾”).
Also during the weekend, Carlyn McGrath (100m – 14.36) and Jeanette Bendolph (800m – 2:10.85) earned spots in the upcoming ECAC Championships.
Those ECAC Championships are set for next weekend in Princeton, N.J. and are the next stop for the Blue Hens.
Players Mentioned
