HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's indoor track & field team closed out the fall portion of its schedule on a high note Thursday evening inside the Alumni Field House. In addition to winning nine of the 11 contested events against Widener on the women's side, sophomore Mairead Ferry also broke the school record in the pole vault event.
Ferry won the pole vault as she cleared 10 feet even on her very first attempt at the height to match the previous school record. She broke the school record with a height of 10 feet, four inches (3.15 meters) on her third and final attempt at that height. The previous pole vault record of 10 feet was most recently accomplished by Melissa Nylander '08 during her senior season. Sarah Burke '06 first set that school record when she cleared that height during her junior campaign. Grace Mathis also contested the pole vault. She cleared 2.70 meters in her first collegiate meet and now ranks sixth in school history for the event.
In addition to breaking the school record in the pole vault, Ferry excelled with another individual victory in the 60 meter hurdles. Ferry's time of 9.48 seconds edged out teammate Taylor Murphy's runner-up time of 9.61 seconds. Haverford also won the 60 meter sprint with a time of 8.04 seconds from Brittany Steele, while Murphy's personal best time of 8.09 seconds for the event moves her up to third in school history. Murphy capped her evening with a second place finish in the 200 meters as her time of 26.65 seconds moves her up to fourth in school history. Steele (26.94 seconds) and Ferry (28.27 seconds) were third and sixth in the 200 meter field, respectively.
The Fords also captured all three of the races of at least 800 meters. Caroline Henry won the 800 meters with a time of 2:32.65 to edge out her only competitor by nearly 12.5 seconds. Haverford claimed five of the top six positions in the mile race with Amelia Keyser-Gibson leading the field with a time of 5:16.46. Nora Weathers (5:16.49), Sophia Drew (5:38.36), and Julia Smith (5:45.79) made it a clean sweep of the top four, while Alison Love came across the line in sixth.
Rounding out the distance events, Allison Hacker captured the 3,000 meter title for the Fords as she pulled past Widener's Emily Donahue in the second half of the race to win in a time of 11:56.24. Also on the track, Yue Xiang placed third in the 400 meters with a time of 1:06.49.
On top of the record-breaking performance in the pole vault, the Fords continued to find great success en route to capturing all four of the field events that were contested. Competing in the triple jump for the first time, Steele won with the eighth best leap in school history (10.51 meters). Elizabeth Reikowski won the long jump (4.71 meters), while finishing second in the triple jump. Claire Sargent captured the shot put title (12.07 meters) to ensure the sweep of the field competition. In addition to those championship performances, Emily Williams was third in the long jump, while Anya Bernhard and Mathis were fourth in their respective shot put and triple jump debuts.
Women's indoor track & field will now have just over a month away from competition during the winter break. When the team returns for the spring semester, its first competition will come at the Kutztown Invitational on Friday, January 15.