HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's indoor track & field team got its season started by hosting the Haverford Holiday Invitational inside the Alumni Field House on Saturday. Even with a smaller entrant list than usual, the Fords scored 110 points and tied Dickinson for first place in the final team standings.
Jessica Lopez was a double winner for the Fords as she took home the 60 meter dash title with a personal-best time of 8.06 seconds in her season debut. That mark was nearly a full tenth of a second quicker than her previous best and keeps her as the fourth fastest performer in school history. Lopez also anchored Haverford's winning 4x400 relay team with a time of 4:16.94 seconds. She was joined on the relay by Jasmine Reed, Julia Coletti, and Marisa Antinori.
That winning relay had strong days all-around in addition to Lopez. Reed finished third in the 60 meter dash with a time of 8.43 seconds and was less than a tenth of a second off a top 10 time in school history during her collegiate debut. Antinori finished fourth, just one-hundredth of a second behind her teammate. Naomi Fukuda was sixth in the dash with a mark of 8.60 seconds.
Competing in the hurdles, Tess Oberholtzer was the runner-up to the defending Centennial Conference Champion and just one-tenth off her PR with a time of 9.86 seconds. Louise Bednarik was 12th in the hurdles with a time of 11.57 seconds. Oberholtzer was also fifth in the 200 meters (28.56 seconds), while Fukuda (28.72 seconds) and Bednarik (30.80 seconds) were seventh and 24th, respectively in the large field of entrants.
Moving into the middle distance races, Coletti added a third-place finish to her afternoon with a time of 1:03.56 in the 400 meters, with teammate Grace Pindzola (1:09.50) also earning a top 10 finish. Molly Hawkins led a trio of Fords in the 800 meters as she placed third in a time of 2:26.91. Marly Banatte (2:45.23) and Sophie Schleifer (2:49.43) also competed in that event.
Jolie Jaycobs led a large contingent of Fords in the mile as she placed fifth in a time of 5:30.46. Griffin Kaulbach (5:33.80) and Amalia Axinn (5:39.27) also picked up scoring performances, while Lauren Tanel (5:47.15), Mckenna Krall (5:51.56), Mariana Ramirez (6:00.00), Natalia Cordon (6:04.94), Michelle Luu (6:09.76), Maggie Doubman (6:21.53), and Annie Connolly-Sporing (6:35.45) all ran in Haverford's largest event entry of the afternoon.
The Fords picked up three scoring finishes in the 5,000 meters, led by Sophie Drew's third-place time of 18:40.00. Fellow co-captain Julia Smith (19:15.46) and first-year Izzy Miller (19:18.41) also racked up top five finishes. Angie Petrichenko added a scoring performance with a seventh-place time of 19:36.55.
Antinori picked up Haverford's top placement in the field events as she was second in the long jump (4.68 meters). Fukuda (4.56 meters) was third while Bednarik (3.93 meters) also earned a top 10 spot. Mari Horton turned in the eighth best indoor shot put in school history with a mark of 10.61 meters. She finished third on the day, while Unique Tuberville was fourth. Tuberville's best mark of 10.28 meters would have been a top 10 throw in school history had it not been for her teammate's performance on Saturday. Ana Legaspi placed 11th in her collegiate debut with a mark of 8.13 meters.
The Haverford Holiday Invitational marked the only indoor track & field meet of the fall semester. After breaking for the holiday season, the Fords will return to competition on Saturday, January 19 when they travel to Ursinus.