MEDFORD, Mass. - The Haverford College women's indoor track & field team impressed on Saturday at the Tufts Cupid Challenge inside the Gantcher Center. The Fords were able to test themselves against some new competition as Haverford joined RPI as the only two schools at the meet from outside of New England. The team put together a bulk of top-eight performances to finish fifth in the team standings, scoring 52 points on the day.
Highlighting the day was Katie Hirsche's win in the 5,000-meter run. The sophomore ran a personal best time of 17:50.07 to break the 18-minute barrier. With that time, Hirsche moved up to ninth on Haverford's all-time list for the distance. Hirsche's previous best was 18:09.95. Krysta Nichols narrowly missed a top 10 finish with a 12th-place showing (20:00.82) while Julianna Watson was 15th overall (21:11.63).
Haverford also ran the 4x800 meter relay for the first time this season, finishing sixth in that event. The event squad of Carly Priest, Hedy Goodman, Annemarie Wood, and Dominique Monroy finished in 10:45.08.
Olivia D'Aulerio and Jahsaiah Moses continued to put down consistent times in the 60-meter dash. In the prelims round of the event, D'Aulerio ran 8.15 to qualify for the finals as the fourth- best time. The top eight times made finals and Moses nearly notched a trip to the finals after running 8.29. However, her time was good enough for a top-ten finish at the meet despite missing the finals by 0.04. D'Aulerio eventually finished fifth in the final, beating her prelim time by 0.01, clocking a 8.14.
The duo was at it again in the 200-meter dash as they both finished within the top three. D'Aulerio won the event with 26.76, just beating out RPI sprinter Christine Mallette, who crossed the line in 26.78. Moses finished third, crossing the finish line with 26.97 on the clock. Gabby Garza (29th, 30.25) and Alice Creed (32nd,, 31.62) rounded out the Haverford contingent.
In the 400 meters, Isabel Thornberry lowered her season-best to 1:03.11, finishing 14th as she was the lone Ford in the event. Four Fords participated in the 800-meter race with Monroy finishing the best out of the bunch. Monroy placed fifth in the event, crossing the line in 2:29.70 for a personal best. Rachel November and Priest nearly crossed the finish line in tandem, running 2:32.50 and 2:33.24, respectively. Wood ounded out the Haverford participants, running 2:40 flat.
Goodman competed in the mile, finishing 32nd in 6:18.44 as Haverford's lone entrant in that distance, while Audrey Carter logged a 19th-place showing in the 3,000 meters (12:15.08).
In the throws, Sarah Wilcher, fresh off her program top-ten performance last week in the shot put, threw around that same mark in Massachusetts. The first-year thrower finished third at the meet with a toss of 11.17m (36 feet, 7.75 inches). Sydney Cummings and Claire Cywes threw 9.74m (31 feet, 11.5 inches) and 8.86m (29ft, 1 inch) respectively.
The meet ended with Haverford finishing second in the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 4:12.50. The team of D'Aulerio, Moses, November, and Thornberry combined to run a season-best, moving up to third on the Centennial Conference performance list with that showing. The 4x800 meter relay team of Priest, Goodman, Wood, and Monroy picked up four points for Haverford with a sixth-place finish in 10.45.08.
The Fords will again look for some more strong marks next weekend as the team heads to Staten Island, New York for the Fastrack National Invitational on Friday, February 10 The meet is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.