Braving weather in the low 40s, the track and field team earned 17 top-six performances at the Bridgewater State University Bears Invitational on March 25, the team’s first outdoor meet of the year. Three Judges also achieved qualifying times for the Division III New England Outdoor Track and Field Championship.
Rookie Aaron Corin ’20 won the pole vault by clearing 3.80 meters, and rookie senior Irie Gourde ’17 won the 400-meter run with a time of 50.36 seconds, beating the second-place runner by over half of a second. This was Gourde’s first appearance in an outdoor meet, and he still earned a qualifying time for the Division III Championship.
Jack Allan ’20 and Regan Charie ’19 joined Gourde by qualifying for the Division III Championship in their respective events. Allan qualified in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 15.83 seconds, placing second in the heat and third overall. Allan had the fastest performance of all first-years in the event. Charie qualified in the 200-meter with a time of 22.91 seconds, earning fifth place. Charie also ran the 100-meter, where he placed sixth with a time of 11.36 seconds.
Maddie Hayman ’20 earned second with a time of 2:30.60 in the 800-meter event. Classmate Lydia Harris ’20 and Kayla Fahey ’20 both competed in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles event. Harris ran the event fast enough to place third, while Fahey followed shortly behind Harris and another competitor to earn fifth. They had times of 1:13.25 and 1:18.62, respectively.
Fahey also earned third in the long jump, traveling a length 4.87 meters in the air. Willa Moen ’20 earned second in the pole vault by clearing 3.05 meters, and the team’s captain, Beth Deffossez ’17, placed third with 2.09 meters.
Kyra Shreeve ’18 captured the third-place spot in the 1,500-meter with a time of 5:04.16, while Meaghan Barry ’19 ran a time of 5:09.19 to secure her the fifth-place spot in the same event. Maya Sands-Bliss ’19 ran her best outdoor time in the 400-meter, which got her the sixth spot and a time of 1:02.67.
Transfer Scott Grote ’19 placed fourth in the discus, throwing 48.71 meters. Henry McDonald ’19, who came back from an injury for this meet and competed for the first time in nearly a year, placed sixth in long jump with 5.98 meters. Mark Franklin ’17 cleared 1.77 meters in the high jump to place sixth.
The Judges will take on Tufts University at the Tufts Snowflake Classic on Saturday, April 1 in their next outdoor competition. They will look to capitalize on the successes of the Bridgewater State Invitational and carry the momentum through the rest of the season.
