FINAL RESULTS

Landover, MD - The Wagner women's track & field team placed seventh out of 12 teams at the Northeast Conference (NEC) Championships with 31 points, while improving on last year's 10th place finish at Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex. 

The Seahawks had an outstanding final day with six student-athletes scoring for the Green & White.

Senior Mishelle McNamara (West Covina, CA / Covina) led the charge, placing second in the pole vault with a leap of 3.35 meters (10-11.75). Coupled with her point in the Friday's high jump competition, the Golden State native finished up with nine total points. Also scoring for a second-straight day was junior Sheena Taylor (Twinsburg, OH / Detroit Mercy), who finished fifth in the shot put with a ECAC qualifying throw of 13.62 meters (44-8.75), giving her a team-best 10 points at the NEC Championships.

Rounding out the scoring in the field events was junior Tiffany Dawson (Staten Island, NY / Curtis), who finished fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 11.75 meters (38-6.75).

On the track, the women's distance medley relay team of freshman Samantha Lauro (Staten Island, NY / St. John Villa), senior Danielle Diodati (Haverhill, MA / Central Catholic), freshman Cameo Kirk (Ocean Port, NJ / Shore Regional) and sophomore Taylor Fredrickson (Staten Island, NY / Tottenville) placed fifth in a time of 12:31.28.

Kirk also picked up a pair of points in the 800-meter dash, finishing seventh in a time of 2:22.86.

Rounding out the scoring for Wagner was the 4x400 meter relay team of freshman Morgan Kaisershot (Elko, NV / Elko), classmate Becca Valente (Grantham, NH / Lebanon), senior Jessica Balling (Seaford, NY / MacArthur) and junior Francyna Evins (Staten Island, NY / Curtis) that took eighth with a time of 4:06.23.

The outcome was in question until the final event was completed, but Long Island held on to win their second straight team title. The Blackbirds led Monmouth by four points heading into the 4x400 relay and scored a third-place finish in the event with Hawks settling for second. So in the end, it was Long Island with 138 points and Monmouth with 136.

Once again, Long Island's Jessie Gaines won multiple titles on the way to a third consecutive NEC Most Valuable Performer award. Gaines totaled four gold medals and one silver, setting three meet records in the process.

The NEC Most Outstanding Rookie award went to Robert Morris freshman Merel Van Steenbergen (Boskoop, Netherlands). The rookie distance runner finished second in Saturday's 3K run (10:07.97) before setting a meet record in the 5000-meter (17:17.02) on Sunday.

The Seahawks return to action at the NYU Fast Track Meet on February 25.