BOSTON, Mass. -- The Cornell women's track team placed second at the 81-school ECAC Championships in Boston this weekend, scoring 52 points to become the first Ivy League women's team to place in the top two at the Indoor ECAC Championships in the meet's 35 year history. The women had 10 scoring performances and were led by junior Janel Parker, who claimed two ECAC titles as she anchored the DMR (closing out the race after great legs from senior Kim Standridge, junior Kelsey Reimnitz and junior Molly Glantz) and also placed first in the 1000 an hour later.
The women got off to a terrific start at the Reggie Lewis Center on Saturday, scoring in three events on the first day. Sophomore Katie Kellner had a terrific race, dropping 17 seconds from her personal best in the 5K set just the week before at the Heps, as she placed an outstanding third in 16:31.68, which is #5 all-time at Cornell. Classmate Victoria Imbesi continued her outstanding throwing, placing sixth in the shot put at 46-1 1/2 and senior co-captain Kim Lienhoop tied for seventh in the high jump at 5-6 1/2. The Big Red also qualified a host of people through to the finals. Junior Meghan Brown advanced to the mile final with a personal best of 4:57.21, junior Molly Glantz set a personal best with a time of 1:14.03 to earn a spot in the 500 final, senior co-captain Kim Standridge qualified in the 800 with a run of 2:11.40, and sophomore Alyssa O'Connor (2:51.47) and junior Janel Parker (2:51.60) moved on with personal bests in the 1000. The 4X800 relay also advanced as Brown (2:17.8), junior Bry Bonavita (2:14.1), freshman Leanne Fernandes (2:14.6 in a very good race after falling hard to the track in the open 800) and freshman Lauren Lloyd (2:12.9) ran 8:59.58. Also advancing past the first round during Saturday's races was junior Dani Silas, who ran 8.73 in the first round of the 60 hurdles and 8.83 in the semis, placing 11th. There were several other Cornellians who competed on Saturday: junior Melissa Hewitt in the 60 (12th, 7.73), senior co-captain Mecha Santos in the 200 (14th, 24.98), freshman Anjelique Parnell in the long jump (13th, 17-9), Bonavita in the 800 (13th, 2:13.77), Fernandes in the 800 (22nd, 2:29.22 after a hard fall), senior Alana Levy in the 1000 (19th, 3:05.50) and sophomore Kate Rosettie in the 5000 (11th, 17:27.61, a personal best). The 4X400 of Reimnitz (56.8), freshman Ryan Woolley (57.1), sophomore Libby O'Brien (58.0) and Levy (62.5) ran 3:54.30.
Great things continued on Sunday as the Distance Medley Relay led after each leg en route to victory in the first event of the day on the track. Running the #2 time in school history (behind only the 1997 squad that placed 4th at the NCAAs) the team ran 11:21.54 behind legs from Standridge (3:28.5 for 1200 who blew open the race in the final two laps of her leg), junior Kelsey Reimnitz (55.3 for 400), Glantz (2:08.8 for 800) and Parker (4:48.9 for 1600). Glantz then came back 45 minutes later to place third in the 500 final, running 1:13.59 which is #6 all-time at Cornell. In the first field event of the day, junior Sam Brady equalled her indoor personal best with a clearance of 12-1 1/2 to tie for fifth in the pole vault and junior Kristin Brandt made the triple jump final and placed tenth at 39-6. Standridge lined up an hour after the DMR and ran a gritty race in the 800 final to place fourth in 2:11.19. And in the very next race, Parker and O'Connor ran very good tactical races and closed extremely well with Parker claiming the ECAC title with a time of 2:49.16, which is #6 all-time. O'Connor was right behind, placing an outstanding third in 2:49.73, good enough for #7 all-time at Cornell. The 4X800 of Levy (2:19.9), Lloyd (2:11.7), Bonavita (2:14.1) and Brown (2:18.7) closed out the scoring for Cornell with an eighth place run of 9:04.75. Brown had raced earlier in the mile final where she placed 10th in 5:00.15. The Big Red also had very good performances in the 3K, as sophomore Kelsey Karys made a big move for the lead in the middle of the race before finishing 9th in 9:43.10. Classmate Genna Hartung was tenth in a personal best 9:47.73 and fellow sophomore Cara Costich was fourteenth in 9:56.14. Cornell's tally of 52 points was 15 points ahead of third place George Mason and behind only team champion Connecticut, who had 96.5.
Complete results can be found here:
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/11/ma/Mar6_ECACDi_set1.shtml
With the indoor part of the season now complete for the Big Red, Cornell will next compete in Irvine, Calif., on March 19th as the team will open the outdoor part of the year in California over spring break.
