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Gators Take Eight Firsts at Kenyon
February 16, 2008
KENYON RESULTS (.pdf) | BALDWIN-WALLACE RESULTS (.pdf)
GAMBIER, Ohio – Eight first-place finishes, three by Emily Pfeufer (St. Mary’s, Pa./Elk County Catholic) and two by Ogechi Nwokedi (Oil City, Pa./Oil City) paced the Gators at the unscored Kenyon College Invitational hosted on Friday, February 15. Pfeufer took top honors in the three jumps, the high, long and triple, while Ogechi took first in the 200- and 400-meter dashes. Liz Earley (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township) also competed, but at the Baldwin-Wallace Invitational, and upped her NCAA “B” qualifying mark in the weight throw in the process.
Pfeufer hit North Coast Athletic Conference Championship marks in each of her events, including clearing a height of 4-11.75 in the high jump. In the two horizontal jumps, she helped lead a 1-2 Allegheny contingent, with the senior taking first in the long jump with a distance of 16-10, before teammate Emily Norton (Kenmore, N.Y./Kenmore) took second with a distance of 14-10.50. In the triple jump Pfeufer’s leap of 35-7.25 finished just ahead of teammate Laura Heltman’s (Mars, Pa./Mars) second-place finish with a distance of 31-6.75.
Freshman Nwokedi had similar successes in leading teammates, as the took first in the 200 meter dash in a time of 27.89, narrowly ahead of classmate Rebecca Lendyak (Cowansville, Pa./Ford City), who ran a time of 27.92. Nwokedi came back to lead a 1-2-3 finish in the 400-meter dash, running a NCAC qualifying time of 1:01.48, while Heltman and Stephanie Alberico (Bethesda, Md./Walter Johnson) ran to times of 1:04.93 and 1:05.14, respectively, finishing second and third in the field.
Lendyak, the runner-up in the 200, took first in the 55-meter dash, running a league-qualifying time of 7.75 in the finals, with Claire LeMasters (Shadyside, Ohio/St. John Central) taking top honors in the mile with a time of 5:39.00.
Seniors Sarah Sammel (Pittsburgh, Pa./Bethel Park) and Liz Straus (Kirtland, Ohio/Kirtland) each also finished within the top three at the meet, Sammel winning the pole vault with a height of 10-6, tying her season best, while Straus finished third in the 55-meter hurdles, qualifying for the league championships with a time of 9.48 in the finals.
Competing at Baldwin-Wallace, Earley’s distance of 55-3.50 in the weight throw, giving her the forth furthest throw in the country to this point, as she sits a mere 4.75 inches from her own school record, and 5.75 from the NCAA Division III Automatic qualifier. Earley also took fifth in the shot put, as her toss of 37-5.25 is an NCAC qualifier.
The Gators next take to the track on February 23 when they travel to Kent State in a final tune-up before the league championships on February 29 and March 1, hosted by Denison University.