The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Caroline Dickson The men's track team had many individual victories despite placing last on Sat.

It's that time of year. The sun comes out, the snow melts and track runners start tearing up the rubberized lanes. At the Aloha Relays last weekend, held at Bowdoin College's Magee Track, Anna King '08, Cassie Knight '10 and Emma Linhard '11 all provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships, winning their respective events.

King bested the field of 31 runners in the 1500-meter with a time of 4:39.29. King's performance set a meet record-no one has run that fast in the meet's history. Leading from the sound of the starting gun, King hit her stride. After the race she said that "by lap two I felt like I was in a groove. I realized that I could probably speed up a bit and hold it for a couple more laps. I did that, and luckily I didn't crash and burn." King won by an impressive 11-second margin.

First-year standout Linhard also set a meet record. She raced to a 2:14.88 finish in the 800-meter dash, winning by a margin of nearly six seconds. Speaking of big winning margins, Knight finished a huge 50 seconds ahead of the second place finisher in the 3000-meter steeplechase, clocking in at 10:56.7 for the grueling distance event.

Colby's women's team saw additional victories. King and Linhard shared a baton with Mandy Ivey '10 and Liz Petit '08 while setting a meet record in the 4x800 relay. The crew covered the 3200 meters in 9:42.0.

Erin Beasley '09 won the 100 meter dash in 13.13 seconds, Danielle Sheppard '11 captured the high jump (5-0.25), and Brianna Kondrat '09 took the hammer throw (147-06).
"It was a great meet," Kondrat summed up. "The weather was nice so that helped a lot of people perform well. As a team, we had a really strong day." Colby (156 points) finished a strong second behind Bowdoin College (209) and finished well ahead of the University of Southern Maine (122.5), Bates College (99.5), Smith College (61) and Mount Holyoke College (26).

The men faced stiff competition during the Maine State Championships, held at Colby's Alfond Track. The Mules placed last, behind Bates (190), Bowdoin (189) and USM (121). However, because the men have a limited roster, team scores do not accurately reflect the team's truly individual performances.

Continued...

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