LANCASTER, Pa. – The Bryn Mawr indoor track and field program traveled to Franklin & Marshall on Saturday to compete in the Coach 1 Open. Sophomore Nora Steil had an outstanding performance in her main event of shot put, out-throwing her distance in all three attempts. Fellow Owls Senior Margaret Hardigg and first-year Jessica Johnson also had strong performances, earning top places in the horizontal jumps.
After a solid performance in weight throw (7.20m), her most recently added event of the season, Steil headed back to the circle for shot put. The sophomore had solid performances in the previous competitions but had yet to match her performances from the last outdoor season. However, Steil's distance during the warm-up foreshadowed a new story. She put up a mark of 8.16m in her first throw, besting her previous PR by 16cm. Her second attempt reached even further at 8.20m. The sophomore ended the day with a third throw of 8.47m to mark an improvement of almost half a meter and her third PR in the same event of the day.
The sprint group debuted the 4x2 this weekend, running Kayla Camille, Jessica Johnson, Madeleine Yao, and Malin Just. The team opened the season with a time of 1:58.58.
The next group of Owls each brought in a PR. Competitors in the 60m for the Owls included Johnson (8.50s), Colby Rossmassler (9.37s), Lucy Sparks (10.38s), and Juliana Vair (10.99s). Johnson's performance in the 60m marked the Owls' best for the season while Rossmassler would soon earn her second PR of the day in shot put (5.05m).
Anna Kalnite opened her first meet as an Owl with a PR, running a time of 1:34.14 in the 400m.
Hardigg and Johnson each placed in the top five in the horizontal jumps. Johnson stuck a distance of 4.77m in the long jump to earn third place, while Hardigg finished fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 9.20m and a season best. Hardigg and Johnson also competed in the high jump, Hardigg grabbing fifth place (1.42m) and Johnson landing a new college PR at 1.42m to earn seventh place.
The mid-distance group was highlighted by PRs from Just in the mile (5:34.64) and Kathryn O'Loughlin in the 800m (3:14.25). The 3k group continued to set PRs at a relentless pace, outperforming last week's results. Hot off the press from last weeks' five for five on PRs in the 3k, Eliza Lehman and Lauren Kitay returned for another round. The Owls were joined by captain Evelyn Cheng. Lehman led the pack for most of the race, finishing fifth with a time of 11:40.60 and 18 seconds over her PR from last week. Kitay (11:44.94) and Cheng (11:54.04) fell back in the final kilometer of the race, but both still managed PRs.
"The team came out of break in pretty good place this year," head coach Jason Hewitt said. "We have a few athletes that need a little more time to get back into shape, but most of the team is operating on a strong level. We are in need of some track time though, and I think that as that sorts itself out, you can expect even better performances as we head into February."
The Owls will look to continue their upwards trajectory in their next meet at McElligott on Saturday, January 28th.
