WEST CHESTER, PA - Sohini Sarkar led the Owls in the outdoor track & field season opener on Friday evening, running the 5k at the two day Purple and Gold Opener held at West Chester University. The rest of the Owls flew into the outdoor season on Saturday with a flurry of PRs and Centennial Conference Championships season qualifiers. Bryn Mawr finished 7th in the meet overall, narrowly pushing out NCAA DII schools Molloy, Chestnut Hill, and Mansfield, as well as local DIII institutions such as Immaculata, Alvernia, and Neumann. 

Highlights: 

• SPRINTS/HURDLES: Novy Goetgeluk and Kayla Camille both qualified for Centennial Conference Championships in the 100m dash, while Shelbey Lu set a collegiate PR. In the 100m hurdles, Mika Heshiki (19.38s) qualified for championships, while classmate Dahlia Nemes set a new PR (20.21s). The pair returned in the afternoon, with both athletes qualifying for championships in the the 400m hurdles (75s and 81s respectively). Goetgeluk rounded out the day in the 200m for an outdoor PR (27.25s) and a 2nd qualifying mark on the day. First-year Kayla Spencer notched a PR in the 200m, running 29.98s in her collegiate debut. Camille and Lu each ran a season best of 28.79s and 30.76s, respectively. 

• JUMPS: Heshiki also jumped 2.55m in the pole vault and qualified for championships. Jess Johnson cleared 1.47m for 4th place in the high jump and then jumped 4.62m for 7th in the long jump. Both marks were qualifying marks for Johnson. Nemes set an outdoor PR at 3.75m in the long jump. 

• THROWS: Nora Steil opened her outdoor season throwing 26.46m in discus. Steil doubled back later in the day throwing 8.54m in shot put.  

• DISTANCE: On Friday evening, Sarkar started the distance group off on the right foot, running 21:45 for a new PR. Hot off a 3k PR from the indoor season, Sarkar set an aggressive first mile, which eventually led to a new PR of 21:45 in the 5k. The Owls were back to the track Saturday morning for the 1500m. Emma Smirk, Eva Ackley, and Megan McDonald all ran PRs in the season debut. Lauren Kitay finished 3rd overall in the event and qualified for championships. Cora Rosin took a heat win in the 800m and helped lead Phylicia Cannon to a new PR in the 800m.  

• RELAYS: The team of Heshiki, Johnson, Camille, and Goetgeluk began their quest for a school record, running 51.19s. The 4x1 record (set in 2005) is one of the oldest outdoor records still on the books. The quartet was only .30s off on their first attempt. 

The Owls will return on April 4th as they compete in the Ursinus Track and Field Festival on both Friday and Saturday. Tune in to live results on gobrynmawr.com and follow @bmcathletics to stay up to date with your favorite Bryn Mawr teams.