LOWELL, Mass. – Performing at both the George Davis Invitational at home and the Virginia Challenge hosted by Virginia, the UMass Lowell women's track and field team earned multiple personal-bests and top finishes on Saturday. 

"It was a great day overall!" said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "It is always awesome to be at home. It's great for our kids to get support from the home crowd. We had well over 100 alumni at the meet, which made it extra special and our kids performed well all weekend, so I couldn't be more happy." 

In Virginia, junior Madison Marsh (Dudley, Mass.) competed in the 200-meter run, earning a 25th-place finish out of 51 total finishers with a time of 25.05. Senior Avery Leydon (Woburn, Mass.) was the only other River Hawk to compete in Virginia on Saturday, finishing 39th in the 800-meter run with a 2:14.93 mark.

Back at home in the George Davis Invitational, freshman Danielle Thompson (Groton, Mass.) and freshman Nia Mainer-Smith (Taunton, Mass.) finished in second and third, respectively, in the 200-meter dash, earning personal-best times of 25.96 and 26.13. In the 100-meter run, Junior Alexis Lefaivre (Newport, Vt.) hit a personal-best time of 12.83 for ninth place. In the 100-meter hurdles, junior Alexandria Grasso (North Reading, Mass.), who is redshirting, earned the first-place victory with a personal-best time of 14.23. Graduate student Nina Tasker (Lebanon, Maine) finished in third place with a 15.69 mark.

The relay teams were successful as well, as the 1,600-meter relay team of graduate student Tatum Pecci (Tewksbury, Mass.), Mainer-Smith, senior Chelsea Lynch (Amesbury, Mass.) and Thompson picked up the first-place finish with a 3:59.25 mark. In the 400-meter relay, freshman Willow Novak (Guilderland, N.Y.), Thompson, Pecci and junior Rebecca Crosier (Shaftsbury, Vt.) ran a time of 49.60 for fourth place. Thompson earned a personal-best 400 time in her leg. 
     
In the longer distance 1,500-meter run, freshman Mary-Kate Finn (Nashua, N.H.) earned a fourth place finish with a 4:33.63 mark. 

In the field events, junior Martina Nkwantah (Pepperell, Mass.) picked up another first-place victory for the River Hawks in the javelin, tossing a personal-best 40.17 meters. Multiple women finished towards the top in the high jump, as sophomore Fleur Balogh De Galantha (Grafton, Mass.) finished in second, reaching 1.62 meters, and junior Erin Jensen (Brimfield, Mass.) finished just below her in second place with a height of 1.57 meters. Senior Sydney Lewis (Nashua, N.H.) also reached 1.57 meters to tie Jensen. Balogh De Galantha also competed in the long jump, finishing in fourth place with a jump of 5.44 meters.

Next up, the River Hawks will travel to the Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania, which runs from April 27-April 29.