ALBANY, N.Y. – The UMass Lowell women's track and field team battled hard on day two of the 2023 America East Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday, hosted by UAlbany,  earning third place with 124.50 points. 

"I could not be happier with the team this weekend and really the entire year," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "Any time we have asked them to step up, they always have." 

The squad collected two individual winners in graduate student Izzy Giesing (Bradford, Vt.) and senior Kenzie Doyle (Swansea, Mass.). Giesing got her victory in the 1,500m run, coming in at 4:22.73 to pick  up 10 points for the team. Doyle won her second event of the weekend after becoming the 10K individual champion on Saturday, as she bested the competition in Sunday's 5K with a time of 17:20.91. 

Graduate student Emily Sessa (Tewksbury, Mass.) finished just behind Giesing in the 1,500m, earning a 4:29.01 mark. Three other runners earned points for the River Hawks in the 5K, as well. Freshman Mary-Kate Finn (Nashua, N.H.) finished fourth with a time of 17:32.42, while freshman Miana Caraballo (Methuen, Mass.) (17:56.61) and junior Hannah Doherty (Billerica, Mass.) (18:09.34) finished consecutively in sixth and seventh place, respectively. 

In the 800m, senior Avery Leydon (Woburn, Mass.) finished in fourth place, earning a 2:12.82 mark, while junior Rachel Thomas (Perry Hall, Md.) was just behind her in seventh place with a time of 2:14.31. 

Junior Madison Marsh (Dudley, Mass.) competed in two events for the River Hawks, finishing 7th in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes. In the 100, she sprinted to a personal-best 12.09 mark and crossed the 200-meter finish line in 25.38. Senior Chelsea Lynch (Amesbury, Mass.) was the lone River Hawk in the 400m hurdles, also finishing seventh with a time of 1:06.16. 

The relay groups also put points on the board for the team, as the 4x800 team of Thomas, freshman Dantia Braccio (Nashua, N.H.), Lynch and Giesing had the best relay finish with a third-place effort and 9:17.01 mark. The group of freshman Nia Mainer-Smith (Taunton, Mass.), freshman Danielle Thompson (Groton, Mass.), graduate student Tatum Pecci (Tewksbury, Mass.) and junior Rebecca Crosier (Shaftsbury, Vt.) finished the 4x400 in sixth place with a time of 3:59.67. The 4x100 saw the team of junior Alexis Lefaivre (Newport, Vt.), Thompson, Pecci and Crosier earn seventh place with a time of 48.90. 

In the field events, junior Martina Nkwantah (Pepperell, Mass.) performed well in the shot put, placing second with a 14.22-meter toss. Sophomore Fleur Balogh De Galantha (Grafton, Mass.) finished second in the high jump, clearing 1.65m. Junior Erin Jensen (Brimfield, Mass.) also cleared 1.65m for fourth place, while senior Sydney Lewis (Nashua, N.H.) finished fifth at 1.55m. Junior Wonuola Ashaju (Lagos, Nigeria) picked up a seventh-place finish in the triple jump, leaping a distance of 11.44m. 

Balogh De Galantha also found success in the heptathlon, finishing second with a personal-best 4,368 points. She won the high jump at 1.64m and long jump at 5.39m, before setting her personal best in the 100m hurdles, coming in at 14.95. She also finished second in the 200m (26.74), third in the shot put (9.73m), fifth in the 800m (2:40.87) and 11th in the javelin (18.42m). Lewis also broke her personal record for points in the heptathlon, scoring 3,916 for the team for fifth place overall. Freshman Paige Murphy (Billerica, Mass.) made it three-for-three on heptathlon personal-bests, collecting 3,678 points for eighth place overall. She also broke her personal-record in the 100m hurdles at 16.76. 

"This is a very special group of people who care about the team more than themselves and sacrifice individual achievements for team points," said Gardner. "What more can you ask for as a coach?"