CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The UMass Lowell women's indoor track and field team sent a select group of athletes to compete at the Harvard Invitational in Cambridge, Mass., on Saturday.
"We saw some consistency across the board today," said Associate Head Coach Ally Waruch. "A few women have been in their upper range pretty regularly and others have been chipping away on improvements. After today I'm eager to see more progress in the coming weeks."
In the field events, the long jump kicked it off, and graduate student Fleur Balogh de Galantha (Grafton, Mass.) was the lone River Hawk, finishing 11th out of 43 with a 5.22m mark. Sophomore Chloe Champagne (Brockton, Mass.) followed that up in the high jump, finishing in 12th place with a 1.50m mark. Next was the triple jump, where freshman Nyrah Joseph (Billerica, Mass.) led the squad in third place out of 24 with an 11.12m mark, followed by junior Nethica Auguste (Bridgewater, Mass.) in fourth place with an 11.00m mark. Sophomore Anya Neira (Methuen, Mass.) rounded out the River Hawks with a 17th-place finish and 10.11m mark.
Two River Hawks competed in the pole vault event, as junior Úna Brice (Cork, Ireland) claimed 19th at a jump of 3.00m, and sophomore Jaden Kasule (Tewksbury, Mass.) in 26th for a mark of 3.00m. Junior Nhyira Nkansah (Chelmsford, Mass.) stood out in the group of 45 throwers in the shot put event, earning a seventh-place finish after throwing for a 11.95m mark, with freshman Alessandra Forgione (Peabody, Mass.) also competing, finishing in 11th place at a mark of 11.51m. The lone competitor for the River Hawks in the high jump invite was sophomore Avery Pitts (Willington, Conn.), elevating to a 1.67m mark to earn a fifth-place finish out of 13 jumpers.
In the running events, graduate student Kaitlyn Stevens (Oxford, Mass.) represented UMass Lowell in the 3,000m, finishing in 39th place with a time of 11:29.66. This was followed up by freshman Kathryn Perrone (Washington, Mass.) and junior Soria Roberts (Warwick, N.Y.) in the 400m, who finished in 35th and 44th place, respectively, with times of 1:03.63 and 1:05.58.
Joseph and Balogh de Galantha were the top two River Hawks to finish the first round of the 60m hurdles, as Joseph finished in 24th out of 73 with a time of 9.17, while Balogh de Galantha was just behind her in 27th place with a 9.25 mark. Senior Paige Murphy (Billerica, Mass.) crossed in 51st place with a 9.85 mark, just before junior Shayla Quill (Andover, Mass.) claimed 52nd with a personal-best time of 9.90. In the 60m dash, junior Jayani Santos (Tewksbury, Mass.) shined, finishing in 20th out of 64 with a 7.88 mark.
In the 200m run, sophomore Meredith Feener (Walpole, Mass.) was the first to cross for UMass Lowell, placing 31st out of 88 runners at 26.46, as junior Bridget Geary (Lowell, Mass.) followed, finishing in 37th place at a time of 26.62. Senior Danielle Thompson (Groton, Mass.) rounded out the River Hawks, claiming 43rd after clocking in at 26.95.
The team prepares to host the River Hawk Invite, beginning next Friday, February 6, at the TRACK at New Balance in Boston, Mass.
