Springfield, MA – The CMCC Women's Track and Field team finished runner-up for the Yankee Small College Conference title and placed 7th overall nationally at the USCAA National Championship meet hosted at American International College. The event also doubled as the YSCC Championship, with the Mustangs ending up just behind ACPHS for the crown.
Central Maine's Felicia Marin and Ella Lavigne ended up tied for YSCC Women's Track "Athlete of the Meet" after both scored 28 points to lead all female track athletes in conference competition. Marin and Lavigne both won two individual events to score the bulk of their points, with the freshman from Hampden Academy taking the 100-meter dash and 400m, and the sophomore from Fort Collins, CO placing first in the conference in the 200m and 5k.
The two-day meet started on Friday afternoon with hammer throw and pole vault, but conditions deteriorated on Saturday for the bulk of the events with rain and cold temperatures almost continuously throughout the day.
Alyssa Adams represented the Mustangs in pole vault, with the newcomer to the team finishing tied for third both nationally and in conference in the event contested by only YSCC schools. The sophomore from Norway, ME cleared 1.95 meters.
Marney Rees and Samantha Saiauski also competed on day one, taking part in hammer throw. Rees had her longest throw on the final attempt, reaching 21.08 meters. That placed the Australian 3rd in the YSCC and 5th in the USCAA. She finished one place higher than Saiauski whose first toss of 20.08 meters proved to be her longest. Both were personal bests for the pair.
Saturday was a busy and bustling affair with athletes doing their best to stay warm and limbered up while also trying to keep track of the multiple events happening at both ends of the layout. The running events took center stage early. The 4x100 meter relay team of Marin, Lavigne, Kierra Spradlin, and Adriyanna Edge clocked a 54.89 second time finishing third nationally and just losing out to ACPHS for the conference title by less than a second at the line.
The 3000m steeplechase proved particularly difficult, with a deeper-than-usual water pit waiting at one end of the course on an already cold and wet day. Lavigne and Rees braved the treacherous course. Lavigne clocked a 14:04.24 to finish fourth nationally and second in the conference, while Rees soldiered through a full spill into the water to round out the field with a 17:49.49.
Destiny Mooers repped the squad in the 100-meter hurdles, just missing out on qualifying for the finals despite a season-best time of 19.47 seconds. That placed the freshman 10th in the USCAA. Mooers ran the 400-meter hurdles as well, finishing seventh overall and fourth in the conference with a 1:25.21.
She was joined by Edge as the squad's entries in the long jump and triple jump. Mooers was eighth in the long jump with a leap of 4.46 meters and fifth in the triple jump with a best distance of 9.22 meters. Edge, out of Windham High School, placed 13th in the long jump with a 3.62m, but fouled her triple jump attempts while battling a sore knee.
Marin blazed through the 100-meter dash qualifiers with a time of 13.44, making her the only member of the YSCC to reach the eight-runner final. It was still two tenths off her fastest time of the season set in dry conditions. The Hampden, ME native ran a 13.78 to finish 6th in the USCAA, but was hampered by the fact that the 400 meters was held just before, tiring her out. She won the conference 400m as well with a 1:05.84, placing her third nationally.
Spradlin finished the 400 in 10th with a time of 1:11.67 while Edge clocked a 1:25.33 to finish 16th. Spradlin ran the 800m as well, finishing with a time of 3:09.58 to place 15th nationally. Edge was the other CMCC entry in the 100-meter dash, finishing 10th with a 14.66, her fastest time of the season.
Marin and Lavigne were the team's entries into the 200-meter dash, in a field full of standouts from Carlow University, Florida National University, and North American University. The pair finished within half a second of each other. Lavigne ended up with the quickest YSCC time and sixth in the USCAA with a 29.03. Marin was just behind her finishing eighth in 29.51 seconds.
Lavigne also showed her athleticism in two other wildly different disciplines. The All-American on the basketball team showed off her leaping ability to finish third nationally in the high jump, clearing 1.44 meters. She then won the conference and placed 10th in the USCAA in the 5000 meters by running a 25:46.32 time.
Back on the throwing side, Rees and Saiauski were in the discus and shot put and were joined by Marin in the javelin. Rees set a new personal record in discus and javelin to finish 11th overall in both with throws of 23.56 meters and 17.56 meters respectively. The other dual athlete from the basketball team also placed 15th in shot put with a best of 6.46 meters. Saiauski finished 18th in discus (16.18m), 14th in javelin (14.45m), and 14th in shot put (6.56m), while Marin placed fourth overall and third in conference for javelin with a toss of 24.90 meters long in just two attempts.
The final event of the competition was the 4x400 meter relay, capping off a long Saturday of events. CMCC's exhausted team of runners featuring, Marin, Edge, Spradlin, and Mooers finished seventh with a time of 5:43.92 to end the day.
The Mustangs were represented in 19 of a possible 20 events and tallied 57.5 points to finish seventh overall in the USCAA National Championship rankings. SUNY-ESF captured the title with 142 points ahead of ACPHS with 103.5. With events also being simultaneously scored for conference-only awards, CMCC finished in second place in the YSCC with 164 points to earn the runner-up plaque. ACPHS captured the conference title with a score of 215 while Hampshire finished in third place with 94 points.
