Without its full roster, the Elizabethtown College women’s track and field team placed 23rd at the Collegeville Classic meet held last Friday at Ursinus College. Distance runners including sophomore Casey Quinto and first-year Kelsey Brady placed in the top eight in their races, helping the team score a three-point total. First-year Brittianni Phillips also did well, finishing in the top 10 in the shot put.
Of the team, Brady had the strongest race, finishing seventh overall in the 800-meter run, with a time of two minutes, 30.2 seconds. With that time, she was able to score two points for the team. First-year Lia Chak joined Brady with a time 2:37.56. Head Coach Joel Hoffsmith was pleased with the performance of the runners. “Our two 800 girls ran well,” he said. With 47 competitors entered in the race, Brady stood out.
In the mile, Quinto clocked in at 5:25.15. She was able to place eighth, giving Etown one more point, combining with Brady’s to give the team the three-point total overall. Quinto’s place in the race was commendable, as 53 runners competed in the mile.
In terms of field events, Phillips performed well. By throwing the shot put 10.41m, she was able to reach the top 10 overall at the meet.
Several team members were able to break personal records. First-year Kamara Litchauer jumped two inches further in the long jump than her previous best distance and first-year Kelsey Bentz set a personal best in the 400-meter run with a time of 1:08.01. Brady, Chak and Quinto also set personal records in their respective races. “With getting back into the swing of things it was a good performance. It shows that I’ve improved since last week,” Bentz said.
The team competed without a large part of its strong distance crew. “They usually only race once every other week. Instead, they did a pretty hard work out Friday. They’ll race about twice a month,” Hoffsmith said.
Hoffsmith plans for the team to improve in the upcoming week at the Bison Open & Multi. “I think we’ll see a fair amount. Bucknell [University] has Division I and Division II competition so it’s pretty good,” he said. He is excited about the location as well. “The atmosphere is [very critical] to people being up for competition,” he said. “Ursinus is just so crowded. At Bucknell, when we’re out on the track there’s not as much commotion. It’s a well-run meet.”
With the Landmark Conference Championships a month away, Hoffsmith is hopeful for competition, but he acknowledged that he is not as familiar with the conference. “I think if we have our best performances we’ll be in the running. Moravian [College] is good and Susquehanna [University] is good,” he said. Bentz had a similar mind set. “We have a variety of girls with different skill sets. If we continue to work harder and improve, we’ll be good,” she said.
The preseason ranking indicated that the team had a chance to win the championship meet. “We were ranked a distant third in the preseason, which I don’t necessarily agree with.” Hoffsmith said. “We’ll be in the mix for the championship. Whether we have enough to win or not? I don’t know, since I’ve never been to one of these before.”
The team will compete at the Bison Open & Multi at Bucknell University, on Friday, Jan. 30 and Saturday, Jan. 31 to finish out the month. They hope to build upon this meet and gain momentum going into February.
