No. 1 Women's Track & Field Competes at Tufts National Qualifying Meet, NEICAAA Championships

BOSTON/MEDFORD, Mass. -- Junior Katelyn Howard (Lake Oswego, Ore.) won the pole vault and senior Christina Crow (Mercer Island, Wash.) finished second in the 3000m as each climbed the NCAA Division III qualifying list competing for the No. 1 nationally-ranked MIT women's track & field team on Saturday at the Tufts National Qualifying Meet. MIT also sent members of the team to the NEICAAA Indoor Championships with an eye on earning qualifications to next week's NCAA Division III championships.

HOW IT HAPPENED – TUFTS LAST CHANCE:

Pole Vault: Howard and classmate Hailey Surace (Snohomish, Wash.) finished 1-2 for MIT in the event, with Howard clearing a personal best 3.93m (12' 10" 3/4") and Surace clearing 3.88m (12' 8 3/4").
3000m: Crow finished as the runner up with a personal record time of 9:42.62.
Shot Put: Senior Emily Ball (Des Moines, Iowa) won the event with a mark of 13.65m (44' 8 3/4").
5000m: First year Ava Hartman (New Orleans, La.) finished seventh with a time of 18:01.38.

HOW IT HAPPENED – NEICAAA:

Triple Jump: Junior Nony Otu Ugwu (Katy, Texas) won the event with a mark of 11.70m (38' 4 3/4")
High Jump: Junior Katie Kempff (St. Charles, Ill.) was 12th, clearing 1.59m (5' 2 1/2").

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

Howard is now seventh nationally in the pole vault thanks to her mark from Saturday. Surace remains ninth (3.90m) thanks to her finish at the Suffolk Relays.
Crow moved up to 11th in the 3000m, one of three MIT runners in the top 11 in the event along with junior Kate Sanderson (West Hartford, Conn.) in seventh and and grad student Gillian Roeder (Delmar, N.Y.) in tenth.
Ball is holding at 15th in the shot put thanks to her mark (13.76m) at last weekend's NE Division III Championships.
Otu Ugwu is currently 19th in the Triple Jump on the strength of her mark (11.83m) from the Harvard Crimson Elite earlier in the season.

NEXT UP:

MIT will compete at the NCAA DIII indoor track and field championships, Friday, March 14 to Saturday, March 15, 2025, at Golisano Training Center in Rochester, New York. The final list of meet participants for the 2025 DIII indoor track and field championships will be made available on NCAA.com on Sunday, March 9.

STAY CONNECTED: