No. 4 Women’s Track and Field Wraps Regular Season at NEICAAA Championships and Tufts Final Qualifier

BOSTON/MEDFORD, Mass. — The No. 4 MIT women's track and field team competed on Friday at the NEICAAA Indoor Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center and Saturday at the Tufts Final Qualifier at Gantcher Family Field House, as the Engineers closed out the regular season with numerous strong performances.

Katelyn Howard set a PR in a pole vault victory at Tufts, one of two victories on the day for MIT along with Madeline Hon, Krystal Montgomery, Nandini Warrier, and Shreya Kalyan in the 4 x 400m Relay. MIT also earned runner-up finishes from Kalyan in the 400m, Lexi Fernandez in the mile and Katie Kempff in the high jump.

Pole vaulters Elise Doyle and Tessa Baker represented No. 4 MIT women's track and field on Friday evening at the NEICAAA Championships as well as Saturday at Tufts.

THE BASICS:

NEICAAA: 13th of 18 (5 points)
Tufts: No Team Score

TOP PERFORMERS - Track Events:

400m (Tufts): Kalyan earned runner-up honors with a PR of 56.89 as she seeks to qualify for next week's NCAA indoor nationals.
800m (Tufts): Erin Hovendon recorded a time of 2:18.83 to grab eighth place.
Mile (Tufts): Fernandez clocked a PR of 4:52.88 to lead six MIT runners in the field with a runner-up performance. Jessica Meza was sixth in 4:58.55, also a PR. Jordan Lacsamana added an eighth place time of 5:02.72, while Kate Friedman was 16th (5:12.23), Megan Diulus was 17th (5:12.82) and Sarah Hopp was 24th (5:28.72).
3000m (Tufts): Liv Girand finished third overall in 9:50.17.
4 x 400m Relay (Tufts): MIT's program record relay won the event in 3:50.20.

TOP PERFORMERS - Field Events:

Pole Vault (NEICAAA): On Friday at the NEICAAA Championships, Baker earned MIT five points with a third-place finish after clearing 3.62m (11' 10.5"). Doyle was 10th with a height of 3.47m.
Pole Vault (Tufts): Howard set a PR by clearing 4.03m to win the event on her second attempt at the bar. MIT earned four of the top five spots in the event, with Hailey Surace taking second place(3.88m), Baker fourth (3.78m) and Doyle fifth (3.78m).
High Jump (Tufts): Kempff and Amalia Christina Toutziaridi finished second and third respectively while Paige Dzenutis was 11th. Kempff cleared 1.65m (5'5") while Toutziaridi had a height of 1.60m and Dzenutis cleared 1.55m.
Triple Jump (Tufts): Kempff also finished in the top ten in the triple jump, recording a mark of 10.69m (35'1") to finish tenth.
Shot Put: Lilia Ould-Hammou had top ten marks in both the shot and the weight throw. Ould-Hammou was fourth in the shot with a distance of 11.99m (39'4").
Weight Throw (Tufts): Ould-Hammou added an eight-place performance in the weight throw to lead MIT in the throws. She had a performance of 15.31m (50' 2.75"). Macy Brennan was tenth with a mark of 14.51m.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

Kalyan could be on the way to nationals with her performance in the 400m as she is currently 19th in the national rankings.
Fernandez looks to have locked up a spot at NCAAs as she moved to sixth in the mile with her finish. Meza is currently 35th.
Girand moved inside the top 30 in the 3000m following Saturday. Overall, MIT has four of the top 30 runners in the event nationally.
Kempff is now 31st nationally in the high jump. Toutziardi remains in the top ten thanks to her performance earlier this season at the Crimson Open.
Howard moved up to fourth nationally with her pole vault PR, she is now one spot behind Surace. Doyle and Baker also had season-best marks on Saturday at Tufts and are now tied for 28th in the event.

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