This weekend the Hopkins women’s track and field team traveled up to Boston University to compete in the David Hemery Valentine Invitational.
One of the most competitive meets of the indoor season, the Valentine Invitational attracts top level D-I talent from across the country and provided the team with an opportunity to compete against some tough competition before the Centennial Conference Championships.
Leading the way for the Lady Jays was senior Frances Loeb, who finished 19th in the 3,000 meter run. Loeb was the only D-III runner to place in the top 40 in the event.
Additionally, many runners posted season and personal bests in events including the mile, 800-meter run, 400-meter run and distance medley relay.
The meet started off on a strong note as freshman Caroline Smith placed her name in Hopkins track history by running a 2:14.74 in the 800-meter run, a new freshman record in the event. The previous record holder, Maggie Shelton, eventually went on to be the runner-up in the 800-meter run at the NCAA championships.
“I’ve been working towards a 2:14 for over a year now and it was great to finally accomplish it,” Smith said. “I’m honored to be in the record books but definitely not yet satisfied... I have a long way to go and hopefully this is just the beginning. I’m excited to see what I can do, and more importantly, what the whole team can do in the coming weeks and even years.”
The meet continued with the 400-meter run where juniors Megan McDonald and Emily Nordquist both posted solid times of 58.10 and 59.79 respectively.
Sophomore Tess Meehan led a pack of four Hopkins runners to a group of impressive personal bests in the mile. Meehan finished in 4:56.83, with teammates Ingrid Johnson (5:03.31), Ashley Murphy (5:06.25) and Caroline Powers (5:07.48) close behind her.
The distance medley relay team consisting of Johnson, McDonald, Smith and Meehan finished seventh.
Despite being a D-III program, the women’s track team consistently competes and holds it own in meets dominated by D-I talent. Loeb believes that this is due to the hard work and dedication of the athletes and coaches.
“I feel so lucky to be part of such an amazing running program here at Hopkins,” Loeb said. “We have a phenomenal coaching staff that gives us the same quality as a D-I program, but with the D-III attitude and emphasis on academics and being well-rounded. For example, they take us to the most competitive D-I meets, our workouts and strengthening program are D-I caliber, and the depth of our team actually surpasses many D-I programs. This is what allows us to perform well at D-I meets.”
While a select group of athletes traveled up to Boston, the rest of team traveled to Annapolis, Md. to compete in the Navy Multi-Madness meet.
There were several great performances and many athletes set new season bests. Senior Kelly Hussey (8.23) and sophomore Anna Clements (8.31) each ran strong 60-meter dashes. Additionally, freshmen Kelsey Harper and Jenn Su performed well in their first pentathlons.
The next meet for the Jays will be the Centennial Conference Championships, held at Haverford on Feb. 28 and March 1. In the coming weeks, the team will look to build off this weekend’s performances and train hard for the upcoming challenge.
“I’m thrilled about everyone’s performance this weekend,” Loeb said. “Everyone truly ran their hardest this weekend and ran really strong races. Just about everyone ran their best times of the season with many lifetime PRs. I think this weekend in itself was a huge preparation for conferences. At two different D-I meets we were able to race some great competition to gear up for our championship. We’re also trying to train really smart right now. We only have two more weeks until conferences so a lot of our work has already been done so now we’re trying to just sharpen our speed and techniques.”
