The Hopkins women’s track team spent this past weekend at the Widener University Invitational Meet in Chester, Pa. Several Lady Jays recorded personal bests at the meet.
In the high jump, junior Nikki Kearns won the event, while also setting a personal best with a jump of 1.59 meters. Junior Katherine Hamlet also turned in a fifth place finish in the event. Junior Rae Conklin finished fifth in the discus, while senior Stephanie Cabral set a season best in the javelin with a mark of 37.19 meters.
In the track events, the Jays were led by a second place finish in the 5k from junior Jordan Delane, who posted a time of 18:44.84, finishing justahead of sophomore Laura Mears who finished in 19:01.00. Meanwhile, in
Ingrid Johnson picked up a third place finish with a time of 2:19.18. In the 1500 meter, junior Caroline Powers finished sixth with a time of 4:51.74, and freshman Kyra Meko crossed the finish line less than a second later with a time of 4:52.31, finishing in seventh place.
In the 3000 steeplechase, sophomore Veronica Boswell finished seventh. In the 4x400 relay, a team consisting of Johnson, sophomore Lindsay Cheu, freshman Caroline Smith, and junior Alexandra Popkin finished second, posting a time of 4:08.36.
The team was greeted with warm weather conditions once arriving at the Widener Invitational.
“After a freezing winter that restricted practices and progress, the warm weather is helping us to improve,” Hamlet said. “Widener is one of the last meets before conference championships, and everyone was giving their all, since there isn’t much time left.” The Jays also credited the rigors of the indoor winter season for their early success this spring.
“All of our hard work from the winter season and earlier this spring was really starting to pay off,” Delane said. “The team has been getting in some tough workouts these past few weeks and now we are heading into the final stretch of our outdoor season.”
Delane also commented about the warmer conditions.
“The weather was great. It was also nice to compete in warmer weather without a lot of wind,” Delane said.
The Jays have the Penn Relays on the 23rd in Philadelphia, which is their last meet before the Centennial Conference Championships during the first weekend of May at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa.
The players have extremely high hopes for the rest of the year. Hamlet said, “We want to win both men’s and women’s conference titles again this year.”
“One of my goals for the team is to have more people place than in previous years.” Delane said, “A goal for myself would be to get a personal record in the 5K at the Conference Championship.”
Following the Conference Championships, the team has the Swarthmore Last Chance Meet before the National Championships in Canton, NY at the end of May.
