ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's track and field team ended Saturday's first day of the Patriot League Indoor Championship tied for second place at the meet being contested at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis, Md.
The Mids and Army each totaled 53 points to trail first-place Boston (72 points) by 19 points through six of the 18 events.
"The goal of the first day is to qualify to compete on day two. We were fighting for every hundredth of a second to get qualifiers. The pole vault was impressive. The men's 5,000m was dominant and when you win an event going 1-2-3, it's hard not to be happy about that," stated Director of Track and Field / Cross Country Jamie Cook. "The women were impressive too in the 5k and competed hard to give the team a few points. Every point matters in this league and that's what we try to focus on when we talk to our group."
Sophomore Gracie Emerick highlighted the first day for the Midshipmen with her victory in the pole vault on a season-best tying mark of 3.95m (12' 11.5").
Emerick totaled 10 points with the win and Navy gained another 13 points in the event with solid performances from freshman Aurora Cieslukowski (3.75m / 12' 3.5"), who placed third (6 points), Mimi McHugh, who finished in fourth place (5 points) with a height of 3.75m (12' 3.5"), and Sophia Hill who finished in sixth place (2 points) with a mark of 3.65m (11' 11.75").
In the 4x800m relay, the team of Taylor Woodworth, Katelyn Pepin, Julia Blake and Alex Wercinski recorded the fourth-fastest time in program history of 8:55.82 to finish in second place.
Senior Jordynn Hutchinson placed fifth in the weight throw with a mark of 17.97m (58' 11.5") to add four team points while Nalina Smith recorded a distance of 16.99m (55' 9") to place eighth.
A pair of Midshipmen placed in the top eight of the 5000m. Sophomore Lillee Tang recorded the eighth-fastest time in school history when she clocked a time of 16:50.48 to place fifth. Also, senior Olivia Lutkevich secured two points with her career-best time of 16:58.28 to finish in seventh place.
The Mids' final six points of the day came in the pentathlon where Isabella Romasko led Navy with 3,337 total points to place fourth and add five more points to the team total. Sarah Perico (3,267 points) finished in fifth in the event (4 points) and Sara McConnell's 3,149 points placed her seventh (2 points).
Senior team captain Woodworth won the 400m semifinals with the eighth-fastest time in program history of 55.01. Kylie Bedard (56.77) and Sophia Richter (56.79) claimed the final two qualifying spots in the event by taking seventh and eighth place, respectively.
Junior Jia Anderson had a strong start to the championship with qualifying times in the 200m (24.72, third), 60m hurdles (8.74, fifth) and the 60m dash (7.67, sixth).
Annie Lemelin will join Anderson in the 200m finals as she ran a season-best time of 24.72 to place third.
Alex Wercinski placed second in the 800m semifinals with a time of 2:10.09 to advance to the finals.
Three Midshipmen – Mia-Claire Kezal (4:52.45), Sophie Compton (4:52.57) and Kate Leddy (4:53.36) – qualified for the one-mile finals going fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
The final day of competition will start at 11 AM on Sunday at Wesley Brown Field House at the Naval Academy. TV coverage will start at 12 noon on ESPN+
Patriot League Women's Indoor Championship Day One Standings
1. Boston University (72 points)
2. T2. Navy (53 points)
T2. Army (53 points)
T4. Bucknell (19 points)
T4. Lehigh (19 points)
6. Holy Cross (11 points)
7. Colgate (4 points)
8. Lafayette (2 points)
9. American (1 point)
