BOSTON, MA-This weekend New England's finest track and field collegiate athletes, across all divisions, gathered at Boston University to compete at the New England NEICAAA Indoor Track and Field Championship. The Ephs, only bringing a fraction of the team, managed not only to place 17th as a team, but went on to break school records and run impressive times to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championship (DIII) in two weeks.
The women's field team had a great meet with senior Julie Paschal placing 9th with a jump of 5'07''. Her coach, Mellissa Daly was ecstatic with her performance and commented, "Julie had a clutch performance. She made her jump on the third attempt, tying her school record and placing 4th on the national qualifying list."
Junior Jenna Adams placed 6th in the pole vault, clearing a height of 11'07.75".
Moving to the horizontal jumps, once again senior captains Tansaia Hoffler and Brooke Johnson landed impressive jumps. Hoffler placed third with a jump of 38'10.75", while Johnson secured the 10th spot on the national qualifying list with a jump of 38'07.00".
Hoffler demonstrated great athleticism in the 60m hurdles. She placed 6th overall with a personal best of 8.80 and broke the school record in the event.
The Eph women had an incredible meet, but the women's 4x400m relay had the most inspirational race today. Prior to this meet, the relay was ranked 38th on the NCAA qualifying list. The Eph quartet had to drop nearly 8 seconds to qualify for the NCAA championship meet.
Junior Amanda Murashigi, sophomores Ashley Graves and Diana Mejia, senior Desiree Daring, did more than drop eight seconds. They ran a time of 3:52.83 to have one of the top ten fastest times in the country for Division III track and feild. At the end of the weekend they will know if their time will send them to the NCAA Championship meet. But for right now, the women are thrilled. Murashigi reflecting on the race stated, "I am so proud of the girls I run with. They all showed tremendous passion and dedication during the race. We did well!"
The team in fact did great. In the upcoming weeks the excitement will only build. Next week the a few will return Boston to compete at Tufts University's last chance meet and then the following week they will fly to North Central University (IL) for the NCAA Indoor Championship meet.
