The Williams Women's Track and Field Team Competes at the Amherst College Spring Fling

Results

Amherst, MA — The Williams Women's Track and Field Team competed at the Amherst Spring Fling Meet on Saturday, April 8th. After a strong outdoor season debut in San Diego last month, the team was excited to get back on the track and improve their outdoor marks. While the meet was unscored, the Ephs clearly dominated the competition with many personal and seasonal bests across the event groups. 

Starting with the sprints, multiple Ephs competed in the 100m dash. Scarlet Rusch '23.5 placed 4th in the event with a college personal best and DIII New Englands Qualifying time of 12.60. Rusch was closely followed by Rachel Arthur '25 who came in 7th with a DIII New Englands Qualifying time of 12.72. Ziann Facey '26, Gabi Rodriguez '26, and Alisa Kanganis '25 all ran their first collegiate 100m race. Facey placed 19th in 13.53, Rodriguez placed 25th in 13.94, and Kanganis finished in 26th in 14.00.

Four Ephs competed in the 200m. Rusch continued her success and placed 3rd with a DIII New Englands Qualifying time of 26.17. In 6th was Camryn Taylor '24 who achieved a college personal record, running 26.37. Daisy Valle '25 came in 20th with a time of 27.18 and Elsa Martin '25 placed 40th with 28.87. Both got college personal bests. Next up, Taylor and Malia Klein '25 competed in the 400m and placed 2nd and 6th, respectively. Taylor ran 58.06 and Klein ran 1:00.21. They both qualified for DIII New Englands with these times. 

Turning to the middle distance and distance events, select Ephs competed in the 800m, 1500m, and 5000m. Lucy Gagnon '24 placed 4th, running 2:17.11. Senior captain Abby Scott placed 6th and Blakeley Buckingham '25 came in 11th, running 2:19.25 and 2:20.99, respectively. Elsa Martin '25 crossed the line in a college personal record of 2:21.25, placing 13th. All four Ephs qualified for DIII New Englands in this event. In the 1500m, Maddy Lawler '23  came in 4th with a college personal best and DIII New Englands Qualifying time of 4:42.22. Eliana Zitrin came in 23rd with a college personal best of 5:13.61. Kate Swann '26 was the only Eph to compete in the 5000m and she placed 5th with a DIII New Englands Qualifying time of 18:34.67.

The jumps squad had a strong day of competition. In the high jump, Hayden Colfax '25 took 2nd overall with a mark of 1.53m. Close behind was Amelie Jamanka '26 in 2nd, recording an equal mark of 1.53m. Livi Mazerolle '26 took 5th in the high jump with a mark of 1.48m. Ephs continued their success in the pole vault. Ellie Fitzgerald '26 secured 4th place with a mark of 3.30m and qualified for DIII New Englands. Jae Yu '25 took 6th with a mark of 3.30m, also qualifying for DIII New Englands. Poppy Miller '25 also competed in the pole vault, taking 8th with a mark of 3.15m. Two Ephs represented Williams in the long jump. Rachel Arthur '25 placed 12th with a mark of 4.71m. Gabi Rodriguez '26 jumped 4.52m to secure 16th place. 

The throwers had strong performances, too. Emma Miller '26 took 5th in the shot put with a mark of 10.94m. Also in the shot put, Hannah Brown '23 hit a personal best of 9.80m for 9th place. In the discus, Emma Miller '26 achieved a new college best of 29.57m and placed 13th. Miller then went on to achieve a personal record in the hammer throw, placing 6th with a mark of 38.76m. 

The Ephs competed in two sprint relay events: the 4x100 and 4x400. In the 4x100 relay, the team of Scarlet Rusch '23, Rachel Arthur '25, Camryn Taylor '24, and Malia Klein '25 placed 2nd with an impressive season-opener time of 49.03 seconds. The second team made up of Ella Sukup, Gabby Odoom, Daisy Valle and Morgan Nasir placed 5th in the 4x100 with a time of 50.71. Later on in the day, the 4x400 team of Scarlet Rusch '23, Lucy Gagnon '24, Greta Vaughn '26, and Elsa Martin '25 placed 5th with a quick time of 4:08.08. 

In their first NESCAC meet of the outdoor season, many Ephs achieved college personal bests and DIII New Englands Qualifying marks. They are excited to continue working towards the championship meets taking place in a few weeks time, including the NESCAC Championship and the DIII New Englands Championship meet. Next weekend they will compete at the Carla Coffey Invitational and Multi at Smith College on Friday, April 14th and Saturday April 15th. Additionally, a select group of distance athletes will compete at the Bison Outdoor Classic on Friday, April 14th.