Wheaton women capture fourth straight NEWMAC title with 12 event championships; Men place fourth overall

April 27, 2002

CAMBRIDGE, MA- The Wheaton College women's track and field team cruised to its fourth consecutive New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship Saturday afternoon at MIT's Henry Steinbrenner Stadium, as the Lyons dominated the eight-team field with an astounding 248.5 points. Springfield took second with just over half as many points at 127.5. On the men's side, Wheaton placed fourth overall with 109 total points, just missing Coast Guard's 111.5 points. MIT was the team champion with an impressive 293-point showing.

Of the 20 events completed, the women registered an incredible 12 event championships on the day, including shattering six meet records. Senior Shimera Daniels (Brentwood, NY) and sophomore Amber James (Woodbury, MN) were double-event winners on the day, as Daniels captured both the long and triple jump events while James bested the field in the 200 and 400-meter dash races. In addition to breaking the meet mark in the triple jump, Daniels posted a pair of NCAA Division III national meet provisional qualifying performances in both events. James recorded an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 54.75 in the 400-meter dash, a mark also good enough for a meet record, and met a provisional standard in the 200M event.

Other record-setting performances came from senior Niara Woods (Philadelphia, PA) with a provisional qualifying time of 2:16.45 in the 800-meter run, junior Kerry Teamey (Klamath Falls, OR) with a provisional vault of 11' 6", first-year Kirsten Larsen (Hampden, MA) with a provisional mark of 130' 8" in the javelin and the 4x400-meter relay team. Comprised of junior Noreen Kordzeil (Chittenango, NY), sophomore Kim Spence (Dover, NH) and freshmen Tessa Donoghue (Springfield, MA) and Jessica Allegra (East Hampton, CT), the foursome posted a provisional time of 3:58.87.

Rounding out the event winners was Kordzeil and Spence with provisional times in the 100-meter high hurdle and 400-meter low hurdle events, respectively, first-year Katherine Wallace (Glenmoore, PA) in the high jump and Wheaton's 4x100-meter relay team. Consisting of junior Kristen Cullen (Stoneham, MA), James, Donoghue and Allegra, the squad blazed to a provisional qualifying time of 48.60. Daniels finished her outstanding day by registering a provisional qualifying mark of 12.38 seconds in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash, while Donoghue's impressive day also consisted of a trio of provisional qualifying standards in the 400-meter dash, long jump and triple jump. Kordzeil also met a provisional time in the 100-meter high hurdle event.

For the men, after winning the high jump event at the prestigious Penn Relays at the end of the week, freshman Dan Olson (Voorheesville, NY) came back on Saturday to shatter the championship meet record with a leap of 7' 1", which met an NCAA Division III national meet automatic qualifying standard. In six outdoor meets thus far, Olson has posted an amazing six high jump championships. Also breaking a meet record on the field was senior Rahiem Greenridge (Wyandanch, NY), who posted an automatic qualifying mark in the triple jump with a distance of 49' 7 1/4". Breaking a meet mark and recording a provisional qualifying time, sophomore Erik Benson (Southbury, CT) was Wheaton's third event winner, this time in the 400-meter dash in a time of 48.63. Greenridge was also impressive in the high jump, finishing second with an automatic qualifying height of 6' 11". All event winners are automatically named to the NEWMAC All-Conference team.

For results, go to http://www.coolrunning.com/results/02/ma/Apr27_NEWMAC_set1.shtml.

Last updated on 4/29/02.
Send questions about this page to Scott Dietz or contact Wheaton College.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]