After a runner-up performance at last April’s conference championships, the Tribe has set its sights on retaking the title it has won seven times since 1999, including a string of six straight championships from 2001 to 2006.
p. “Hopefully we continue to be dominant in our conference,” Head Coach Kathy Newberry said. “We have a much more challenging conference than we ever have before, but I think we have a very well-rounded team, so obviously the goal is to recapture the CAA Championship.”
p. Much like the men’s team, the Tribe women hope to use a combination of underclassmen and veterans as the formula for a successful season.
p. Freshman heptathlete Katie Guevel already started her season off strongly, qualifying for the ECAC Championships at the College’s first outdoor meet of the year. Also contributing as an underclassman, sophomore Emily Anderson earned provisional qualifiers this winter for the NCAA Indoor Championships in both the mile and 3,000-meter races, and won the 3,000-m at the ECAC Championships.
p. In addition to Guevel and Anderson, the Tribe has experienced competitors in juniors Abby Lemon and Lynn Morelli, as well as seniors Emily Gousen and Allie Lewis. Lemon anchors the throws unit and broke her own school record in the hammer-throw at the VCU Ram Invitational March 15. On the track, Morelli, Gousen and Lewis lead the distance runners. Gousen will look to qualify for the NCAA Regional meet after narrowly missing it last year at the 5,000-m distance. Lewis will take aim at the 800-m school record of two minutes and 8.38 seconds set by Becky Patten in 1996.
p. “I’m kind of looking forward to see how the season progresses because we have a lot of young talent that’s progressing and we have a lot of veterans that are really contributing and stepping up,” Newberry said. “I think you’ll see a lot of records being taken down and hopefully ECAC and [NCAA] regional qualifiers.”
p. Emily Anderson
p. After an indoor track campaign that saw her shatter the indoor mile record with a time of 4:43.33 and provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships in the mile and 3,000-m, Anderson will look to continue improving and take a crack at earning automatic qualifiers to the NCAA outdoor meet.
