William and Mary left the JDL Invitational victorious, with both men’s and women’s teams placing first Feb. 16, with several more athletes qualifying for the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships.
The women’s team shone on both the track and the field over the weekend. Sophomore Taylor Jones gave the Tribe a promising start Friday during the pole vault where she vaulted a lifetime best 3.80m, placing her sixth in school history on the all-time athletes list and easily qualifying her for the ECAC Championships.
The day continued to be record-breaking, as senior Grace Becker set a meet-record of 1.72m in the high jump, also earning herself a spot in the ECAC finals. Brianna Miller and Alexis Brender a Brandis placed second and fifth respectively in the long jump. Brender a Brandis also contributed an 11.28m triple jump, garnering her a silver medal in the event.
On the track, junior Gabby Runge placed fourth overall in the 200m, clocking in at 25.93 seconds, the fifteenth fastest race in school history. She continued to excel at the 400m, placing sixth overall with a personal best 58.72 seconds.
For the men, the weight-throw and the 800m proved to be the most successful events, resulting in five ECAC qualifiers for the Tribe.
Sophomore KJ Cook’s throw of 17.36m landed him in the top collegiate spot and put him second overall as well as requalifying him for the championship. Also qualifying for the finals in the weight-throw was redshirt freshman Jason Wright who threw two personal bests to do so.
The 800m run earned the College three more qualifiers. Redshirt junior Chris Short, sophomore Miles Owens, and junior Raul Chavez-Gutierrez took first, second and fourth respectively; Short finished with a time of 1:54.09, a few thousandths of a second in front of Owens. The final qualifier for the men was grad transfer Daniel Giliomee, who requalified with a pole vault finish of 5.00m and took second in the event.
The men finished with an overall score of 101, far outpacing the second-place finisher Lee which earned only 66 points. The women came out on top as well, garnering 79 points and decisively besting Wake Forest who came in next at 63 points.
After this promising outing, the College will spend the next few weeks preparing for the ECAC Championships, which will be held Mar. 2-3 at Boston University.
