SELINSGROVE, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's indoor track & field team continued to be the only program to ever win a Landmark Conference Indoor Championship as the Greyhounds captured 10 gold medals in the 2015 meet Saturday at Susquehanna University for their eighth consecutive Landmark Indoor title.
The Greyhounds ran away with the meet scoring 235 points while conference newcomer Elizabethtown College was a distance second place with 106 points. The host Crusaders finished third with 102 points.
"We knew going into the meet that if we just performed like we had all year, we had a good shot at winning the title,"commented Head Coach Jesse Baumann who earned the Landmark Coaching Staff of the Year along with his assistants. "However, as we discussed in our team meetings the past few weeks, we learned last year that things don't always turn out as they appear on paper. Fortunately, the women stepped up with a great meet. Much like with the men, a jumping event was the catalyst for the rest of the meet. Freshmen Casie Cronk and Melissa Cheong shook off some nerves to take first and third in the high jump and set the tone for the day. The rest of the jumpers followed up with Christelle Reglas winning the long jump posting an ECAC mark, and Kiara Bright, Lauren Suelke and Carly Thorpe all earning huge points for us as well. As usual, our pole vaulters were strong for us as well, sweeping the top 3 places, with Casey Raymond and Beth Ann Davis setting season PRs.
"Our sprinters yet again scored huge points for us with Morgan Redmond winning the hurdles, and Brianna Wright continued to close the gap towards our 60m school record as she won that event," continued Baumann. "The 4x2 team won by 5 seconds, and much of that team came back to score big points for us in the 200 and 4x4. Brielle Sutter, especially had a nice day getting under 26 seconds in her 4x2 split, setting an indoor PR while winning the 200, and posting our best 4x4 split.
"The distance group set numerous PRs as well. Prior to today, Emily Lambright had never won a Landmark title, but came away with two wins, two PRs, and a conference record in the 3K. Devon Bedell also had two big PRs in the 3K and 5K, and Sarah Hughes had the breakout meet we've been waiting two years for with two 10 second PRs in the mile and 3K. The throws competition was as deep as ever this year, so Abbey Clark picked the right day to set a five foot PR in the weight. Jenny Kratch, Jackie Finnegan and Maggie Heft filled in the next three spots with great marks in the weight, and then Ciara Stewart and Jenny had great throws in the shot to give our team the depth we haven't seen in years in throwing events," finished Baumann.
Moravian had one multiple winner in the meet as senior Emily Lambright captured the 3,000-meter run in a Landmark meet record time of 10:41.01 and won the 5,000-meter run with an ECAC qualifying time of 18:19.15.
Two Greyhounds, seniors Morgan Redmond and Brielle Sutter each had one event gold and ran on two relay winning teams Saturday. Redmond captured the 60-meter hurdles in an ECAC qualifying time of 9.41 seconds while Sutter took gold in the 200-meter dash with an ECAC qualifying time of 26.28 seconds. The duo combined with senior Brianna Wright and junior Corinne Glass to win the 4x200-meter relay in an ECAC qualifying time of 1:45.44, the fourth-best time in school history. Redmond, Sutter and Glass teamed with freshman Casie Cronk to win the 4x400-meter relay in 4:11.57.
Wright earned an individual gold as well as she captured the 60-meter dash in an ECAC qualifying time of 7.91 seconds in the finals, the fourth-best time in school history. Wright was actually faster in the preliminaries, qualifying first in 7.90 seconds, tied for second in the Moravian record books. Wright also placed fourth in the 200-meter dash in 27.40 seconds while Glass was the runner-up in the 400-meter dash in 1:00.91 and second in the 200-meter dash in 26.60 seconds. Redmond was also fourth in the 400-meter dash in 1:02.02 while Cronk was sixth at 1:04.48.
The Greyhounds would take gold medals in three of the four jumping events with freshman Melissa Cheong,who was voted as the Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year by the conference coaches after the meet, starting the day with a first place in the high jump, clearing 1.57 meters (5-1.75) and Cronk in third at 1.52 meters (4-11.75). Senior Dana Fineman won the pole vault with an ECAC qualifying height of 3.49 meters (11-5.25) while junior Christelle Reglas won the long jump with an ECAC qualifying mark of 5.29 meters (17-4.25).
Sophomore Kiara Bright finished as the runner-up in the triple jump with an ECAC qualifying mark of 11.04 meters (36-2.75) while sophomore Lauren Suelke took third at 10.64 meters (34-11) and freshman Carly Thorpe was sixth at 10.36 meters (34-0). Cheong was the runner-up in the long jump at 5.03 meters (16-6) while Suelke was fourth at 4.87 meters (15-11.75). Freshman Beth Davies was the runner-up in the pole vault at 3.04 meters (9-11.75) while sophomore Casey Raymond took third in the event at 2.74 meters (8-11.75).
In the throws, freshman Ciara Stewart placed third in the shot put with an ECAC qualifying mark of 12.01 meters (39-5) while senior Jenny Kratch finished sixth at 11.45 meters (37-6.75). Junior Abbey Clark took third in the 20-pound weight throw with an ECAC qualifying toss of 14.07 meters (46-2) while Kratch was fourth at 13.99 meters (45-10), sophomore Jackie Finnegan was fifth with a mark of 13.91 meters (45-7) and freshman Maggie Heft placed sixth at 12.89 meters (42-3).
Back on the track, freshman Lauren White was third in the 60-meter dash in 8.23 seconds while Reglas was fifth in 8.28 seconds. Reglas also placed fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.53 seconds
The Greyhounds had a total of four runners in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles with Cheong finishing as the runner-up to Redmond in 9.54 seconds while sophomore Rebecca Flitcroft was in fourth place in 10.00 seconds and junior Meghan Newman finished fifth in 10.13 seconds.
Sophomore Sarah Hughes was fourth in the 3,000-meter run in 10:53.64, and she placed fifth in the mile run in 5:18.50. Senior Devon Bedell was fourth in the 5,000-meter run in 19:09.88. Moravian's distance medley relay team of senior Alyssa Tallon and freshmen Kirsten Lebo, Kaitlyn McDonnell and Christine Hughes finished as the runner-up in a time of 13:31.84.
The Greyhounds are slated to return to action next week on Friday and Saturday, March 6-7 in the 2015 ECAC Division III Indoor Championships at the New York City Armory. The meet will give one final chance to qualify for the NCAA Division III National Championships the following weekend.