SELINSGROVE, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's indoor track & field squad finished second to Elizabethtown College by four points at the 2017 Landmark Conference Championships hosted by Susquehanna University, ending the Hounds' streak of consecutive Landmark indoor titles at nine.
The Greyhounds scored 161.5 points to trail Elizabethtown, which scored 165.5. Susquehanna placed third with 91 points. The Greyhounds, who had won all nine indoor titles since the conference began in 2007-08, had seven individual event winners.
"This has been a tough season for us with a lot of injuries to key athletes with Hughes out all season, and other key athletes like Cheong, Brockett, and DeFranco battled injuries even today," noted Head Coach Jesse Bumann. "Going into the meet we were down roughly 23 points and in the end closed it to a 4 point gap. As we explained to the team, we were proud with how they fought. So many people stepped up, our short sprinters were flying today, the women's triple jumpers nearly won the meet for us in the last event, every runner fought for every place they could. Obviously it's disappointing to lose, but Elizabethtown is a great team and the women did what they could."
Senior Meg Brockett won both the 5,000-meter run in 19:00.74 and the 3,000-meter run in an ECAC qualifying time of 10:43.11 to capture both races for a second straight year. Junior Casie Cronk captured the high jump for a second straight winter with an ECAC qualifying mark of 1.57 meters (5-1.75) while junior Melissa Cheong won the long jump for the second consecutive year at 5.12 meters (16-9.75). Junior Beth Ann Davies took first in the pole vault for the second straight winter at a height of 3.19 meters (10-5.5) while sophomore Amari Schooler won the 60-meter hurdles with an ECAC qualifying time of 9.40 seconds. Senior Kiara Bright captured first place in the triple jump for the second straight winter at a mark of 10.62 meters (34-10.25).
Cheong was also the runner-up in the high jump at 1.52 meters (4-11.75) while senior Lauren Suelke was fourth in the long jump at 4.70 meters (15-5) with all competitors finishing in the top six in an event scoring points towards the team total. Junior Carly Thorpe was the runner-up in the triple jump at 10.23 meters (33-6.75) while sophomore Sarah DeFranco took fourth at 9.92 meters (32-6.5) and Suelke was fifth at 9.78 meters (32-1).
Senior Jackie Finnegan took second in the 20-pound weight throw with an ECAC qualifying toss of 14.73 meters (48-4), which ranks fifth in school history, while junior Maggie Heft was fourth at 14.03 meters (46-0.5). Junior Ciara Stewart placed sixth in the shot put at 10.50 meters (34-5.5) after playing on Moravian's women's basketball squad for the winter.
Senior Rebecca Flitcroft was the runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles in 9.85 seconds while sophomore Anna Osman took third in 9.90 seconds and Cheong placed fifth in 10.37 seconds. Senior Lauren White was fifth in the 60-meter dash in 8.21 seconds while sophomore Abigail Strouse took sixth in 8.31 seconds. Freshman Lily Cooper was sixth in the 200-meter dash in 27.20 seconds while freshman Carly Danoski was third in the 400-meter dash in 1:01.52 and followed by Osman in 1:01.67.
Brockett placed fifth in the mile run in 5:20.42 while freshman Katie Mayer was sixth in 5:27.03. Freshman Ashley Rohrer placed sixth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:29.87 while Mayer placed sixth in the 3,000-meter run on 10:58.22. Osman, Cooper, Cronk and Danoski combined to finish second in the 4x400-meter relay in 4:11.45 while Rohrer, senior Larissa Strycharz, sophomore Danielle Tomko and freshman Shayne McNally placed third in the distance medley relay in 13:24.02. White, Strouse, Cooper and sophomore Cecilia Fullowan took fourth in the 4x200-meter relay in 1:54.40.
The Greyhounds that have qualified will compete at the 2017 ECAC Division III Indoor Championships at Ithaca College on Friday and Saturday, March 3-4.
