Women's College Track and Field
Rider at John Thomas Terrier Classic – Day One
BOSTON, Mass.—Led by two Rider University record setting performances, the women's track and field teams competed on day one of the John Thomas Terrier Classic, hosted by Boston University on Friday.
For the Broncs, senior Emily Ritter (Millsboro, Del./Sussex Tech) was fourth in the mile breaking her own Rider record and qualifying for ECACs with a time of 4:44.33 and junior Nicolette Mateescu (Kendall Park/South Brunswick) was 23rd in the 5000 meter, running a Rider record 17:21.61 to also qualify for ECACs. Megan Elgin ran the 5000 meter in a time of 17:41.70 in 2012.
“This is the result we envision when we go to this kind of meet,” said head coach Bob Hamer. “This is a great venue with great competition. They trusted me and the coaches with the process and the results were great. The team really needed this today and validated the work that they are putting in.”
Also for Rider, freshman Lexie Fraction (Sewell/Washington Twp.) was third in the 60 meter hurdles (8.76) to qualify for ECACs and in the high jump, junior Daria Chadwick (Summit) tied for sixth with a height of 5'5”.
The men's distance medley relay of senior Derek Lake (Middletown, N.Y./Pine Bush), freshman Andrew Horberg (Somerset/St. Joseph's Metuchen), sophomore Scott Wood (Florence/Holy Cross) and junior Tom McLaughlin (Egg Harbor Twp.) qualified for IC4As, running 10:09.69, placing fourth.
“I challenged the women's team last night to find out what kind of team this could be or what kind of team we aren't and they answered the challenge and stepped up,” Hamer said. “Ritter is extremely talented but also works really, really hard. And Mateescu, due to injury hasn't had an indoor season in two years so it was really exciting to see what a healthy Nicolette can do. I appreciate how much they trust in me and how much they do to prepare for these meets.”
The women's DMR and the rest of the Rider men's team competes on Saturday.
“We haven't been finishing races well and today we did,” Hamer added. “That was the biggest difference and why our results were what they were.”
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