NEW YORK, NY – The Rider University women's track and field team finished in second-place at the 2019 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Indoor Championships. The two-day event took place February 16-17, at the 168th Street Armory in New York City.

Monmouth won the team title with 187.5 points and Rider finished in second-place with 133 total points. Manhattan was in third with 117.5 points and Quinnipiac ended up in fourth courtesy of earning 105.5 points.  

On Sunday, the Broncs brought home four medal, highlighted by earning two gold medals.

Graduate student Sara Gardner (Holland Township, NJ/Delaware Valley) picked up two medals on the final day of action. Gardner won the 60m hurdles with an ECAC-qualifying and new program record time of 8.41. Gardner also picked up a bronze medal thanks to finishing third in the 60m dash at 7.83.

Cleopatra Morrison (Long Branch, NJ/Long Branch) earned the other Rider gold medal on Sunday thanks to winning the 60m dash with a time of 7.73.

The final medal of the championships came from the Bronc 4x400 relay. The quartet of Mary Ilelaboye (Avenel, NJ/Colonia), Quinn Bithell (Cape May, NJ/Lower Cape May), Nicole Berry (Berlin, NJ/Winslow Township) and Sophia Castronovo (Emerson, NJ/Emerson) picked up a bronze medal with a third-place time of 3:54.81.

NOTES & QUOTES
"We had a real good day 2 in many areas. We were able to get a few more MAAC titles which is always a great accomplishment for the athletes. We had a very exciting start to the meet winning the first three events - both 60 hurdles and the women's 60.  It gave us a lot of momentum to start the day." – Rider Head Coach Bob Hamer

"Sara was great in this meet. She competed tremendously in four events and broke the Rider record twice and she even set a personal best in the 60. She was also able to win the high jump. I always ask our best athletes to step up and be great for the team when we need them and Sara did that this weekend." – Hamer

"I was really happy for Cleo. She really wanted this title. It is always difficult to come into a championship meet as a favorite and she responded really well. She always gets a great start and then that forces every else to strain to get her and they could not match her tonight." – Hamer

"We had a goal coming into this season of winning a championship. Unfortunately, Monmouth was not going to let that happen. They are a tremendous program and they really brought it this weekend. We did not have a perfect and complete meet so we will need to take the successes from this weekend and also the disappointments and learn from them. There are definitely some areas that did not go as expected and we will work to improve on them. We also had some great performances from our athletes that we are so excited to celebrate." – Hamer

- Yvette Assongba was fourth in the 60m hurdles at 8.93.
- Sophia Castronovo came in seventh in the 400 with a time of 59.36.
- Nicole Berry finished seventh in the 800 at 2:16.97.
- Genesis Walker landed in seventh-place in the 200 with a time of 26.04.
- Fidele Jules ended up in seventh in the shot put at 12.99m.
- Ronetta Hunter was eight in the shot put with a toss of 12.92m.
- Ashley Berry came in  ninth in the shot put with a mark of 12.81m.
- Destiny Kearney finished in fifth-place in the triple jump at 11.33m.
- Yohanny Rodriguez landed in sixth overall in the triple jump with a mark of 11.24m.
- Jennifer Maurer ended up in seventh-place in the triple jump at 11.16m.
- Lindsay Bauer was eighth in the triple jump with a leap of 10.96m.
- Kyla Edwards came in ninth in the triple jump at 10.51m.
- Peri Pavicic finished in seventh-place in the 3,000 with a time of 10:09.29.
- Teagan Schein-Becker landed in eighth overall in the 3,00 at 10:09.47.
- The Rider 4x800 relay of Kristin Siegle, Andrea Benites, Paris Boucher and Katie Ward finished fourth with an ECAC-qualifying and new program record time of 9:13.66.