Women’s Track and Field Battle at Duke Invite and Bison Classic

DURHAM, NC – Two groups from the women's track and field team competed in separate events, with one group participating in the Duke Invitational in North Carolina and the other competing at the Bison Outdoor Classic on Saturday.

Duke Invite
Hailey Palmer led the women's team finishing in the top 15 in the 400m event, finishing in 55.58 which marked the third fastest time in program history.

Maya Ashu had an impressive performance in the javelin event throwing 38.19m.

Quotes and Notes
"Hailey Palmer had a fantastic weekend running the third fastest time in Rider history in the 400m and running a great 2nd leg on the 4x100 relay.

Taylor and Dylan had a nice weekend with solid 100s, great legs on our 4x1 and then all-time top 10 marks in the 200m. They've had a really great impact on our program this year.

Maya had a great day in the javelin winning the unseeded flight and recording an all-time top 10 mark.

Sammy was great today recording a top 10 mark in the triple and competing with a lot of course against a nationally competitive field of jumpers." – Rider Associate Head Coach of Cross Country, Track & Field Brett Harvey

Bison Outdoor Classic Day 1
Grace Medei led the Broncs finishing the 5k in 15th place with a time of 16:48.91 which broke the program record in that event.

"We had some really great performances from the women tonight highlighted by a Rider Record in the 5k from Grace Medei. Jordan was also under the previous record. Both of them ran great races tonight. They ran patient but also aggressively when necessary.

Grace was so impressive tonight. She has run two great races over the last few weeks. We always talk about getting to the critical point in the race and then taking a chance. She did that very well this evening and she was rewarded with a big result. I'm really proud of her. She has improved and grown so much this year into a big time performer.

It was great to see Jordan bounce back from a tough one last week to run a big PR today. She is so resilient and races in the moment.

Liz Fis and Grace Mangold both had breakthrough performances today as well. It was a fun day for the women." – Rider Director of Cross Country, Track & Field Bob Hamer

Bison Outdoor Classic Day 2
Julie Ruskan highlighted the Broncs on day two of competition placing fourth in the mile event, finishing with a time of 5:18.83.

"We had a mixed bag of results today. Julie had a great race today that has been a long time coming. She has overcome a lot of adversity to get to this moment. It's always great to see when the athlete's persistence leads to a favorable outcome." – Rider Director of Cross Country, Track & Field Bob Hamer