PITTSFORD, NY – After a record breaking day of competition at St. John Fisher College, the University of Rochester women's track and field team sits inside the top-10 at the All-Atlantic Regional Championships on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Rochester's women accumulated 24 points on day one, coming across four separate events, to sit fifth among 21 teams at the meet which scored at least one point.
 
Sophomore Madeline O'Connell broke her own school record once again in the pole vault, clearing 3.82 meters in a runner-up finish which scored eight points for the Yellowjackets. O'Connell's previous best of 3.65 meters this season was set last week at Roberts Wesleyan. Her Wednesday height also bumped O'Connell up to #6 in NCAA Division III this season, with nationals selections less than a week away.
 
UR's 4x400 meter relay team of Michaela Burrell, Kristin Hardy, Eileen Bequette and Susan Bansbach also continued its terrific season, breaking the school record in that event for the third time, finishing third in a time of 3:48.16. The time shaves over two seconds off the groups previous best time and now ranks the Yellowjacket quartet #5 on the Division III performance list.
 
Rochester also had two scoring performances in distances races from seniors Kristen Lodato and Elisabeth Rott.
 
Lodato produced a lifetime best in the 5000 meters, finishing third in 17:52.77, scoring six points for her team. In the 3000 meter steeplechase, Rott clocked in with a time of 11:36.42, good for fifth place. Rott's time also was a lifetime best for the senior.
 

Joining Lodato in the 5000 meter race were three other Yellowjackets. Samantha Mauser was 10th, Meredith Ackley finished 11th and Rachel Dennis placed 12th.
 
In the field events, Gillian Reeder competed in both the hammer throw and javelin, finishing 10th and 11th, respectively. Reeder's mark in the hammer throw was 44.14 meters, while her best toss of the javelin went 31.10 meters.
 
Teammate Alyssa Hoogs finished 11th in the triple jump with a distance of 10.87 meters, while also in the hammer throw, Kari Leap was 13th with a mark of 42.27 meters.
 
Also on Wednesday, a pair of qualifying events were run in the 100 meter hurdles and 100 meter dash. Burrell qualified third for Thursday's finals in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.38 seconds. First-year Kate Isaac also qualified for the finals, running eighth in the prelims in 12.77 seconds.
 
In the 100 meter hurdles, Bequette secured the eighth and final spot into the finals with her preliminary heat time of 15.70 seconds.
 
Day two of competition at regionals gets under way at 12 pm on Thursday.