WINSTON-SALEM, NC – The University of Rochester women's track and field team produced three top-10 results and qualified for two finals after day one of competition at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday afternoon at JDL Fastrack.
Rochester's finalists will be in the 400 meters with
Susan Bansbach and the 4x400 meter relay team of Bansbach,
Eileen Bequette,
Kristin Hardy and
Madeline O'Connell.
In addition, Bequette competed in the pentathlon on Friday and ended in ninth place, one spot shy of earning All-America accolades, and graduate student
Lisa Pink ran in the 800 meters, placing 19th.
In the 400 meters, Bansbach was part of heat three which was the lone heat to send three runners into the finals. Bansbach ended third in her heat with a time of 57.46 seconds, but was overall eighth quickest in the 20 runner field.
UR's relay squad also snuck into the final with the seventh best time among 12 relay teams, clocking in at 3:53.60. The Yellowjackets started with O'Connell running a split of 57.67 seconds, followed by Hardy's run of 58.417. Bequette was Rochester's third runner, competing shortly after completing her pentathlon events and Bansbach brought it home with the anchor leg.
Bansbach will compete in two finals on Saturday.
The Yellowjackets heat featured a tight group, with UR, Mount Union, Wartburg and Amherst all finishing in positions seven through ten in the team results during the relay. The top two qualified for Saturday's final.
Bequette's pentathlon score was 3,333 points, placing her ninth among the 19 finishers. She was just 27 points shy of ending eighth.
Her day started with a 14th place result in the 60 meter hurdles, scoring 800 points after running a time of 9.54 seconds. She cleared 1.54 metes in the high jump, 11th best in the field for 666 points. After a tenth place result in the shot put, scoring a mark of 10.24 meters (545 points), Bequette moved up three spots in the standings.
The fourth event of the day was the long jump where the Yellowjacket senior jumped 4.98 meters, earning 554 points to her total. She finished the competition strong, clocking in with a time of 2:24.16 in the 800 meters, fourth best in the field, earning 768 points. That result jumped her up five spots in the standings to ninth.
Rochester's final competitor on the day was Pink who finished 19th in the 800 meters with her time of 2:25.55.
On Saturday, Bansbach competes in the 400 meter finals at approximately 3:10 pm with the relay closing out the meet at 5:00 pm.
