BROCKPORT, NY – For the second-straight meet, University of Rochester women's track & field senior Madeline O'Connell smashed the indoor, school pole vault record as the Yellowjackets opened the 2024 portion of their indoor campaign at the Golden Eagle Invitational, hosted by SUNY Brockport at the Special Events Recreation Center.
 
O'Connell again broke the school record, this time by 0.20 meters, as the senior cleared the 3.95m bar, securing the best mark in NCAA Division III so far. O'Connell's vault was good for second place, first among DIII competitors, and also reached the All-Atlantic Region Indoor Track & Field Championships (AARTFC) qualifying threshold.
 
The senior scored another first-place finish in the 200 meters, pacing four Yellowjackets in the top 10. O'Connell finished first with her 25.21 time, another regional qualifier and the fourth-best mark in DIII. Ashley Heffernan came in fourth, clocking in at 25.95s, also hitting the AARTFC mark and notching a top-30 time on the indoor qualifying list, while Kate Isaac finished sixth (26.21) with a regional-qualifying time and top-40 mark, and Nora Chen came in ninth, crossing the finish line in 26.62 seconds.
 
Heffernan added two more of UR's four total first-place results on the day, winning the first round of the 60 meters with a new personal best, AARTFC qualifier, and top-20 time of 9.00 seconds, with Chen also earning a spot in the final with a time of 9.68, good for sixth, before placing fifth in the final with the same time.
 
Heffernan then finished atop the long jump podium, jumping 5.38m, another AARTFC qualifier and top-40 time on the indoor qualifying list.
 
Megan Bell scored Rochester's final, individual first-place tally on the afternoon, taking home the event win in the 500 meters with a new personal best of 1:16.07. While in the 4x400 meter relay, Rita Sciortino, Chen, Emily Dill and Christine Zong finished ahead of the second-place team by nearly four seconds, clocking in at 4:16.33.
 
Prior to the 4x400 relay, Dill added another top-10 finish, crossing the finish line in 2:28.33 in the 800 meters, good for seventh.
 
In total, the Yellowjackets earned eight top-three finishes and five regional-qualifying marks and placed six more times on the top 50 of the NCAA Division III indoor qualifying list. In addition to O'Connell's second-place finish in the pole vault, Alyssa Hoogs earned a podium finish in the triple jump with a 10.72m mark, while Cora Rose scored a third-place finish in the shot put (11.57m).
 
Ashleigh Barrett joined Hoogs in the triple jump top-10, placing seventh with a 9.90m jump, while Deziree Garrick finished fifth in the shot put behind Rose with an 11.32m throw while leading UR in the weight throw at 14.73m, good for seventh. Also in the weight throw, Liv Ilasz came in right behind Garrick in eighth with a throw of 14.00m.
 
Several Yellowjackets also set new personal bests, including Sciortino in the 400 meters. The sophomore led UR in with a 1:05.06 time, finishing seventh with a new PR. Alicia Lawson set a new PR of 10:50.14 in the 3,000 meters, finishing fourth with a trio of 'Jackets behind her in the top 10.
 
Sennett Turner (11:16.83) and Alyssa Horng (11:21.22) came in sixth and eighth, respectively, while Riley Joseph also set a new PR with an 11:21.69 time and 10th-place result.
 
While in the high jump, Heffernan led UR for the third time, successfully making it over the 1.44m bar for fourth, while Nora Dreslin set a new PR by also clearing the 1.44m bar and finishing sixth.

The Yellowjackets next compete at the Conference Challenge Cup, hosted by Nazareth University in Pittsford, NY, on Saturday, Jan. 27 beginning at 10:00 a.m.