HENRIETTA, NY – University of Rochester women's track and field senior Deziree Garrick and sophomore Nora Chen combined to place three times on the NCAA Division III Indoor Qualifying List, as the Yellowjackets competed on Thursday evening at the RIT Indoor Invitational inside Gordon Fieldhouse.
 
Chen notched a pair of times on the DIII Indoor Qualifying list, taking second in both the 200 and 400 meters. The sophomore first finished second in the 400 meters, leading a pack of four 'Jackets in the top six with a time of 57.93, an All-Atlantic Region Indoor Track & Field Championships (AARTFC) qualifying, and currently the 12th-fastest 400 meters in DIII.
 
Later in the 200 meters, Chen set a new personal-best time and hit another AARTFC mark, crossing the finish line in second place at 26.00 seconds, the 48th-fastest 200 meters in DIII so far this season. Chen was one of six Yellowjackets to earn a top-10 finish in the 200 meters, as Lizzie Merrill placed fourth (27.54), Maya Hatch finished sixth (27.91), Tina Kyriacou clocked in seventh (27.92), Peyton Classer in eighth (28.11) and Abby Kopeck scored 10th (28.78).
 
While in the 400 meters, Raquella Casserino (3rd, 1:03.37), Classer (4th, 1:03.37), and Hatch (6th, 1:04.32) all joined Chen in the top 10, with Hatch setting a new personal-best time.
 
In the weight throw, Garrick bested a season-best mark with a 15.66 throw, good for third place, an AARTFC qualifier, and the 30th-longest throw in DIII this season. Garrick, alongside Cora Rose (8th, 13.84m) and Madison Vargas (10th, 12.99m (PR)), all placed in the top 10 of the weight throw, and also earned top-10 marks in the shot put.
 
Rose was UR's top finisher in the shot put with a 12.18m throw, good for third, while Vargas placed fourth (12.08m) and Garrick finished one-one-hundredth of a meter behind in fifth (12.07m), with all three netting AARTFC qualifying marks.
 
On the day, UR totaled nine top-three results and five regional qualifiers, with Alyssa Horng earning the Yellowjackets' lone first-place finish in the 5,000 meters, clocking in at 19:21.34, a new personal-best time.
 
Elsewhere in the field events, both Katie Atkins (4th, 3.15m) and Kopeck (T-5th, 3.15m) made it over the 3.15m height in the pole vault, while Nora Dreslin was UR's top finisher in the high jump, surpassing 1.37m.
 
In the long jump, Ashleigh Barrett led a trio of Yellowjackets in the top eight with a leap of 5.08m, while Raelen Green finished seventh with a 4.95m jump, and Gracie Conlan took eighth, jumping 4.76m. Conlan then took UR's top spot in the triple jump, placing sixth with a 9.91m leap, with Quinn Taylor a couple of spots behind in eighth with a 9.68m jump.
 
Rochester sent a trio of runners into the 60-meter and 60-meter hurdle finals, with Julie Durham qualifying in the 60-meter hurdles, while Kyriacou and Merrill earned spots in the 60 meters.
 
Durham placed eighth in the 60-meter hurdle prelims, crossing the finish line in 10.405, before netting sixth in the finals with a 10.59-second time. In the 60 meters, Kyriacou finished seventh (8.33) and Merrill took eighth (8.40) in the prelims, before making the jump to third (8.22) and seventh (8.31), respectively, in the finals.
 
In the 800 meters, three Yellowjackets turned in top-five results, led by Emily Dill's second-place time of 2:23.44, while Julia Lantner finished third (2:28.46) and Isabella Doty set a new PR with a time of 2:28.67, good for fourth place.
 
Up next for UR, Megan Bell will compete at the Penn State National Open on Friday, Jan. 31 in University Park, PA, while the Yellowjackets next head to Brockport, NY for the SUNY Brockport Multi & Invitational beginning on Friday, Feb. 7 at 4:00 p.m.