Ending the outdoor season with a bang, three members of the women's track and field team competed at the ECAC Championship this past weekend in Brunswick, Maine on the campus of Bowdoin College. The Lady Jays tied for 23rd place at ECACs with 11 total team points.
Sophomore Ilolochika Emuh highlighted the meet for the Jays by winning the 55-meter hurdles in 8.64 seconds. The next closest competitor, Cortand's Andrea Gentile, finished .06 behind Emuh, whose win gave the Jays 10 team points.
"I was very happy to see LoLo run so well," said head coach Bobby Van Allen. "She has always been a great competitor, so to see her go after the win in such an incredible field was very pleasing."
Emuh cut .08 seconds off her time in the preliminaries and defeated the fifth and ninth fastest runners in the country in the final. Her final time dropped .26 seconds off her season best for indoor track. "She was not intimidated by the seed times that were much faster than hers or by the fact that she was running against two girls that were seeded in the top 10 in the nation," said Van Allen.
Emuh met the provisional mark for the NCAA Championships. However, only the top 15 qualifiers are selected to go the championships. Emuh missed this mark, finishing in 30th place on the list of eligible athletes.
"LoLo just went out and took care of business and qualified provisionally for NCAAs in the process," said Van Allen. "This really is just the beginning of things to come for Ilolochika. She still is improving in many areas of her event, and I think she might become one of the best hurdlers in the nation before her time is done here."
Senior Aline Bernard earned the other point for Hopkins at ECACs by placing eighth in the 3000-meters with a time of 10:48.45. Her time earned her All-ECAC honors. Bernard ran the preliminaries in 10:43.30.
"Aline also ran a great race," said Van Allen. "In a very stacked field, Aline finished eighth and earned All-ECAC honors along with LoLo. With 200 meters to go in the race, Aline was still in contention for a top 3 finish, she just didn't have the finishing kick to get it done."
"Scoring for the team at regionals was definitely a goal for me since the beginning of the season," said Bernard. "It's a great starting point to go into the outdoor season." Bernard will focus on the 10,000-meter race during the outdoor season.
"Aline had one of her most successful indoor seasons and should be one of the top runners in the conference outdoors in her true event, the 10k," said Van Allen.
Junior Andrea King finished 15th in the shot put with a throw of 36'0.25" in the finals. "Andrea King didn't have a good day, but I'm sure she will rebound and be ready to win yet another conference championship outdoors," said Van Allen. The outdoor season begins March 27 at Battleground Relays in Fredericksburg, Pa.
