Outdoor track season begins with UPenn Invite

On a mild day in Philadelphia, Penn., the men’s and women’s track and field teams competed at the UPenn Invitational to begin their 10th and 14th meets of the year, respectively, and their first team meets of the new spring season.

The men were led in the running events by fifth place sophomore Josh Budman in the men’s 3000-meter Steeplechase with a time of 10:28:02 and the fourth place finishing A team in the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 3:24:17.

For the women runners, the 4x100 meter relay team put in an outstanding fourth place run of 48:03 for a new school record, besting the 49:71 time set in 2010. Freshman Maggie Shelton led Hopkins women in the 800-meter run with a fourth place finish.

“I was pretty happy with the way the first outdoor meet turned out,” Shelton said who finished with a time of 2:18:90. Next weekend, the Jays will travel south to compete in the Duke Invitational, and, as Shelton noted, Mother Nature could be a critical factor.

“It’s going to be hot,” she said.

Shelton was followed in the 800-meter by eighth-place junior Cassie Cummings, tenth-place sophomore Annie Monagle and 15th-place sophomore Marie Ferguson.

In the throwing events, well-known funny man junior Luke Sand had another strong showing, placing fourth in the shotput and eighth in the discus to lead the Jays while the Lady Jays were led by impressive showings from freshman Emily Swenson, junior Stephanie Amalfe and sophomore Alana Merkow in the women’s javelin, discus and shotput, finishing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

The story of the day was the first-place finish performance of senior Elizabeth Laseter who ran a time of 11:24:53 in the 3000-meter Steeplechase to lead Hopkins’s impressive outings in both the men’s and women’s Steeplechase runs. With her fourth top-three finish of the season, Laseter is enjoying a successful senior season to complement her Hopkins running career.

Laseter attributes much of her success and growth to head coach Bobby Van Allen.

“When I was a freshmen, he told me he knew I could run times that I’d never even dreamed of,” she said. “By teaching me to set my goals, Bobby has helped me reach my potential.”

And that potential has emerged this season. Laseter finished third in the mile at the Centennial Conference Indoor Championships, helping Hopkins win the event overall for one of her self-described proudest moments after finishing last in the same event her freshman year.