Women's Track qualifies many for NCAA championships

The Hopkins women’s track and field team finished the regular season with a powerful performance at the Tufts Last Chance Meet.

Despite having already qualified several members of the team for the NCAA championship, Hopkins came in with the goal of bringing more to Winston-Salem, N.C..

A standout for the No. 5 Lady Jays was the distance medley relay (DMR) team. The team, comprised of senior Ingrid Johnson, junior Megan McDonald, sophomore Tess Meehan and freshman Caroline Smith, finished first at the meet with a time of 11:50.58. The time, fourth best nationally this season, was more than good enough to qualify them for the championship. 

The group was able to beat its previous time by almost nine seconds.

Another noteworthy performance amongst the Lady Jays came from distance-specialist and All-American cross country runner junior Sophia Meehan.

Meehan, running her first 5000-meter race of the season, qualified for the NCAA championship easily with an astonishing time of 17:00.33. Her time ranks fifth among all D-III runners this season. 

Meehan had already qualified for the 3000-meter run, and the junior, who finished sixth nationally at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, hopes to lead the Lady Jays to a title. 

Senior Frances Loeb, who finished 16th nationally in 2014 in the 5000-meter run, will also be competing in that event. Loeb, in a season culminating in clinching her spot in the championship, currently holds the second fastest time nationally in both the 3000- and 5000-meter runs.

Loeb was recently named Mideast Regional Track Athlete of the Year, a prestigious award given by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Loeb was not the only Lady Jay to take home an award this past weekend, as freshman Jenn Su was named Centennial Conference Outstanding Rookie of the Year.

Su finished second in the conference in the pentathlon with 2,829 points. That total was good enough for sixth-best in program history.

The Lady Jays placed 15 overall on all-conference teams.

The team travels to Winston-Salem for the national championships, hoping to improve upon its 17th place finish last season.

After that, the Jays will look to continue their running success this year in the outdoor track season, which runs from late March to the end of the school year. Hopkins took their third straight cross country national title outdoors just this past fall season.