From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics
The Carnegie Mellon University women's track and field team placed first at its home mini invitational on Saturday, March 26. The Tartans earned 245 points with 10 first-place finishes against teams from Denison University, Waynesburg University, Allegheny College and Franciscan University.
Freshman Tessa Allen (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Bishop Montgomery) broke an 18-year old school record after clearing the bar at 1.59 meters in the high jump. Junior Rebecca Fortner (Navarre, Ohio/Fairless) took third with a height of 1.54 meters. Allen turned in another top finish when she won the triple jump with a leap of 10.40 meters. Freshman Autumn Hair (Blue Bell, Pa./Wissahickon) placed third with a mark of 9.83 meters.
The Tartans swept the top three spots in the long jump, with freshman Debarati Bhanja (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) placing first. Her jump of 5.47 meters tied the school record. Placing second and third was Hair and junior Jerilyn James (Friendswood, Texas/Clear Brook) with jumps of 5.07 and 4.84 meters.
On Friday, sophomore Kiersten Chuc (Cupertino, Calif./Monta Vista) won the hammer throw with a career-best distance of 39.54 meters. Freshman Oly Nwankwo (Homestead, Pa./Stevenson) scored points for the Tartans in the event as well with a career-best throw of 32.12 meters to place fourth. Nwankwo then placed second in the shot put on Saturday with another personal-best distance of 11.59 meters.
To close out the field events, junior Grace Yee (San Francisco, Calif./Lick-Wilmerding) cleared 3.28 meters to win the pole vault.
Senior Taylor Maggiacomo (Temecula, Calif./Great Oak) opened the running events with a personal-best time of 12:12.25 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The 4x100-meter relay team of James, Hair, Bhanja and sophomore Sarah Cook (Pittsburgh, Pa./Hampton) then crossed the finish line with a time of 50.21 to win the race.
Senior Liz Snyder (Somerset, Pa./Somerset) scored first-place points, but placed fourth behind three runners from the University of Pittsburgh, for the Tartans in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:54.90. Behind Snyder in fifth earning second-place points was classmate Natalie Smith (Portland, Ore./Metropolitan Learning Center) crossing in 5:02.74.
Cook turned in a meet record and personal-best time of 2:17.11 in the 800-meter race to win the event. In the 400-meter run, sophomore Ariel Tian (Acton, Mass./Acton Boxborough Regional) crossed in 1:01.63 to place second.
Junior Sommer Farber (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) and Fortner placed second and third in the 100-meter hurdles with times of 16.65 and 17.02, respectively. Bhanja placed second in the 100- and 200-meter dashes with times of 13.32 and 26.14. James finished third in the respective events with times of 13.40 and 27.32.
The 4x400-meter relay team of Bhanja, Tian, freshman Rose Ciriello (Madison, N.J./Madison) and Cook closed the meet with a meet record of 4:01.36 to record the team's 10th victory of the day.