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Tartans Finish Second at 2015 Denison Lid-Lifter

Tartans Finish Second at 2015 Denison Lid-Lifter

From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics

The Carnegie Mellon University women's track and field team placed second at the Lid-Lifter Invitational held at Denison University on Saturday, January 24.  The Tartans ended with 89.5 points while Division II California University of Pa. won the events with 117.5 points.

The 3,000-meter run was the highlighted event for the Cardinal and Gray on Saturday as they swept the top three spots all with personal-best times and also recorded points with a fifth, sixth and eighth place finish. Junior Sophie Lohmann (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany) won the event with a time of 11:10.91 followed by juniors Kira Ragazzo (Frederick, Md./Urbana) and Natalie Smith (Portland, Ore./Metropolitan Learning Center) with times of 11:12.96 and 11:17.31.Freshman Aparna Alavilli (Hanover , N.H.) crossed in 11:30.95 in her first collegiate race to place fifth while fellow classmate Rhiannon Farney (Winston Salem, N.C./Mount Tabor) and sophomore Emily Joyce (Carlisle, Pa./Big Spring) placed sixth and eighth with times of 11:39.65 and 11:48.40.

Senior Sasha Spalding (Springhill, Fla./Springstead) recorded a third-place finish and two fourth-place finishes on the afternoon.  Spalding placed third in the 60-meter dash after crossing the finish line in a personal-best time of 8.22.  The senior then took fourth in the 200-meter dash crossing in 26.94 and fourth in the long jump with a leap of 5.03 meters.  Freshman Sarah Cook(Pittsburgh, Pa./Hampton) finished less than a second behind Spalding in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.58 to place sixth.

Junior Jillian Jaycox (West Chester, Pa./Unionville) finished fifth in the mile with a time of 5:43.83.  In the 60-meter hurdles sophomores Rebecca Fortner (Navarre, Ohio/Fairless) and Sommer Farber (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) earned the Tartans points after crossing in 10.14 and 10.33 to place sixth and seventh.  Fortner's time of 10.14 was a personal-best.  Sophomore Ariel Tian (Acton, Mass./Acton Boxborough Regional) finished seventh in the 800-meter race in 2:34.69.

Fortner paced the field events with a second-place finish in the high jump.  The sophomore cleared 1.52 meters while sophomore Jerilyn James (Friendswood, Texas/Clear Brook) cleared 1.42 meters and classmate Emily Swanson (Atkinson, N.H./Timberlane Regional) cleared 1.37 meters to place seventh and eighth.  In the triple jump, Farber recorded a jump of 9.41 meters to lace sixth.

Sophomores Grace Yee (San Francisco, Calif./Lick-Wilmerding) and Karen Irvine (Villanova, Pa./Harriton) tabbed points for Carnegie Mellon in the pole vault clearing heights of 2.75 meters and 2.59 meters to place sixth and eighth.