The Oswego State women's track and field team received strong individual and relay performances to qualify for next week's SUNYAC Championships at Brockport's Invite on Saturday afternoon.
Oswego got off to a fast start, with athletes turning in school records and lifetime best marks in the opening events. Junior Karlee Duffer kicked off the meet's first event, taking third place in the 5,000-meter run with a lifetime-best performance of 19:19.28. Freshmen Lauren McNamara and Katie Proulx also set lifetime bests in the event, taking home seventh and eighth, respectively.
Right on their heels, sophomore Abigail Boyce set a new personal best in the 60 hurdle preliminary, qualifying for finals in a new school-record time of 9.64. As it turned out, the wait for another school record to fall did not take long. Immediately after setting the hurdle record, Boyce followed up by taking the record in the triple jump, with a new lifetime best and ECAC qualifying performance of 10.98 meters (36' 0.25")
In the 3,000-meter run, senior Meghan Murphy set a new career-best by 22 seconds, taking second overall in a time of 10:45.30. Doubling back into the event, Duffer also set a new personal best of 11:03.28, taking fourth.
The 4x400 relay closed out the meet for Oswego, needing a strong showing to climb up in the SUNYAC rankings. The quartet of senior Kristen Harrigan, sophomores Valeria Kudinov and Boyce, and seniorMarissa Pariseau, took home first place in a season-best time of 4:08.17. The performance not only clinched the meet title in that event, but also moved the team from eighth to fifth in the SUNYAC rankings.
In six days, women's track and field will be back at Brockport for day one of the 2015 SUNYAC Championships, where the Lakers will look to improve upon last year's finish. Field events start at 3 p.m.
