Light Blue Track Experiences Success in Bicoastal Weekend

The Lions tore up track on both sides of the country this weekend, earning individual success at the Stanford Invitational and Penn Invitational.

Seniors Stephanie Lenihan and Carmen Ballard, competing in the 5,000-meter races, won NCAA regional qualifying times. Lenihan, racing in a different heat than her fellow Lion, came in one second before Ballard, but both women defeated Ivy League competitor Smita Gupta of Brown. Gupta had defeated Lenihan at the indoor track Heptagonal Championships last month. Both athletes, however, will continue to work toward reaching NCAA automatic qualifying times to ensure a bid to the championship meet in Iowa this June.

Only a small number of distance athletes competed at the Princeton Invitational, but the Lions garnered standout performances in Philadelphia. Senior Erika Moses won the 800-meter race, defeating a hefty pack of Cornell runners. The men’s 4x800-meter relay team earned a first-place finish over Penn’s B-team. Last season, the relay team, aided by Erison Hurtault CC ’07, had an outstanding victory at the Penn Relays Champions of America race.

Other Lions captured top finishes, as the men’s 4x400-meter relay placed second and the women’s group came in third. The Light Blue picked up a handful of bronze medals at the invitational with senior Liam Boylan-Pett in the 800-meter race, junior Jonah Rathbun in the 1,500-meter race, and freshman Jeremy Whyte in the triple jump event.

The Lions will compete this weekend at the Sun Angel Track Classic in Tempe, Ariz., at a meet against Brown in Providence, R.I., and at the Miami Elite Invitational in Miami