Today: Mar 28, 2024

Women’s track team reviews Uconn meet

Avery Martin Contributor

Head coach Melissa Stoll describes the SCSU Women’s Track and Field team as “young but hungry”. With 13 of the 30 athletes being freshmen, they certainly are a young team. However, this hasn’t stopped them from competing against division one schools. On April 14, they competed at UCONN. 

Hannah Caiola is one of those 13 freshmen who contributed to the program’s success at UCONN. The Elementary Education major said, “For me, I felt like it was a challenging meet only because I had quite a lot of events to run.  I ran the 100 200 and 4×400 relay. In the relay, I ran second and I think I did pretty well.  Overall it was definitely a competitive meet with lots of competition”. 

Rachel Fleischer, a graduate student, competed in triple jump and long jump at the UCONN meet. There, she achieved a personal record and NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the triple jump with 12.35m. 

 She said, “ The season so far has been pretty progressive. It started off okay. This past weekend was at UCONN and everyone showed out with good performances. Personally, my triple jump performance was the highlight of my weekend because I got 12.35 meters which is number seven in division two. I was pretty happy about that.”. 

Coach Stoll reflected on the UCONN meet positively. She said, “It was a great weekend. We had Jillian Pena, our sole heptathlete, complete her first heptathlon. Rachel Fleischer qualified for the triple jump. She did hit a provisional qualifier earlier in the season but made a huge jump. Both our relays have moved up on their times on the list. A lot of the girls got personal bests so it was a huge step forward”. 

Other significant results for the team at UCONN included Ella Maclean finishing fifth in the 100 meters, the 4×100 relay team finishing third, the 4×400 relay finishing fifth, and Rachel Fleischer finishing 15th in the long jump. 

Competing at larger schools helps the team, says Stoll. She said, “It was nice for the ladies to be able to see from that perspective and see different competitors. We are used to seeing the same competitors on a weekly basis in the Northeast, but when we go to quite large invitationals up in Boston we see a lot of different game players. It is nice for the girls now to see from that perspective what the venue is like, what the other teams are, are the level that everyone is competing at”. 

As for the remainder of the season, the team will compete at Yale on April 22nd and April 30th. After that comes the NE10 Championship, the New England Championship, and the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships.  

“The NCAAs will be in Pueblo, Colorado for anyone who qualifies. We expect that Rachel Fleischer will be qualifying since she is sitting seventh, and our relay teams  as well. Week to week it fluctuates, as people get better. For now, we have at least eight individuals who could qualify” says Stoll.  

Caiola says “There is a strong chance we will win the conference, especially with how hard everyone works. After that, we have New Englands. If we do make it to Nationals that would be awesome. My personal goal is to break 57 seconds in the 400”.  

Fleischer says, “For the rest of the season we are working on refining our skills and techniques. We are also working on being more together as a team. We are just supporting each other, getting through our workouts, and staying healthy for the rest of the season. I also want to get a higher mark on the list in the triple jump. We have four weeks left in the season so hopefully I will improve the mark.” 

The Owls are next in action on April 22 against Yale. 

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