Elon Track and Field Preps for Meets at Stanford, Liberty

ELON, N.C. – This weekend, the Elon University women’s track and field team will split for meets from both the east and west coasts. Majority of the team will travel to Lynchburg, Va., for the Liberty Collegiate Invitational on April 4-5 while two members of the distance group will compete on Friday at the prestigious Stanford Invitational in Stanford, Calif.

The Liberty Collegiate Invitational will be held at the Matthes-Hopkins Track Complex with 19 teams in attendance including Southern Conference foe Appalachian State. The distance duo of senior Allyson Oram and sophomore Tereza Novotna will race at Cobb Track and Angell Field among 3,300 athletes at Stanford.

Live Coverage
Live results of both meets will be available to fans through the team’s schedule page at elonphoenix.com. The Stanford Invitational will also be streamed through Flotrack via a subscription.

Last Time Out
Elon competed at the Raleigh Relays this past weekend on the campus of NC State. The Phoenix saw a couple of its athletes set new school records in the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles in sophomores Sydney Griffin and Jennifer Esposito, respectively.

Griffin broke her previous school-record with a time of 13.95 in the preliminary round on Friday, March 28, before she broke it again with a new personal-best time of 13.72 on Saturday in the finals finishing fifth overall.

Esposito broke Alice Turner’s eight-year record in the 400-meter hurdles after she clocked in a time of 1:00.57 in the finals on Saturday. Both Griffin and Esposito hold the top spots in their respective races on the league’s outdoor performance list this season.

The 4×400-meter relay team of Bria Bell, Jennifer Pash, Veronica Luedke and Esposito recorded the third-fastest time in school history with a time of 3:47.61. Pash also ran the third-fastest time on the program’s all-time list in the 400-meters with a time of 56.71.

In Competition at Stanford Invitational
Oram will compete in the 10,000-meters while Novotna will race in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Oram did not compete at the Raleigh Relays, but won the 1,500-meters race at the Wake Forest Open on March 21. Oram ran a time of 4:32.89 in the race, becoming the second-fastest outdoor performer in the event in school history. Last season, Oram set a new school and personal record in the 10K with a time of 35:37.76 at the Penn Relays.

Novotna also did not compete at NC State, but captured the steeplechase crown at the Wake Forest Open with a new personal-best time of 10:41.41. Currently, Novotna, who was the SoCon runner up in the steeplechase last season, holds the top time on the league’s performance list this season.

In Competition at Liberty Collegiate Invitational
The remainder of the team will compete at the two-day Liberty Collegiate Invitational. Pash, Bell, Griffin, Simone Jackson, Bria Turner and Marie Borowycz highlight the group competing in the sprint events. Jackson was Elon’s top finisher in the 100-meters at the Raleigh Relays with a time of 12.47.

Griffin and Esposito will also compete in the hurdles along with Luedke and Samantha Brown. Griffin and Esposito will be the Phoenix’s lone representatives in the 100-meter hurdles while Brown and Luedke will join Esposito in the 400-meter hurdles.

Jackson, Pash, Bell and Griffin make up the 4×100-meter relay team for the maroon and gold. The group is coming off the fourth-fastest performance in school history in the race at Raleigh with a time of 47.22.

In the field events, the trio of Carrie Abraham, Megan Kirschling and Haley Laird make up the Phoenix group in the high jump. Laird won the college division title at the Raleigh Relays after clearing the bar at 5’5” (1.65m). Kirschling recorded a top-10 standing in the international division with a mark of 5’7” (1.70m) and was tabbed as the SoCon’s Field Athlete of the Week on Thursday.

Abraham and Borowycz will be joined by freshmen Jayna Coyle and Kayla Prior in the triple and long jumps. Melinda Hersey and Claire Smith are the maroon and gold representatives in the pole vault.

Six members of the program will compete in the throwing events at Liberty. Kayleigh Birks, Kimberlyn Holt, Jennifer Jarvis, Charlise Morgan, Briana O’Grady and Breanna Warren make up the Phoenix throwing roster this weekend.

The nine-person distance group of Sabina Bains, Kimberly Johansen, Brennan McDavid, Jackie Madden, Erin MacBeth, Kaitlin Snapp, Kaitlin Stober, Ellie Taff, and Kylie Womack will compete in the 800-meters, 1,500-meters and 5,000-meters at Liberty. Johansen, Madden, Taff and McDavid will also compete in the 4×400-meters.

Next Up
The Phoenix will have a pair of meets coming up next on its schedule with the Aggie Invitational at North Carolina A&T and the Blue Shoes Invitational hosted by Furman. Both meets will take place the weekend of April 11-12.