The Boston University women’s indoor track team captured the America East Championship on Saturday, the team’s third championship in four years and seventh title since the tournament’s inception 13 years ago.
Senior distance runner Kathryn Ireland led the Terriers on the track, winning the mile in 4:51.43 and the 3,000 meters in 9:53. She also finished third in the 1,000-meter race and her efforts garnered the Most Outstanding Track Performer award.
“I was just trying to place as high as I could,” Ireland said of her dual victories. “Every point really counted and Jen [Kehoe] and I wanted to stay close to the leaders.”
Kehoe won the 1,000-meters (2:53.26) and placed second behind Ireland in both the 3,000 meters and the mile.
In addition to Ireland’s and Kehoe’s efforts in the distance events, Lauren Matthews and Bolpar Vinh came in second and third, respectively, in the grueling 5,000-meter race.
Elsewhere on the track, Lauren Warman left the rest of the field behind in the 400-meters with a time of 56 seconds. Briana Neault finished second in the 800-meters and helped the 4×800 meters team finish second to University of New Hampshire.
In the field, junior Andrea Stuermer won the pole vault with a mark of 12-feet, 3.25-inches, continuing her dominance of the event in the America East this year. Pamela Pierre finished second in the long jump to Viktoriya Rybalko of the University of Maine. Pierre was also fourth in the high jump.
Other noteworthy accomplishments included the setting of a new America East record by Northeastern University sophomore Ahndraea Allen in the 200-meters, completing the race in 24.69.
Corinne Leake broke the 10-year-old record in the 500-meters with a time of 1:14.86. Victoriya Rybalko won Women’s Most Outstanding Field Performer with the triple jump and long jump titles to her credit.
Before the meet, Ireland was confident her team would do well. “We knew we had a great chance coming into it,” she said.
The Terriers amassed 139 points, with Northeastern finishing with 111.50. State University of New York at Binghamton (63) finished a distant third, with University of New Hampshire (60) right behind them.
Rounding out the rest of the schools were Maine (57), defending champs University of Vermont (48), SUNY-Stony Brook(45) and SUNY-Albany (35.30). The University of Hartford was unable to crack the scoreboard and finished without any team points.
The Terriers have a meet this weekend at Harvard University that should serve as a tune-up before the ECAC regional meet in two weeks. The Terriers look to finish strong there, and with some luck, have at least one team member qualify for nationals in Arkansas later this season.
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