Steeple sweeps highlight first day of SCIAC T&F Championships

1-2-3 sweeps in both the men's and women's steeplechase races highlighted the first day of the SCIAC Track & Field Championships for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Friday.  After day one, the Athenas lead the women's competition with 64 points and the Stags are second in the men's competition with 39.

Five finals were contested on Friday for both genders and CMS came away with four champions.  Vaiva Palunas won the women's discus throw with a personal best of 127-4.  Ellyn Erving won the women's long jump with a personal best of 18-10.  Allison Barnwell led a quintet of scorers in the women's steeple while winning her second consecutive title in 11:02.42.  Evan Molineux led the leading trio in the men's steeple with a personal best of 9:35.21.

The steeplechase was the only final on the track on Friday and the teams scored 54 points combined.  Kaitlyn Spees (11:07.82), Caroline Willian (11:22.07), Taia Wu (11:48.91) and Caroline Willian (11:55.93) followed Barnwell in second, third, fifth and eighth and as five women are now represented on the CMS top-10 list.  Alex Lombardo (9:38.58) and Bob Owlett (9:39.43) finished second and third in the men's race.

Additional scorers on day one included Matt Wong (4^th – 22-9.75) and Cam Van (5^th – 21-4.75) in the men's long jump, Allison Krugman (3^rd – 10-6.25) and Ellen Seidel (8^th – 9-6.5) in the women's pole vault, Zane Bodenbender (7^th – 11-6.25) in the men's pole vault, Nicole Laliberte in the women's hammer (4^th – 138-8) and discus throw (7^th – 111-7) and Sam Perrella (5^th – 44-6) in the men's shot put.

The meet continues Saturday with all of the events finals.