CMS Women's Track and Field Edges Redlands By 6.5 Points for Seventh Straight SCIAC Title
LA VERNE, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's track and field team faced a tough challenge from Redlands to keep its streak of consecutive SCIAC titles going, but held off the Bulldogs for a 173.5-167 win on Sunday at the league championships, hosted by the University of La Verne.
Caroline DelVecchio swept the 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles for the second straight year, and Riley Capuano added a win in the 1500 meters for the Athenas, which also defeated by Redlands by just three points in 2019 (and by 24 points last year).
DelVecchio earned the 100-meter hurdles in a close race over Eleanor Bachmeier of Redlands, finishing in 14.41, compated to Bachmeier's 14.72. The 14.41 was a new PR for DelVecchio, and moved her to within .05 of the CMS record set by Rose Lewis in 2013.
DelVecchio earned a comfortable win in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:02.51, a margin of just over one second over Elee Faulkner of Redlands (1:03.60). Shriya Velichala finished sixth and Olivia Schleifer eighth for the Athenas, picking up more valuable points towards the team title.
The 1500 was a key event for the Athena title, as CMS had four of the top seven finishers, led by Capuano's 4:41.00. Laura Zimmer was second in 4:30.97, while Angie Gushue came in fourth and Megan Maley seventh to give CMS 25 points out of the event (Redlands had zero).
CMS also had four scorers in the 800, led by Mia Voce, who earned All-SCIAC honors with a third-place finish in 2:16.73. She was followed by Capuano, Maley and Gushue in fourth through sixth place, as all three scored in two different events.
Anika Kimme earned All-SCIAC honors in the 5000 with a third-place finish in 17:55.37, while the 4x400 relay of Voce, Jada Higgins, Velichala and DelVecchio also earned their way onto the podium with a third-place finish in 3:56.20. Higgins also scored in the 400 meters individually for the Athenas with a time of 1:00.47 to come in sixth.
Simone Rogers earned All-SCIAC in the high jump for the second year in a row by coming in third place with a top clearance of 1.52 meters, while Elizabeth Kirschner also scored for the Athenas with an eighth-place finish. Emily Burger (fourth) and Carly Kirsch (sixth) scored in the shot put, while Kirsch added a seventh-place finish in the discus.
Several CMS student-athletes will continue competing in the next few weeks as they try to earn qualifying standards for the NCAA Division III Championships, which will be held on Memorial Day Weekend in Rochester, New York.
