Home sweet home meet
By: Jordan Cope, Staff Writer
The Tigers hosted and finished second with a total of 178.5 points in the Towson Invitational on Sunday at Johnny Unitas Stadium.
The meet featured 14 teams, including Division I participants Coppin State, Farleigh Dickinson, Delaware, Navy and Delaware State.
“I thought it was a very good meet for us,” Head Coach Roger Erricker said. “We had some very good performances and some of our ladies really stepped up and did a very nice job.”
Sophomore sprinter Zanae Freeland highlighted the Invitational with two individual event wins. In the 100-meter dash, Freeland finished in first-place with a time of 12.17. In the 200-meter dash, Freeland finished in first place with a time of 25.16.
Along with a pair of first-place finishes from Freeland, junior captain and hurdler Katelynn Williams won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.99 and senior distance runner Ashley Simmons won the 10,000-meter run, her first try at the event, with a time of 38:08.74.
“I’m used to doing the 3,000-meter run and the 5,000-meter run, but I already have my name on the top 10 record board for those events so I wanted to try the 10,000-meter run before I graduated and it was, surprisingly, a success,” Simmons said.
Junior multi-event performer Ashleigh Stallings won the javelin throw event with a distance of 137 feet, four inches and junior high jumper Emerald Vickers earned a victory in the high jump event with a height of 5 feet, 5.25 inches.
“Ashleigh Stallings had a really good day,” Erricker said. “She won the javelin and qualified for the ECACs.”
The Tigers also finished first in the 4×100-meter relay, with a time of 48.53.
In addition to the seven first-place finishes, the Tigers had six second-place finishes in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 10,000-meter run, high jump, 4×400-meter relay and 400-meter hurdles.
Junior sprinter and hurdler Kaitlyn Davis finished second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.37 and in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.41. Senior distance runner Elisabeth Tauber came in second place in the 10,000-meter relay with a time of 38:40.33.
Sophomore high jumper Jackie Lavitt came in second place with a height of 5 feet, 2.25 inches. Senior captain and hurdler Emily Wenger finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:04.64.
“It was a great feeling,” Wenger said. “It’s so different competing on our track rather than working out on it.”
The Tigers also got second in the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 3:58.31.
“I am very proud,” Williams said. “The team has been working hard in practice and it showed today.”
Towson will look to carry the momentum from its previous two meets into the Liberty Invitational in Lynchburg, Virginia, which will take place April 3 and 4.
“I think we have a lot of potential to do very well at Liberty,” Tauber said. “We have a lot of fun as a team when we travel but we will also have good competition at Liberty which also helps.”
