Towson opens season with second place finish

Towson’s indoor track team began its season Tuesday with an impressive showing at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

The Navy Lid Lifter, as the annual tournament is called, featured nine teams including the Tigers. Towson was victorious over all but one of its opponents on the evening, defeating Bowie State (107-30), Delaware State (95-42), Georgetown (100-34), Johns Hopkins (108-13), Maryland-Eastern Shore (80-74), Morgan State (91-59) and Mount St. Mary’s (99-42). Despite defeating several teams by wide margins, the Tigers could not overcome Navy and lost (95.5-71.5). Head Coach Roger Erricker, said several key contributions from his runners helped carry Towson to a strong performance.

Junior Kaitlyn Davis posted strong times in the 60-meter hurdle and the 60-meter dash. In the hurdles, Davis’ time of 8.97 was enough to win and record the fifth fastest time in Towson Indoor track history. In the 60-meter dash, 7.76 earned Davis second place, a new personal record, and the third fastest time in school history.

Erricker also pointed out sophomore Zanae Freeland’s 200-meter dash time as an important race. Freeland’s first place time of 25.26 tied her for eighth all-time. Freeland also put in a fourth-place finish in the 60-meter dash, as her 7.79 time put her top-five all-time.

Other strong performances included senior Emily Wenger’s 1:18.29 time in the 500-meter dash, another top-10 school history performance. Senior Kara Bucaro improved her top-10 time in the mile run to 5:12.16. Junior Ashleigh Stallings finished fifth overall in the shot put with a throw of 39’11.14″ that moved her into the top ten all-time.

The performance was “absolutely a confidence booster” according to Erricker, who also said the meet was “tough competition going against nine other strong teams that required a good team effort, and that’s what we got.”

While the Tigers will be in action on Sunday against Princeton, Erricker said two major challenges lay ahead this season.

“The Bucknell meet will be tough because of the gap after break, it requires the ladies to do work on their own [to stay in shape],” he said. “The Akron Invitational features very good schools every year so that one will be a challenge as well.”

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