<st weekend, the Carleton women’s track and field team enlisted every member to run faster, throw and jump higher and farther than the Olaf women. The only two team members who were unable to compete in the MIAC Chamionships contributed by losing their voices.
Clare Franco ’12, Jill Merkle ’12, and Amy Elson ’10 got a head start when they made a splash at the Heptathlon, earning 4th, 9th, and 11th place, respectively. As they moved on to the individual events, Franco’s second place 400 meter race of 57.41 seconds landed her a solid NCAA provisional qualifying time and an all-time personal record.
Fellow freshmen Simone Childs-Walker and Taylor Ffitch, along with Karen Campbell ’09 were the stars of Friday’s competition, where they greatly increased Carleton pride by completely dominating the 10k. Childs-Walker finished first in 35:52.17, just a few seconds away from the NCAA automatic qualifying time. Campbell and Ffitch both had incredibly powerful races, and Campbell can now end her collegiate career with a provisional qualifying mark of 37:09.04.
Ffitch is partly responsible for her teammate’s success, as they worked together throughout the race, which brought Ffitch to sixth place and an enormous personal record in 37:32.71.
Kelsey Donald ’10 kept busy, running the 200 meter dash, the 4×100, and most notably, the 4×400 along with Laura Roach ’10, Franco, and Kaitlin Randolph, forming the fastest 4×400 relay the Carleton women have seen in a long time. This was just the icing on the cake for Randolph, who blasted to sixth place in the 400 meter hurdles in 69.15 seconds.
Although Roach broke her own Laird Stadium Record the day before when she barreled through the 3000 meter steeple chase in 10:55.84, this was clearly just a warm-up for the 4×400.
Emma Sando ’09 completed her collegiate career with a 26-second personal record in the 5000 meters when she captured the hearts and opened the tear ducts of all spectators while decimating her opponents to finish in 19:25.95. Almost as importantly, Carleton’s fifth place finish beat St. Olaf.