STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - The Daemen College women's track and field team closed out its 2016 indoor season today, competing at the East Coast Conference Championship held at Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex. The Wildcats finished tied for fourth in the team standings, out of eight competing teams, accumulating 66 points in the meet. Roberts Wesleyan College racked up 145 points to win the conference championship.
The fourth place showing was highest finish for the Daemen women since the Wildcats began competing at the championships in 2013. Daemen, which was voted seventh in the 2016 ECC indoor track preseason poll, had finished seventh in each of the previous three seasons.
Daemen was paced by sophomore Mackenzie Donahue (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) who recorded two ECC Championship records and placed first in both the 3,000 meter run and the 5,000 meter run. Donahue posted a time of 10:18.72 in the 3,000 meters—just three seconds off her school-record time she set earlier this season. It was also a little less than a second better than the previous conference championship record of 10:19.31 set by Indira Avilla of Queens College in 2013. Donahue followed up with a time of 17:30.18 in the 5,000 meters, smashing the previous championship record of 17:44.88 set by Avilla in 2013.
Daemen placed four runners among the top eight finishers in the 3,000 meters. Sophomore Amy Trabert (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) placed third with a time of 10:43.28. Trabert also finished second to Donahue in the 5,000 meters with a time of 18:09.74. Junior Ashley Cheff (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Falls) finished fourth in the 3,000 meters with a time of 10:50.82, while junior Morgan Urbanek (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder) placed eighth (11:31.04).
Sophomore Brittany Denton (Oakfield, N.Y./Oakfield-Alabama) earned four points towards Daemen's team total after placing fourth in the 1,000 meter run with a school-record time of 3:12.27. Additional highlights during the track events included a fifth place showing by junior Lindsey Wood (Newfield, N.Y./Newfield) in the 800 meter run (2:24.31) and sixth place showings by senior Brooke Nolan (Depew, N.Y./Depew) in the 800 meters (2:25.34), junior Katherine Robinson (Pasadena, Calf./Pasadena) in the 1,000 meters (3:21.70), Urbanek in the 1 mile run (5:37.42) and freshman Sam Carro (Canandaigua, N.Y./Canandaigua Academy) in the 60 meter hurdles (10.01).
Daemen's distance medley team of Cheff, Denton, Nolan and Wood placed second with a school-record time of 13:01.60, while the 4x400 meter relay team of Nolan, Wood and freshmen Kyra Kress (Wayland, N.Y./Alfred-Almond Central) and Tiffany Cycon (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) also set a school-record (4:16.35) and placed sixth in the event.
Kress tied her school-record in the pole vault (3.05 meters) and placed second in the event, while freshman Rachel Roberson (Tonawanda, N.Y./Sweet Home) and junior Ashley Krol (Depew, N.Y./Depew) also fared well during field events. Roberson placed seventh in the long jump (4.65 meters), while Krol finished sixth in the triple jump (9.79 meters). Freshman Ellory Roberts (Lowville, N.Y./Lowville Academy) placed eighth in the shot put (9.10 meters).
Daemen resumes its 2016 season when the outdoor portion of the schedule gets underway with the Yellow Jacket Invitational hosted by the University of Rochester on March 26.
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