ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Carleton College women's track & field team won four of events at the Janis Rider Invitational to go along with a bevy of impressive performances. Five Knights set personal outdoor bests in the three-team field, as Carleton also finished with four runner-up performances en route to a third-place finish in the team standings.
Hamline won the four-team competition with 67 points followed by St. Olaf (52), Carleton (39), and host Macalester (32).
"This meet, the team really came together; it was exciting," said Carleton head coach
Donna Ricks. "It was the first time this season that we put together a 4x100-meter relay, and athletes that had been sidelined for a variety of reasons were back on the track, and it was fun!"
Carleton actually picked up five first-place results in just four events, as
Sydney Marsh (Jr./Austin, Minn./Austin) and
Gabrielle Evans (Jr./Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) tied for first in the pole vault with heights of 3.23 meters, both setting outdoor PR's in the process.
Grace Leslie (Sr./Orono, Minn./Orono) raced the 3000-meter steeplechase for the first time since 2019 and took first place with a time of 12:24.63.
Eve Farrell (Jr./Mahtomedi, Minn./Mahtomedi) cleared 1.48 meters for a first-place tie in the high jump.
The Knights' other victory came in the 4x400 relay where the Knights' time of 4:15.94 was nearly 15 seconds better than the next closest school.
Among those returning to action was
Amanda Mosborg (Sr./Bloomington, Minn./Edina), who finished second in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:53.61 in her first meet back from tendonitis.
Carleton actually took second through sixth places in the event.
Elizabeth Zimmerman (Sr./Chevy Chase, MD./Sidwell Friends) finished in a season-best 5:05.65, while
Sarah Shapiro (So./Rockville, Md./Thomas Wootton) covered the distance in 5:05.91, a personal record.
Alice Cutter (Fy./New York, N.Y./Poly Prep) competed in the event for the first time and posted a time of 5:07.89, and
Phoebe Ward (Fy./Dobbs Ferry, N.Y./Dobbs Ferry) had a two-second PR of 5:10.06.
Coach Ricks also had high praise for
Neenah Bosman (Fy./Hugo, Minn./White Bear Lake), who bested her personal record with a 42.25 meter toss in the hammer throw. Ricks noted how Bosman has improved dramatically over the last month, with five of her six throws on the day besting last week's PR.
Neenah Bosman (Fy./Hugo, Minn./White Bear Lake) continues to make great strides in the hammer throw. Assistant coach
Brian Mondschein saw potential in rookie and began working with her indoors in the weight and the hammer. Two weeks ago Bosman was throwing 110', and on Saturday she measured 42.25 meters (138 feet, 7 inches).
"The competition was stellar today as Hamline has some of the best throwers in the conference," said Ricks, "and Neenah stepped up her game. It was exciting as five of the six throws beat her PRs from last week, which demonstrates how quickly she is picking up the event."
Other standout performances for Carleton included
Grace Blanchette's (So./Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou) runner up performance in the 100-meter hurdles (16.19) and
Riley Roberts' (Fy./Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington) time of 13.12 in the 100m dash, which earned her second place.
UP NEXT FOR THE KNIGHTS
Carleton travels back to St. Paul to compete in the Tommie Twilight meet on Wednesday, May 5.
