WALTHAM, Mass. – Both the Brandeis men's and women's track and field teams earned third-place finishes behind a pair of Division II squads today at the 2011 Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational. The Judges had wins in four events from both squads in their only home meet of the indoor season.
On the women's side, the Judges had 1-2 finish, coming in the first event of the day, the 3,000-meter run. Senior Kate Warwick (Boxborough, Mass./Acton-Boxborough) pulled away from the field with a time of 10:12.23. Rookie Miriam Stulin (Needham, Mass./Dana Hall School) was second in the event with a time of 10:24.93. The 3,000 is not an event contested at the NCAA championships.
The Judges' lone relay win of the day came from the women's 1,600-meters. The quartet of junior Casey McGown (Clinton, Mass./Clinton), sophomore Ali Kirsch (Sharon, Mass./Sharon), senior Annifreed Sinjour (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) and rookie Michelle Fry (Arcadia, Calif./Arcadia) ran a time of 4:10.04 to edge a team from UMass Lowell. The Judges were in second place headed into Sinjour's third leg, and the senior cruised into the lead. Fry was able to hold of a hard charge from the River Hawks in the anchor leg, turning on an extra boost of energy after taking a peek over her shoulder to see the competition gaining.
The Judges had a pair of field wins on the day on the women's side. Senior Lily Parenteau (Scarborough, Maine) improved her season-best in the high jump with a height of 1.63 meters (5 feet, 4 ¼ inches), moving her among the top five in Division III. Junior Kim Farrington (Ayer, Mass./Shirley) captured the triple jump by more than five inches with a distance of 10.68 meters (35 feet, ½ inches), but did not improve her season-best in the process.
Finally, though she did not win the event, junior Brittany Bell (Setauket, N.Y./Hotchkiss School) improved her season-best time in the 55-meter dash. Bell had the fastest time in the preliminaries at 7.36 seconds. Though she finished second in the finals in 7.40, the time is currently tied for sixth in the nation.
As a team, the Brandeis men finished with 83 points, six behind Bentley, who scored 89 points. Stonehill College won the meet with 180 points. The Brandeis women tallied 82 points to finish behind Stonehill (129) and UMass Lowell (111).
The Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational is named after Brandeis runner Reggie Poyau, who drowned in May, 2003, while studying abroad in Senegal.