TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Baldwin Wallace University women's track and field team opened the outdoor portion of the schedule at the Rose-Hulman (Ind.) Institute of Technology Early Bird Meet at the William Welch Athletic Complex.
The BW women took first of eight teams with a total of 187 points.
The female throwers got off to a strong start in the outdoor season with three individual event wins and four other top-five finishes. Sophomore All-Ohio Athletic Conference thrower Brooke Buckhannon (Collins/Western Reserve) won both the discus throw and the shot put while senior thrower Madison Phillips (Norwalk/St. Paul) won the javelin throw. Buckhannon threw 128 feet, 1 inch to win the discus and then won the shot put with a mark of 37'2.5" while Phillips tossed 101'3" in the javelin. Buckhannon, sophomore All-OAC thrower Jillian Roberts (Broadview Heights/Brecksville-Broadview Heights) and freshman thrower Carol Foster (Diamond/Southeast) swept the top three spots in the discus with marks of 128'1", 122'4" and 118'8". Senior thrower Madeline Ziccardi (Cuyahoga Falls) finished second in the hammer throw with a toss of 153'3" while Buckhannon finished fourth with a 140'2" throw.
On the track, junior All-OAC sprinter Grace Nemeth (Medina) won both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash in times of 12.98 and 26.50 seconds, respectively, while freshman sprinter Ky'leana Allen (Columbus/Bishop Hartley) placed second in the 400-meter dash in 1:03.97. In the distance events, sophomore All-OAC distance runner Bella Pendola (Warsaw/River View), freshman distance runner Madison Kile (North Canton/Hoover) and freshman distance runner Hastings Marek (Pataskala/Watkins Memorial) swept the top spots in the 5,000-meter run. Pendola won the event in a career-best time of 18:02.15, Kile was the runner-up in 18:23.31 and Marek placed third in 18:24.11. Freshman distance runner Rebecca Penrose (Springfield/Shawnee) was the runner-up in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 5:04.21 while sophomore distance runner Katie Fowler (Mount Vernon) took fifth in the same event in a career-best 5:15.69. Penrose and Fowler then placed fourth and fifth in the 800-meter run in times of 2:28.16 and 2:28.67.
BW will be back in action next weekend when the throwers will compete in the Amy Adams Memorial Invitational, hosted by Muskingum University March 23-24, while the rest of the team will compete in the Goucher T&F Classic at Gopher Stadium in Towson, Maryland on Saturday, March 24.
