By: Erin Madden
BEREA, Ohio - Senior All-Ohio Athletic Conference distance runner Hastings Marek (Pataskala/Watkins Memorial) broke a Baldwin Wallace University school record to lead the 13th-nationally ranked women's indoor track and field team to a runner-up finish at the home Mid-February Meet on the Harrison Dillard Track inside the Lou Higgins Center Fieldhouse.
BW finished second of three teams with 134 points while crosstown rival and second-nationally ranked John Carroll University won the meet with a total of 163 points.
Marek won the 1,000-meter run in 3:00.92 and improved on the previous school-record, owned by Kelly Brennan '20, by over one full second.
The Yellow Jackets turned in two other event wins, starting with junior All-OAC distance runner Natalie Vinci (Canton/St. Thomas Aquinas). Vinci won the 400-meter dash in a career-best 1:04.02. Additionally, the distance medley relay team of junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC distance runner Alyssa Laughner (Howard, Pa./Central Mountain), Vinci, senior distance runner Molina Otte (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) and Marek won in a time of 12:11.92, which broke a facility record, is the fifth-best time in school history and currently ranks second in NCAA Division III in the event.
Vinci also finished as the runner-up in the 200-meter dash in a career-best 28.21 seconds. Laughner and Otte completed a Yellow Jacket sweep in the 1,000 meter as Laughner placed second in a career-best 3:11.70 and Otte took third in a career-best 3:13.39.
In the field, sophomore jumper Jenna Sirianni (Aliquippa, Pa./Hopewell) registered her first win of the season, claiming the triple jump with a mark of 32 feet, 6.5 inches, while freshman jumper Emily Randall (Mount Gilead) was the runner-up in the same event with a leap of 29'8.25". Senior Academic All-OAC jumper Stephanie Magvas (Westlake/Magnificat) placed second in the high jump as she cleared a mark of 4'7". Sophomore thrower Abby Rodriguez (Grandview, Wash./Prosser) also notched a runner-up finish in the shot put when she hit a mark of 36'10.25" and freshman thrower Selena Shelley (Mentor) placed third in the weight throw with a toss of 40'2.75".
The Yellow Jackets return to action on Saturday, February 27, for a tri-meet at the University of Mount Union, beginning at 10 a.m. in the Peterson Field House.
