Wildcats Compete at Princeton, Northeastern Ahead of Pre-Conference Weekend

Saturday, April 20

Boston, MA

10 AM

University of New Hampshire

Jay Carisella Coaches Invitational

Sara Williams (Photo by Jess Speechly)

Wildcats Compete at Princeton, Northeastern Ahead of Pre-Conference Weekend

4/18/2019 1:04:00 PM | Women's Track & Field

Jay Carisella Invite Info Larry Ellis Invitational Info

The ‘Cats are just a weekend away from hosting the pre-conference meet, the start of championship season.

DURHAM, N.H. – The University of New Hampshire women's track and field team gets ready for another weekend of multiple meets, traveling to Princeton, N.J. for the Larry Ellis Invitational, and to Dedham, Mass. for the Jay Carisella Coaches Invitational hosted by Northeastern.

With the championship season approaching, New Hampshire continues its focus on improving in all events across the board and gearing up for tough team meets in the coming weekends.

At the Larry Ellis Invitational, the Wildcats will send two runners who are familiar with the fast-paced, competitive field of the Princeton invitational, fifth-year Danielle Gajewski (Danville, N.H.) and senior Shannon Murdock (Exeter, N.H.). "[Murdock and Gajewski] have run [at the Larry Ellis] before and have had some success there." Says head coach Robert Hoppler. "We're going down and looking forward to the opportunity to run against good, fast competition under the lights again."

Joining Gajewski and Murdock at the Larry Ellis Invitational will be sophomore Cayla Barretto (Woburn, Mass.). "As a sophomore, she's really developing well and has done some really exciting this with her running this year." Says Hoppler. She'll also be joined by junior Meg Champagne (Plattsburgh, N.Y.), sophomore Caroline Mahoney (Bedford, N.H.) and fifth-year Riley Gilmore (Haverhill, Mass.) who will all run the 5K. "Caroline and Riley are coming off the 10K down at [Colonial Relays], we're looking forward to getting them in the 5K." says Hoppler. "Meg's coming off of a good mile down at Providence, we're excited to have her stup up into the 5K."

The rest of the team heads to the Jay Carisella Coaches Invitational hosted by Northeastern. The Wildcats will look to continue their dominance in the throws, after sweeping the throwing events in last weekend's home meet. "Right now, we're very excited with the Sarah Williams (Dover, N.H.) and Alyssa Colbert (Smithfield, R.I.)." says Hoppler. "They're both, in my mind, able to compete at a high level in three events, Alyssa in the javelin, discus and hammer, Sara in the shot put, discus, and hammer. That's really exciting for the throwers and for the whole team to have athletes like that that can be effective over a number of events. Those two are certainly people to keep an eye on."

MEET INFO:
Larry Ellis Invitational
*All Events Moved to Saturday due to rain*
Date: ~~Friday, April 19 to~~ Saturday, April 20
Start Time: ~~2 PM (Friday)~~ 11:30 AM (Saturday)
Location: Weaver Stadium – Princeton, N.J.

Jay Carisella Coaches Invite
Date: Saturday, April 20
Start Time: 10 AM
Location: Solomon Track Facility – Dedham, Mass.

UP NEXT:
A busy week is on deck for New Hampshire, traveling to the Penn Relays from Thursday, April 25 to Saturday the 27^th. New Hampshire hosts the America East pre-conference meet Saturday, April 27 at the Reggie Atkins Track & Field Facility beginning at 11 A.M., one week ahead of the America East Championship meet hosted by Albany, May 4 and 5.

LAST TIME OUT:
The Wildcats took eight first place finishes out of 18 events, led once again by the throwers: junior Alyssa Colbert took first in the hammer throw and the discus throw. Colbert won the hammer with a distance of 149 feet, 3 inches, and won the discus with a distance of 137'6". Also in the discus, freshman Sara Williams took second with 124'2".

Williams also took first in the shot put, with a distance of 41'5.25". Junior Natalie Howes (Londonderry, N.H.) took first in the javelin throw with a distance of 125'6". She was followed by Alexandra Toback (Pomtpon Plains, N.J.) in second with 111'5".

Freshman jumper/hurdler Saige Tudisco (Haverhill, Mass.) also won two events, the high jump and the 100 meter hurdles. TuDisco took the high jump with a height of 5'3", and the 100 meter hurdles in 15.13 seconds.

The Wildcats took the meet with 156 points, followed by Maine at 122 points and Bates with 89.

FROM THE COACH:
[On the Northeastern meet]
"It's good to get away; obviously we love our track, but it's good to go race good competition on another track; the conference meet is at another track, so you can't just be comfortable [at home], so we've got to get used to racing hard away from home. That's one of the things we're going to try to do."
-Head Coach Robert Hoppler

[On the middle distance runners]
"The middle distance athletes are really running well; we have a lot of people running personal bests lately, we're really rounding into shape and are looking forward to the next few weeks of competition. We feel like we're really getting close to being where we need to be to be competitive."
-Head Coach Robert Hoppler

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