Women Set Three School Records at UAA Championships

(ATLANTA, Ga.) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's track and field team set three school records on the first day of competition of the University Athletic Association (UAA) Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday, April 25 at Emory University. After seven scored events, the Tartans are fifth with 26 points.

Sophomore Grace Yee (San Francisco, Calif./Lick-Wilmerding) one-upped her own school record set last week by clearing 3.40 meters in the pole vault to become a UAA Champion. Her previous best was 3.21 meters.

In the preliminaries of the 400-meter dash, freshman Sarah Cook (Pittsburgh, Pa./Hampton) qualified for the finals with a school-record time of 57.65 seconds. Her time tops the record of 58.31 set by Diane Mattingly in 2008.

The third record-setting performance of the day came at the close of the day when the 4x800-meter relay placed fifth. Senior Sara Kelly (Madison, Wis./West), sophomore Ariel Tian (Acton, Mass./Acton Boxborough Regional), Cook and junior Erin Kiekhaefer (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto) crossed the finish line in 9:22.34 to overtake the previous record set in 2011 (9:33.20).

Senior Sasha Spalding (Springhill, Fla./Springstead) earned All-UAA honors for the Tartans with her second-place finish in the long jump with a mark of 5.20 meters. She later placed sixth in the shot put with a mark of 10.99 meters.

Action will continue on Sunday with four more field events and the finals of eight individual races and two relays.