Women’s Track and Field Wins Home Mini Invitational

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women's track and field team placed first at its home mini invitational on Saturday, March 26. The Tartans earned 245 points with 10 first-place finishes against teams from Denison University, Waynesburg University, Allegheny College and Franciscan University.

Freshman Tessa Allen (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Bishop Montgomery) broke an 18-year old school record after clearing the bar at 1.59 meters in the high jump. Junior Rebecca Fortner (Navarre, Ohio/Fairless) took third with a height of 1.54 meters. Allen turned in another top finish when she won the triple jump with a leap of 10.40 meters. Freshman Autumn Hair (Blue Bell, Pa./Wissahickon) placed third with a mark of 9.83 meters.

The Tartans swept the top three spots in the long jump, with freshman Debarati Bhanja (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) placing first.  Her jump of 5.47 meters tied the school record. Placing second and third was Hair and junior Jerilyn James (Friendswood, Texas/Clear Brook) with jumps of 5.07 and 4.84 meters.  

On Friday, sophomore Kiersten Chuc (Cupertino, Calif./Monta Vista) won the hammer throw with a career-best distance of 39.54 meters. Freshman Oly Nwankwo (Homestead, Pa./Stevenson) scored points for the Tartans in the event as well with a career-best throw of 32.12 meters to place fourth. Nwankwo then placed second in the shot put on Saturday with another personal-best distance of 11.59 meters.

To close out the field events, junior Grace Yee (San Francisco, Calif./Lick-Wilmerding) cleared 3.28 meters to win the pole vault.

Senior Taylor Maggiacomo (Temecula, Calif./Great Oak) opened the running events with a personal-best time of 12:12.25 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The 4x100-meter relay team of James, Hair, Bhanja and sophomore Sarah Cook (Pittsburgh, Pa./Hampton) then crossed the finish line with a time of 50.21 to win the race.  

Senior Liz Snyder (Somerset, Pa./Somerset) scored first-place points, but placed fourth behind three runners from the University of Pittsburgh, for the Tartans in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:54.90. Behind Snyder in fifth earning second-place points was classmate Natalie Smith (Portland, Ore./Metropolitan Learning Center) crossing in 5:02.74.

Cook turned in a meet record and personal-best time of 2:17.11 in the 800-meter race to win the event. In the 400-meter run, sophomore Ariel Tian (Acton, Mass./Acton Boxborough Regional) crossed in 1:01.63 to place second.  

Junior Sommer Farber (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) and Fortner placed second and third in the 100-meter hurdles with times of 16.65 and 17.02, respectively. Bhanja placed second in the 100- and 200-meter dashes with times of 13.32 and 26.14. James finished third in the respective events with times of 13.40 and 27.32.

The 4x400-meter relay team of Bhanja, Tian, freshman Rose Ciriello (Madison, N.J./Madison) and Cook closed the meet with a meet record of 4:01.36 to record the team's 10th victory of the day.

The Tartans' next competition will be back at Gesling Stadium on April 2 when they host their annual Quad Meet beginning at 10:00 a.m.