Indoor Track & Field Nabs Sixth Place at Smith Tartan Invitational

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (Feb. 9, 2008) - The Mount Holyoke College women's indoor track and field team grabbed a sixth place finish at today's Tartan Invitational at Smith College. Taking home first place at the event with 154.50 points was the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Amherst College finished second with 92 points, while Keene State College rounded out the top three with 85 points.

A total of 17 teams took part in the competition. Mount Holyoke's 56 points were good for sixth place. The Lyons finished just behind Smith (67) and Union College (63.50) in the final standings. They defeated 11 squads, including New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) rivals WPI and Wellesley College.

Senior Caroline Gillaspie (Athens, N.Y./Coxsackie-Athens) highlighted the day for Mount Holyoke, earning second place in the triple jump. Her distance of 10.29 meters qualified her for the NCAA Division III New England Regional Championships in the event.

Also faring well for the Lyons were seniors Meghan Lynch (South Hadley, Mass./Holyoke Catholic) and Catherine Riffin (Weston, Mass./Weston). Lynch garnered second place in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:44.66. Meanwhile, Riffin clocked a time of 18:43.98 in the 5,000-meter run, which was good for fourth place overall. Both runners qualified for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships in their respective events.

Mount Holyoke will return to action next Saturday, when it competes in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Invitational beginning at noon.

Permanent link to this story: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/news/stories/5531802