Season Outlook
After taking its fourth consecutive Centennial Conference indoor track & field title in early March, the 2009 Haverford College women’s track & field team aims for its fourth straight outdoor championship this spring.
Haverford returns three conference champion relay teams from last spring. The 4x100 meter relay team (49.80 seconds) returns Mara Miller, Christina Neilson, Zoe Welch and Eliza Reiss. Aileen Keogh, Neilson and Welch took the 4x400 championship (4:04.32) while the 4x800 team (9:30.17) returns Darian Lunne and Caitlin Tully.
Miller also captured an individual title in the 100-hurdles (17.75), and Neilson won the 100 dash with a time of 13.11 last May. Jessie Belden, who had a stellar indoor season, is the reigning outdoor high jump champion (5 feet, 1 inch).
Belden’s indoor success this winter included championships in the high jump (5-2 ½) and long jump (17-6). The senior collected Centennial Conference Championship meet Outstanding Field Performer and All-American (Pentathlon) honors and hopes to add on this spring.
Reiss also earned the gold medal for Haverford this winter, capturing the 55 hurdles race in an indoor season-best time of 8.58 seconds.
In the 400, Christina Neilson set a Haverford record with a first place time of 59.16.
The quartet of Lunne, Neilson, Lipinski and Belden raced to a Haverford and championship meet record in the 4x400 relay, winning the event with a time of 4:05.71.
Haverford’s 4x200 relay team took first place and also set the Centennial Conference record. The team of Belden, Neilson, Welch and Reiss finished in 1:45.70.
The distance medley relay team also came in first. Tully, Neilson, Belden and Lunne crossed the finish line in 12:23.49.
With the success the Fords return this spring, the possibility of a fifth consecutive outdoor title are in reach for the 2009 season.