Women's Indoor Track & Field are competing in their second season as a varsity team. Lead by new head coach Bill Cotter, a graduate of WPI, the team consists of a mix of new freshmen talent and experienced veterans. Together the team has produced several superb performances at meets as well as both New England and ECAC Division III qualifiers.
Junior Sunny Hwang, in just the first two meets of the season, managed to qualify for both New England's and ECAC's in the 55m dash, the 55m hurdles and in the shot put. Sunny missed qualifying for Nationals in the 55m hurdles by only a small fraction of a second. Unfortunately for the team, she is missing the rest of the season while she is at work on her IQP in Ecuador.
Senior captain Heather Cleary also has performed strongly for the Lady Engineers. She has placed consistently in both the 55m hurdle and high jump events throughout several meets. She qualified for both ECAC's and New Englands in the hurdles, while qualifying only for N.E.'s in the high and long jumps. She also plans to compete in the pentathalon at N.E.'s and possibly at ECAC's which consists of 5 events: 55m hurdles, 800m, high jump, long jump, and shot put.
Newcomers Tina Gallos, Vicky Dulac, and Tamara Samuels, all freshmen, have racked some quality points up for the team as well. Tina has qualified for N.E.'s in the high jump and the hurdles, for which she also qualified for ECAC's. Vicky has turned in great performances at several meets placing high in the 400 and 1000 meter dashes. While, Tamara Samuels qualified for N.E.'s in both the high and long jumps.
Also turning in strong performances for WPI are tri-captain Patty Panlilio ('96) and Liz Keronski ('98). Patty backs the team up by placing in the weight events while Liz steadies the sprinting events.
Due to multiple injuries to key team members throughout the season, the women's track team has been held back from doing the damage they are capable of in the conference. However, the outdoor season is still to come where the women hope to bounce back and dominate throughout the season. Good luck to all those who will be competing at New England's this coming Saturday.
Give feedback: newspeak@wpi.wpi.edu