Jan. 23, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - Meaghan Hobson won gold in the 800 meter run and Christa Plummer captured the top collegiate time in the 5K to lead the Explorer effort at Boston University's Terrier Invitational on Friday. Both runners qualified for the ECAC Championship with their times at BU.
Hobson's time of 2:12.11 put her atop the 86-runner field, five-hundredths of a second ahead of runner-up Clarrise Moh of Seton Hall. The senior also shaved over 2.5 seconds off of her previous time of 2:14.98 at last week's Gotham Cup.
Plummer - who also qualified last week in the 3K - ran the 5K event in 16:46.85 for fifth place overall and first among collegiate competitors. Stephanie Bearish and Caroline Grant also ran in the 44-runner event. Bearish (18:00.50) finished 19th overall while Grant (18:38.62) crossed 29th.
The La Salle distance team was also represented by Caitlin Storbeck and Samantha Gallagher, who ran in the 3K event. Storbeck finished 33rd out of 68 with a time of 10:25.94 and Gallagher ran to 49th with a time of 10:59.92.
Jalessa Graham, Kyla Jones, Emily Paffett and Kellilyn Fierras round out the 10 athletes participating in the meet. Graham and Jones clocked 7.48 and 7.59, respectively, in the 55 meter dash preliminaries for 23rd and 26th places out of 64. Both also competed in the 200 meter event. Graham (26.31) finished 50th out of 123 runners and Jones (27.08) finished tied for 82nd.
Paffett ran the 500 meter dash, where she timed 1:19.94 for 36th out of 71. Fierras clocked 5:23.79 in the mile for 43rd out of 74.
The Explorer women return to action next Friday at the Penn State Invitational. The men are in action tomorrow (Saturday) at the U.S. Naval Academy's Wesley A. Brown Invitational.
