Women's Track and Field | March 22, 2017

PHILADELPHIA- The women's track and field teams will begin its spring season on Thursday when the Explorers compete at the Stony Brook Quad Meet on March 23 in Stony Brook, N.Y.

La Salle will work off of an indoor season that saw several school records broken and many new personal records set as the team improved throughout the winter.

"It's tough with the indoor season, because it's so short and truncated…it really is a time where we try to not sacrifice a whole lot for the outdoors," said head coach Tom Peterson. "But it's a really great period in our training cycle to work on things that we're going to need the last four weeks of the outdoors season. It's important not to lose sight of what we're working on right now that will make us the best version of ourselves that we can be at the end of the year."

Ifetayo Tyler grabbed La Salle's best performance of the day when she ran a 2:10.88 in the 800m event at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championship.

Mone't Gist set a new school record on day one of the A-10 Indoor Championship, only to break it again in the final day in the 60m hurdles. Gist improved throughout the season, breaking her record three times to finish with a school record of 8.76 as a senior leader who will return to the spring squad.

Additionally, the freshman made a splash in their first season as Explorers. Desirae Osley, along with veteran Amber Jenkins, broke the 300m school record on the opening weekend of indoor competition. Osley ran a 41.65 and Jenkins ran a 41.49 to break the 41.99 original record that had been in place since 2003.

Freshman Jessica Bryant claimed another school record in the triple jump with an 11.19 leap at the Giegengack Invitational that promises a bright future as the rookies begin their spring season.

"The freshman girls have been great, they've been a really big factor in balancing out our spreadsheet of what we're capable of at the conference meet," said Peterson. "We were lucky enough to break several school records last year and it seems like we are going to continue that trend this year with this group of freshman girls."

The team saw strong performances across the board at the Geigengack Invitational meet, where six Explorers won events and several set personal bests.

Among those first place finishes was Gist (8.88) in the 60m hurdles, Tyler (2:53.13) in the 800m, Morgan Szekely (4:53.03) in the one mile event and Olivia Boyer (18:07.57) in the 5000m race, who all set personal bests on the day. Kaitlin Poiesz also placed first in the 3000m event, running a time of 10:04.66 to round out the Explorers' best meet of the season.

La Salle will be expected to build on the momentum from the winter season, particularly in the short distance runners, as the team moves into the spring.

"On the women's side, I'm definitely looking forward to having a much better finish than we did the past couple of year," said Peterson. "I think the indoor season is a microcosm of what we're going to see outdoors."
 
Following the Stony Brook Quad meet, La Salle will continue the spring season at the Colonial Relays in Williamsburg, Va. from March 30 to April 2.