Leverone Field House was filled with action Friday night when the Dartmouth women's track team hosted competitors from the University of New Hampshire, the University of Maine and the University of Massachusetts.
The meet was a preliminary round to the 1996 New England Challenge Cup. Three rounds were held on Friday -- one at Dartmouth, one at Brown and one at Yale. The top two teams from each preliminary meet will compete in the Championship meet at Brown on Saturday, Jan 20.
UMass finished first in the meet at Leverone with 194 1/3 points. Dartmouth finished in second with 137 1/3 points, UNH in third and U. Maine in fourth. The second place finish gave Dartmouth rights to compete at Brown this weekend in the Challenge Cup Championship.
Leading the Dartmouth women in point-scoring was Lauren Newton '98. Newton finished second in the 55 meter hurdles and third in the long jump and triple jump for a total of 20 points.
Co-Captain Amy Winchester '96 brought in 16 points for the Big Green with a first place finish in the shot put and a third in the weight throw.
Other first place finishes came from co-Captain Kristin Manwaring '96 in the 1,000 meter and Kristin Pierce '96 in the 3,000 meter.
Other point-scorers on Friday for the women were Alisa Antkowiak '99, Stacey Briere '97, Beth Crenshaw '99, Anne Devlin '99, Lorrin Higgins '98, Katie Johnson '99, Rebecca Liston '99, Emily MacDougal '99, Meghan McCarthy '98, Melissa Rikard '99, Pilar Rodriquez '97, Jenna Rogers '98, Audra Rovinski '99, Helene Sisti '96, Wendy Skelton '99 and Jamie Udler '98.
Friday's meet was significant for the women as it was their first team-scoring meet of the season. The only other meet of this season was the Dartmouth Relays last weekend.
Pierce said that overall the meet "went well" although "quite a few people had to sit out because of injury or sickness." Among these were Emily Hodgson '98, Helena Kimball '99, Deirdre Milligan '98 and Maribel Sanchez '96.
With more athletes able to compete at Brown next week, Pierce said, "We should do even better." She said continuing health will be key for the team as the season progresses.
"If we all get healthy then we could have a shot at winning Heps," Pierce said.
For now the women will be gearing up for the Challenge Cup Championships to be held this weekend in Providence. There they will compete against UMass once again, as well as Brown, Boston College, and the University of Connecticut.
