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The women’s track and field team opened their season on Saturday, April 17, by competing in the Quad Cup against Tufts, Conn. College, and Trinity in New London, Connecticut. After a long break from meets, they placed second overall, with multiple event wins and top-three finishes. 

It’s been an eagerly anticipated return for women’s track and field, which has had to cease practices and competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Coach Walter Curry commented on how well the team has been able to rally given the difficult circumstances. 

“The best part of returning to competition has been the attitude of the team!” Curry said in an email to The Argus. “Our athletes are working hard to balance the demands of school in a virtual situation, along with practicing and competing in a COVID protocol world.”

Ivie Uzamere ’21 won both the hammer throw and the shot put with marks of 44.65 meters and 10.22 meters respectively. Two other Cardinals, Mallory Elliot ’23 and Claire Edwards ’24, also finished in the top three for shot put.

Becky Lopez-Anido ’21 won the 800 meters race with a time of 2:16.34, logging the third event win for the Cardinals. Abigail Pipkin ’22 placed third in the 800m with a personal-best time of 2:25.98.

Along with Pipkin and Lopez-Anido, Addie Thomas ’22 and Kate Hausladen ’23 were a part of the 4×400 meter relay that took second place with a time of 4:23.26.

Curry noted the leadership of experienced teammates like Uzamere and Lopez-Anido, especially in helping first-years and sophomores for whom this was their first competition at the college level.  

This was the case for Augusta Burhans ’23, who placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.76 seconds in addition to placing third in the 200-meter dash. In an email to The Argus, she commented on how this first competition posed a certain challenge for the Cardinals.

“I think the biggest difficulty involved with transitioning back to competition would be the fact that we had not competed in over a year,” Burhans said. “Personally, I have not had an outdoor spring track season, [and] the meet at Conn was my first time running the 100 and the 200 outside collegiately, so it was definitely an adjustment. Most of us also assumed that we would not have a season, so I don’t think we were very prepared mentally, and we had to get prepared in a relatively short period of time.”

In addition to Burhans, Chiara Christie ’23 competed for Wesleyan for the first time, placing second in both the javelin and the discus throws with marks of 31.01 meters and 29.06 meters respectively. It was also Maeve Hoffman’s ’23 first time competing in outdoor track and field as a Cardinal; she placed second in the 1500 meters, running a time of 4:49.64. 

When asked about what practice looks like during a season affected by COVID-19, Curry mentioned that while some aspects have been altered to account for safety, many practices functioned the same as always. There were the standard changes, such as wearing masks, constraints on how many athletes can be in a certain space, sanitizing equipment, and using Zoom for team meetings that normally would be in-person. While the hard work put in by athletes and the camaraderie of feeling a part of the team remained, Burhans still noted that practicing with masks and other logistical adjustments were occasionally challenging.

“At the start of the spring semester, we were just practicing three times a week. We worked hard in these practices, but they were not super intense, because we assumed we didn’t have a season. Once we heard we would be having part of a season, we started practicing five times a week and began working harder to get ready for the meets. Practicing with masks has definitely been tough and the setup of the meet has been very different. For example, everyone is wearing masks, each team has their own section that they cannot leave unless they are about to race and there are far fewer people (the men’s and women’s teams cannot compete together due to COVID because there would be too many people, which is sad because we love supporting each other but we watch the livestream instead),” Burhans said. 

Looking ahead to next weekend, the Cardinals will travel to Conn. College on Saturday to take on the Bantams, the Camels, and Jumbos once again at 4 p.m. For the rest of the shortened season, the Cardinals will be focused on improving even more. Burhans is hoping to set personal records in her events, while Curry hopes that the team continues to build this year and next.

“We want to continue to develop, we want to continue to build a good work ethic, and we want to stay healthy and injury-free,” Curry said. “All of these things will help us confidence-wise going into 2021-22, when things start to move back to a more familiar situation for our entire campus.”

Caroline Bonnevie can be reached at cbonnevie@wesleyan.edu.