c/o Wesleyan Athletics

The Wesleyan women’s track team continued its superb season with strong showings at both the final regular season meet at Trinity College on Saturday, April 23, and the NESCAC Championships this past Saturday, April 30 at Hamilton. During the meet on April 23, the Cards came in fourth place out of 10 teams. Individually, the meet saw Grace Devanny ’23 break yet another school record in outdoor track as she finished second in the 200 meters with a time of 24.87 seconds, which broke the previous school record of 24.88 seconds that was set back in 2003.

Five other Cardinals placed in the top five in their events at the Trinity Invitational. Augusta Burhans ’23 finished third in the 100 meters with a time of 12.61, Kenzie Kelly ’25 finished fourth in the 400 meters with a personal best time of 59.66, Maeve Hoffman ’23 finished first in both the 800 meters with a time of 2:16.80 (with Abi Pipkin ’22 finishing second in that event) and the 1500 meters with a time of 4:42.29, and Cornelia Carragher ’25 finished fifth in the 1500 meters with a time of 5:02.35.

In the field events, the Cards had four athletes place in the top ten, highlighted by Mallory Elliott ’23 finishing second in the high jump with a personal best jump of 1.52 meters. Other notable field results included Chiara Christie ’23 finishing fourth in the javelin with a throw of 30.23 meters, Sarah Schlosberg ’25 finishing sixth in the long jump with a jump of 4.84 meters, and Erika Kluge ’23 finished fourth in the pole vault at 3.10 meters (a personal best). 

Following the successful meet at Trinity, Wesleyan began its string of postseason championship meets by competing in the NESCAC Championships. At the meet at Hamilton College, they placed sixth out of the 11 competing NESCAC schools, putting together a strong meet as a whole. Individual highlights of the championships included Devanny winning the 400 meters with a school record time of 55.41 and finishing second in the 200 meters with a time of 24.41 (breaking the school record that she had only set the week prior), Hoffman finishing third in the 800 meters with a time of 2.12.17, and Claire Edwards ’24 finishing fourth in the discus throw with a maximum distance of 35.05 meters. Six other Cardinals also placed in the top 10 in their respective events individually. As for the team relay events, the Red and Black won the 4×400 meter relay as the team of Devanny, Kelly, Hoffman, and Becky Velie ’22 came across the line first with a time of 3.53.87. Overall, Devanny was ecstatic with the team’s performance these past couple of competitions and how hard everyone has worked to perform well when competing.  

“I think everyone competed to the best of their abilities and left it all out of the track,” Devanny said. “We did so well as both individuals and as a team. One of our senior leaders said at the end of the meet, ‘What we lack in depth, we make up for in heart,’ and I can’t describe our performance on Saturday any better way. We took the ups and downs we endured as a team and used it for motivation on the track.”

Devanny highlighted the mental aspect of the team’s preparation as being crucial to their successes during the last two meets.

“We just all had to trust our training and remind ourselves that we were ready to compete,” Devanny said.

Next up, the run of championship meets continues with the New England DIII Championships at Williams College this Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7, followed by the New England Championships at Bryan University in Rhode Island on the weekend of May 13 through 14. Devanny explained that the key to performing well at these competitions is to not push too hard during training heading into these meets. 

“I think the biggest factor is staying healthy and not burning out,” Devanny said. “It’s been a very long season and many athletes, unfortunately, had their season end early due to injuries. So if we can take care of our mental and physical health, we will put ourselves in a good position going into the rest of the championship meets.”

David Gottlieb can be reached at dgottlieb@wesleyan.edu.