MEMPHIS, TN - In the second and final home meet of the season, the Women's Track & Field team had a standout day, placing first out of nineteen scoring teams. The Lynx bested the runner-up team from Loras College by fourteen points and beating conference rivals Hendrix, Millsaps, and Sewanee by a sizable margin.

                The day started on a high note with sophomore Taylor Stephens winning the 5,000m run in a time of 18:26.18. Her victory was made all the more impressive by the fact only two and a half months ago she was on crutches, having just come off knee surgery. Also running the 5,000m and placing eighth was freshman Hillary Quirk (San Antonio, TX). Her time of 21:08.75 was a new personal best and beat the ninth place finisher by over twenty seconds.

                The next contested running event was the 4x100m relay, and the team of senior co-captain Julia Goss (St. Louis, MO), freshman Sam Specht (St. Petersburg, FL), sophomore Kyla Graham (St. Louis, MO) and freshman Lindsay Svehla (Bellevue, NE) placed third in a time of 50.04 seconds. Success breeds success and the 1500m race that followed was a testament to that adage. Senior co-captain Cybil Covic (Cordova, TN) ran a fantastic 4:50.88 to place third overall, with teammate – junior Kelsey Dudziak (Williamstown, MA) – finishing right behind her in 4:57.52. Senior Melissa DeFabrizio (Richmond Hill, Ontario) crossed the line in ninth place with a time of 5:14.87. In the other mid-distance event – the 800m – Rhodes placed all five competitors in the top ten. Junior Molly Buck (Austin, TX) led the way, running 2:19.69 en route to a second place finish. Close behind was Covic in fifth place, crossing the line in 2:24.52 and Dudziak finishing seventh in a time of 2:27.20. Rounding out the top ten was freshman Jessica Murrer (Bronxville, NY) in ninth place, and senior Becky Atnip (Greenfield, TN) in tenth, with respective times of 2:30.70 and 2:32.72.    

The sprinting events saw Buck finish third in the 100m hurdles in a time of 15.70 seconds, and Svehla place fourth in the 100m dash, crossing the line in 12.62. In the 200m dash, Specht ran a very impressive 26.58 to finish second out of forty-nine competitors. Freshman teammate Megan Lee (Castro Valley, CA) finished tenth in a time of 27.17 seconds. The 4x400m relay of Lee, Specht, senior co-captain Julia Goss (St. Louis, MO), and Buck ran a superb time of 3:59.99 to win the event, sealing the meet victory for the Lynx.

Other very notable performances came from freshman Emma Fesperman (Baltimore, MD) and the 4x800m relay team of junior Marianne Kirk (River Forrest, IL), freshman Whitney Langston (Austin, TX), Atnip, and sophomore Caroline Webster (Ellsworth, ME). In the first 3,000m steeplechase of her career, Fesperman ran a very impressive 13:05.92 en route to a seventh place finish. The 4x800m team placed second overall in a time of 10:36.37, thirty seconds ahead of the third place team from Illinois College. In the field events DeFabrizio demonstrated her versatility, placing sixth in the pole vault with a height of 8'6.25”. Goss' fifth place in the long jump with a distance of 16'7.25” netted the team four valuable points, and in the triple jump, Specht's jump of 32'11.75” placed her seventh out of fourteen competitors. The javelin throw saw three Rhodes athletes perform very well, with freshman Alison Lang (Colts Neck, NJ) placing second with a distance of 110'5” – improving upon her personal best by nearly two feet. Atnip continued her outstanding day by placing sixth with a heave of 93'5” and Lee finished in eleventh place with a distance of 81'5”.            

                At the day's end, it was a very successful meet for the Rhodes Track & Field team. Look for more outstanding performances from the Lynx as they travel to Washington University in St. Louis next weekend for the Washington University Invitational.