COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. - The Ursinus College women's outdoor track and field team continues to ascend in the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Metro Regional Rankings as they found themselves ranked No. 6 in the latest rankings released on Tuesday afternoon.
The Bears earned 427.79 rating points in the poll to rank sixth in the Metro region and was up three sports from last week's rankings. Ursinus ranks first among Centennial teams in the regional rankings with Swarthmore placing just behind in seventh with 385.34 rating points. This is the highest regional ranking the women's team has received since head coach Carl Blickle took over eight years ago and are believed to be the highest since well before that time.
Ursinus features several student-athletes either atop or near the apex of the CC performance list after the opening two weeks of the outdoor season.
The Bear throwers have started red-hot this spring as the team has student-athletes in the top-five in the Centennial Performance list for each event. Junior Isabelle Deal set the top mark with her school record throw of 143 feet in the javelin over the weekend at Patterson Field and currently ranks second in NCAA Division III for the event to only Chrissly Strickland's 143-2 ft. throw for George Fox. First-year Katya Galkowski currently sits sixth in the conference for the javelin with her mark of 111-8 ft., junior Hannah Bierling is eighth at 108-4 ft. while senior Zenya Yanoff is 10th with her best throw of 99-6 ft. Yanoff leads the Bears in the hammer throw with a top mark of 130-11 ft. to currently sit fifth while Bierling rounds out the top-10 with her throw of 120-8 ft.
First-year Mikki Pomatto has hit the ground running in her collegiate debut and currently ranks second for the discus throw at 129-11 ft. while junior Jacqueline Allen ranks eighth at 107.6 ft. Allen and Deal have powered Ursinus in the shot put this season with Allen having the second-best mark at 39-10.5 ft. while Deal sits in third with her top mark of 38-4.75 ft.
In sprints, first-year Tehya Harvey ranks among the leaders in the Centennial for the 100-meter dash as she holds the fourth-best time of 12.78 which is just .34 off the conference lead. Seniors Tori Bearden and Rosie Cuomo currently rank eighth and ninth, respectively in the 100-meter hurdles as their current top times are separated by .01 seconds. First-year Sierra Hufnagle also holds a top-10 Centennial performance spot with her time of 1:15.01 to currently rank ninth in the 400 meter hurdles.
For distance, junior Rachel Conhoff ranks third for the 5,000 meters in the Centennial after posting a personal best time over the past weekend in the Ursinus Spring Invitational of 17:55.14. Conhoff also ranks second in the 3,000 steeplechase with her top mark of 11:28.54. Junior Holly Chambers follows in the 5,000-meters in seventh with her time of 18:27.32 and ranks 10th in the 1,500 meters with her time of 4:53.99. First-year Ryann Wauthier rounds the Bears out in the 5,000 by ranking ninth on a time of 18:46.96.
The 4x400 relay team of Tehya Harvey, first-year Megan Carroll, senior Molly McCarthy, and junior Samantha Levai currently hold the fifth-fastest time of 4:16.19 in the Centennial after setting it over the weekend.
In the jumping events, the Bears see sophomore Esther Akande currently in eighth for the high jump and Bearden in ninth currently for the triple jump.
The Bears return to action tomorrow, April 14th as they will compete in the Gwynedd Mercy Twilight Invitational starting at 3 p.m.