Devil Women Place Fifth at Messiah Invitational

First-year Chelsea Johnson placed second in the heptathlon at the Messiah College Invitational
Photo by James Rasp

By Dennis Young 

Results

The Dickinson College women's track and field team had a solid meet Saturday at the Messiah Invitational.  The action was kicked off Thursday afternoon, as first-year Chelsea Johnson (Wallingford, Pa./Strath Haven) began her first heptathlon.  In the two-day, seven-event hept, Johnson impressively set personal-bests in five out of the seven events: the 200 meters, 800, high hurdles, shot put, and high jump.  She would go on to finish second with a score of 3357 points.  If Johnson remains healthy, she would be the first Red Devil woman to compete at the conference meet in the heptathlon since 2007.

The distances have been the bulwark of the women's team the last few seasons, and Saturday was no exception.  In the 1500, Dickinson runners took two of the top three, and four of the top eight places.  First-year Taylor Ludman (Willow Street, Pa./Solanco), senior Kim Powell (Canton, Conn./Canton), sophomore Mary Nolte (Laurel, Md./Atholton), and sophomore Heather Livingston (Logansport, Ind./Northfield Mount Hermon) all broke five minutes en route to season bests.

Ludman and Powell led the way in second and third with times of 4:51.96 and 4:54.27, respectively.  Those times now rank third and seventh among the Centennial Conference season-bests.  A slew of personal and season bests were also to be found in the 800 meters, led by another first-year.  This time it was Kelly McIntyre (West Chester, Pa./Bishop Shanahan), running a season and personal best of 2:20.22 for fourth place.

In the field, sophomore thrower Justin Davenport (Laurel, Md./The Madeira School) tossed the shot put over ten meters for the first time.  Her throw of 10.06m (33-0.25) stands seventh in the conference.  Junior Leslie Ward (Danvers, Mass./Governor's School) set a personal best in the discus, placing sixth with a throw of 31.65m (103-10).

Finally, sophomore Vivian Butali (Fairfax, Va./National Cathedral) had a strong double in the 200 meters and the long jump.  Her time of 28.05 in the 200 was a large personal best, and her leap of 10.26m (33-8) is the third longest in the CC this spring.

The Red Devils return to competition next week, first on Friday at the Bucknell Distance Carnival and then Saturday at the Gettysburg-hosted Mason-Dixon Invitational.