Teams: Women's Track & Field: Schedule & Results

COLLEGE WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD RESULTS
NCAA Div. 3 Indoor Championships
Friday-Saturday, March 14-15, 2008
At Ada, OH (Ohio Northern University)

Meet Results

ADA, Ohio -- Ranked first in the country entering their event at the NCAA Division III women's indoor track & field championships, Tufts University's distance medley relay came through in the clutch on Friday night to win the race and a national title with an 11:46.79 time. Second place University of St. Thomas crossed the finish line in 11:48.10.

The Tufts team of first-year Stephanie McNamara (North Attleborough, MA) and seniors Kaleigh Fitzpatrick (Lynnfield, MA), Katy O�Brien (North Easton MA) and Catherine Beck (Brookline, NH) led from wire-to-wire en route to capturing the NCAA women's distance medley relay title in the final event of the day at Ohio Northern University. O�Brien, Fitzpatrick and Beck returned from the team that finished runner-up in the DMR at the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships (school record 11:35.54).

The Tufts foursome had the nation's fastest Division III time in the event during the regular season with an 11:43.47 at the All-New England Championships hosted by Boston University on February 29. That converted to an 11:45.97 due to the banked track at BU. On Friday night, McNamara ran the opening 1,200 meters in 3:37.5, Fitzpatrick followed with a 58.5 400, O'Brien went 2:16.3 in the 800 and Beck anchored with a 4:54 1,600 meters.

The relay title continues the legacy of national champions established by Tufts women's track. Dating back to Vera Stenhouse's eight national titles from 1989-91, through the 400-meter hurdle NCAA outdoor championship won by Jessica Trombly in 2004, Jumbos have now won 14 titles at NCAA Championship indoor and outdoor events. The DRM victory also comes just a day after Tufts senior diver Kendall Swett (Akron, OH) won the NCAA 1-meter championship also in Ohio at their national meet hosted by Miami University in Oxford on Thursday night.

Tufts' DMR victory is even more impressive considering that Beck and O'Brien had run in the NCAA mile two hours prior to the relay. In that event, both ran their way into Saturday's NCAA final. Beck had the second-fastest preliminary time of 5:02.87 and O'Brien finished in 5:03.33 for ninth. Both then earned All-American honors in the mile final on Saturday, with Beck finishing third (4:59.72) and O'Brien crossing fifth (5:03.40). With the DMR and mile All-American honors, Beck now has seven in her Tufts career indoors (4) and outdoors (3). O'Brien now was three All-American honors, all indoors. The mile was her first individual All-American award.

Behind their finishes in the DMR and mile, Tufts scored 20 points at the meet to secure sixth place in the nation. There are 14 events overall at the NCAA indoor meet.

Sophomore Logan Crane (Portland, ME) was also in action on Friday in the 55-meter dash. Her time of 7.22 seconds in the preliminaries narrowly missed qualifying for the final. Fitzpatrick also competed in the 800 meter run on Friday, but did not qualify for the final with a finish of 58.18 seconds.

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