Zatulove Captures Heptathlon Title, Hagstrom (400M Hurdles) and Jankowski (100M Hurdles) Post Top-Three Performances for Beavers
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— The Babson College women's track & field team broke school records in both relay races on the way to a program-best team performance with a fifth-place finish at the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) championships Sunday afternoon at MIT's Sherie and Don (1961) Morrison Track.
The Beavers' fifth place finish in the team standings matches the 2021 team for the highest finish in program history, and the 55 points this year nearly doubles the previous program-best of 28 points scored in 2019. MIT coasted to the team title with 243.5 points, with Coast Guard (138) edging WPI (135) for second place. Springfield (102) finished fourth, followed by Babson, Wellesley (47), Wheaton (39), Smith (23.5) and Mount Holyoke (18).
Senior Lauren Zatulove (Los Angeles, Calif.) was an individual champion for the Beavers, capturing the inaugural heptathlon with a point total of 3,259. Her score marks the fifth-highest total in program history.
Babson's 4x400-meter relay squad of senior Caroline Reilly (East Greenwich, R.I.), first-years Brooke Jankowski (Methuen, Mass.) and Chloe Clifford (Marshfield, Mass.) and sophomore Angela Hagstrom (Portsmouth, N.H.) brought home second place in a program-record time of 4:03.37 seconds, bettering the mark of 4:10.18 set in the 2018 NCAA New England Championships. The contingent of Reilly, Jankowski, first-year Robyn Wilkes (Atlanta, Ga.) and Hagstrom finished in fifth place in a program-record time of 49.25 seconds, eclipsing the time of 49.53 second set at last year's NEWMAC Championships.
Hagstrom and Jankowski registered the top individual performances for the Beavers, both in hurdle events. Hagstom finished runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 1:05.12, less than a second behind Paige Cooksey of MIT (1:04.23), while Jankowski brought home third place in the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 15.24 seconds.
Wilkes scored points for Babson in two sprint events, placing seventh in the 200 meters in a time of 26.60 seconds, and taking eighth in the 100 meters in 12.79 seconds. Reilly finished eighth in the 400 meters in a time of 1:01.35.
The Green and White had two point-scorers in the triple jump as first-year Trista Sicard (Mansfield, Mass.) finished sixth with a jump of 34-feet, 10.25-inches and classmate Ashna Krishnamurthy (Saratoga, Calif.) was seventh with a mark of 34-feet, 9.5 inches. Jankowski was also seventh in the high jump, clearing 4-feet, 11.75-inches.
Babson will send its top performers to the NCAA Division III New England Championships next Friday and Saturday in Springfield, Mass.
