NEW LONDON, Conn.— First-year Elaina Head (Kailua Kona, Hawaii) took first place and broke the program record in the long jump to highlight Babson College's performance on day one of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's track & field championships Friday at the Coast Guard Academy's Nitchman Track.

The Beavers are tied for fifth place with Wellesley in the team scoring heading into Saturday's events with 14 points. MIT has the lead with 96.5 points, Wheaton is second with 23.5 points, and Smith and Springfield are tied for third with 14.5 points. Five events were completed while two events ran preliminaries and the heptathlon completed four of the seven events.

Head landed a leap of 17-feet, 9.75-inches to set a new program record, surpassing the mark of 17-feet, 2.75-inches by Ashna Kirshnamurthy at the 2023 NEWMAC Championships. Senior Brooke Jankowski Derry, N.H.) finished seventh with a mark of 16-feet, 10.5-inches, while classmate Trista Sicard (Mansfield, Mass.) was 11th with a mark of 15-feet, 10.5-inches and first-year Emma Hsu (Tenafly, N.J.) was 12th with a leap of 15-feet, 9-inches.

The Beavers had three of the top eight qualifiers for the finals in the 100-meter hurdles. Jankowski came in second in a season-best time of 15.08 seconds, sophomore Victoria Hart (Greenwich, Conn.) finished third in a season-best time of 14.82 seconds, and senior Julia Pike (Mansfield, Mass.) qualified eighth in a season-best time of 15.93 seconds. First-year Madeleine Thai (Bangor, Maine) was also 12th in a time of 16.87 seconds.

First-year Marcilee Kinerman (Atlanta, Ga.) qualified for the finals in the 100-meter dash with a fifth-place finish in a season-best time of 12.30 seconds. Junior Reese Gallant (West Newbury, Mass.) finished 11th in 12.52 seconds, Robyn Wilkes (Atlanta, Ga.) was 14th in a season-best 12.72 seconds, and first-year Reagan Myer (Berryville, Va.) was 18th in 12.95 seconds.

Babson had three runners in the 10,000 meters. Sophomore Annabelle Svenson (Montclair, N.J.) was 10th in a time of 40:50.30, senior Taijah Harvey (Concord, Mass.) was 11th in 41.18.96, and senior Alexandra Kirkpatrick (Middleborough, Mass.) was 18th in 44.21.22.

Sophomore Kate Henderson (Basking Ridge, N.J.) placed seventh in the javelin throw with a mark of 109-feet, 7-inches. Sicard finished 18th in the hammer throw with a mark of 115-feet even, and junior Maddie Stoltz (Somers, Conn.) is in eighth place through four events of the heptathlon with 1644 points.

Day two of the championships begins on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.