The Eastern Michigan University women’s track and field team split up March 29-30 to open the outdoor portion of its season.
One group of students went to Palo Alto, Calif., to compete in the Stanford Invitational and the rest stayed a bit more local to appear in the Toledo Collegiate Challenge.
EMU freshman Vanessa Clerveaux took seventh place at the Stanford Invitational in the 100-meter hurdles.
The Eagles were also represented by a 4×400 relay team of freshmen Latipha Cross and Aaliyah McKinney and seniors Morgan Churchwell and Asia Rawls. The relay team placed 11th with a time of 3 minutes, 49.57 seconds.
Relay members also competed individually as McKinney (16) and Cross (32) took on the 200 dash; the two posted times of 24.82 and 25.33, respectively.
While Churchwell finished 28th in the 800 run in 2:16.44.
In Toledo, the Eagles took multiple top 10 finishes.
EMU junior Kayla Pfund took second place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 7:17.41.
That was the only second place that the Eagles claimed, but the team wasn’t far behind with third place in the 3,000 run and the pole vault.
With a time of 10:05.03, senior Rachel Quaintance claimed third place in the 3,000 run. Less than 30 seconds behind her in the same event was EMU sophomore Cara Smock at 16th place.
EMU freshman Ellie Braidic came in third place for the vault with 11 feet, 5.75 inches.
Fourth place finishes went to freshmen Tericka Threatt, Morgan Yeadon and Iesha Hardiman, and sophomore Danielle Clark for their performance in the 4×100.
Other fourth place finishes came from the long jump with Tiara Oates for 18 feet, 3 inches and hammer thrower Lydia Gomez-Diaz with 177 feet, 2 inches.
The Eagles also claimed fifth and sixth place in the long jump with Makeda DeBardelaben and Laila Foster, respectively.
After opening their outdoor season out of state, the Eagles plan to come back to Michigan to East Lansing April 5-6 to compete at the Spartan Invitational.
