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ANDERSON, Ind. – A lack of depth has been a hindrance at times in year’s past. This year, at 18 athletes strong, depth has become an advantage for the Goshen College women’s track and field team.
This new-found depth was on display as the Maple Leafs won nine events and placed in the top five 22 times on way to winning the team title at the Anderson Invitational on Saturday. Goshen finished the day with 187 points, while host Anderson took second with 141 in the five-team event.
Leading the way was sophomore Rachael Baker, who won individual titles in the 800 and 1500 meters before anchoring the 4x400 meter relay team to a victory. Baker took the 800-meters in a time of 2:26.51 and the 1500 in 5:01.34. The Fremont, Ind. native, then took the baton passed off from Erica Emanuel, Rachel Versluis, and Abri Houser to finish off a winning time of 4:13.68.
“It was nice to dominate so much in the field events,” said Head Coach Rick Clark. “We won all but two events where we had individuals take runner-up positions.”
It came as no surprise that junior Deanna Kronk again took charge in the throwing events. The junior took top honors in all three of her events. A throw of 148’7” won the hammer throw, while marks of 40’9 ¾” in the shot put and 131’6” in the discuss completed the trio of wins for Kronk. Cassie Greives was also able to score points for Goshen in each of the events as she placed fourth in the discuss (112’5”), and sixth in the shot put (32’7 ¾”) and hammer (104’). Krista Nussbaum had a solid fourth-place finish in the hammer throw with a mark of 107’8”.
The Maple Leaf depth was again at work as Goshen finished in the top three spots in the javelin. Senior Katie Sowers won the event with a throw of 116’5” followed by Rachel Mast (109’6”) and Kelsey Herschberger (98’8”).
In the jumping events, freshman standout Peni Acayo won the triple jump for the third straight meet, while also taking second in both the long jump and the high jump. The Kampala, Uganda native jumped 35’3 ½” in the triple jump, 16’1 ½” in the long jump and cleared 4-feet, 10-inches in the high jump. Kelsey Herschberger also cleared 4’10” in the high jump, but took an extra attempt to clear it and took third place. Erica Emanuel added to the Maple Leafs’ point total with a fourth-place mark of 13’4 ½” in the long jump.
The final winner for the day for Goshen was Rachel Versluis. The junior took top honors in the pole vault as she cleared ten feet even.
On the track, the Maple Leafs racked up points with four runner-up finishes. Junior Abri Houser took second in both the 100-meter (15.39 seconds) and 400-meter hurdles (1:09.00), while Versluis placed runner-up in the 100-meter dash (13.52 seconds) and Erica Emanuel finished second in the 200 meters (27.63).
Rounding out the scoring for the Leafs was a second-place finish by the 4x100 relay team of Versluis, Houser, Herschberger, and Emanueal (52.9 seconds) and a third-place effort in the 5k by sophomore Tina Peters who came in with a time of 20:47.56.
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