Women’s track wins conference
The women’s track and field team won its first HCAC championship in team history.
The championship meet was held at Mount St. Joseph College on Friday and Saturday.
The women – who were preseason favorites to win the conference title – took first place by 32.5 points over second place Defiance University.
“To be able to see a team do some things without a facility says a lot about the commitment of a team,” head coach Paul Sargent said. “We didn’t have a person on our roster that didn’t help us out at one point or other this weekend.”
Junior Heather Waterman won the 1,500-meter race with a time of 4:51.47 and the 5,000-meter race with a time of 18:46.65.
“It took being relaxed, focused and determined,” said Waterman on winning two races.
She also finished second in the 800-meter race.
Senior Kendall Paris was the only other winner for Franklin. She cleared 112 feet, 2 inches in the javelin throw.
“Her mark at the conference meet was well better than any throw she had this season,” Sargent said.
Franklin also had a couple second-place finishers with senior Kristi Brown in the 3,000 steeplechase at 12:21.38 and freshman Amanda Owen with a 37 feet, 6-1/2 inch shot-put throw.
Waterman and Paris were named All-HCAC after they each won an event and sophomore Shelby Johnston was named honorable All-HCAC for accumulating more than 16 points during the weekend. She finished with 23 points.
The Grizzlies finished their team season with a winning mark and now it is time to focus on helping Waterman make it to nationals.
Waterman’s time of 17:24.06 is currently 15th best in the 5,000-meter run, which is good enough to get her into nationals on a provisional time, but she can still lose out if someone surpasses her. She plans on trying to improve her time during the next few weeks.
