Mullarkey Breaks Record at New Jersey Invitational
EWING, N.J. -- Swarthmore Cait Mullarkey's running prowess continued Saturday afternoon, as the sophomore won the 3,000-meter steeplechase event at the New Jersey Track Invitational hosted by the College of New Jersey Saturday morning.
Mullarkey has already run at the 400, the 400 intermediate hurdles, the 800 meters (which she won last Saturday), and the 1,500 during the current outdoor track & field season. On Saturday, she took a stab at the steeplechase and not only beat 99 other opponents to the finish line, but set a new school record (11:42.42) in the process. Mullarkey shattered the old mark set by Carrie Ritter '06 (12:26.90) at the Tuppany Twilight hosted by Villanova on May 15, 2006.
Garnet sophomore Bess Ritter was the top finisher for Swarthmore in the women's 1,500, taking ninth place with a time of 5:09.18. She was followed in Faith Pampel '09 (5:10.81), Kathy Feeney '09 (5:11.58) while freshman Erin Ronhovde took 13th (5:13.45).
The Swarthmore men also ran strong in the steeplechase; Ross Weller '08 ran a personal-best time of 9:44.25 (fifth-fastest time in school history) to finish third while classmate Jon Shoop was seventh in a time of 10:10.12, just missing the top-ten.
Connor Darby hit the top-ten all-time in the 800 (fifth-best), running seventh overall with a time of 1:57.25 while senior Matt Schiller finished 11th in the 400 meter event (51.45).
Swarthmore Samantha Graffeo led the field performers, finishing fourth in the shot put with a final distance of 10.80 meters (her best toss of the season). Garnet freshman Matt Turner made the finals in the triple jump and despite re-aggravating a hip injury, posted a final distance of 12.55 meters for seventh place.
The Garnet return to the track on April 20-21 at the annual Widener Invitational, hosted by Widener University.