The University of Southern Maine women’s track team swept the Little East Conference and Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference to capture their 12th straight New England Alliance and LEC Championships Saturday at the USM Field House. The lady Huskies won by a 205 to 1324 margin over UMass-Dartmouth in the Little East and 168 to 136 over Worcester State for the Alliance title.
Junior middle distance standout Molly Carl (York) continued her dominance, racking up an impressive two first-place finishes in the 3000 meters with a time of 10:15 and mile run posting a 5:13 mark. She also took second in the 800 with a 2:23, earning 28 points for her team on the day.
Freshman Hannah Wiley (Arundel) was all over the track earning 32 points for her team in a series of four second-place finishes on the day. Her first came in the 600 with a time of 1:37, then 55 meter hurdles at 8.59 seconds, also the 200 with a time of 26.3 seconds.
USM started off the meet wasting no time grabbing the lead. They never looked back from the opening events going one-two in the pole vault as well as one-two in the long jump. Wiley took second with a 17’ 7” mark and junior teammate Christina Massey (Winslow) posted the same distance but out jumped her in the finals to take first. Massey was the lone Husky to place in the 400 meters finishing in third place with a time of 1:01.
The pole vault was also dominated by Huskies. Senior Bethany Dumas (Augusta) came out on top with a height of 11’1″ and classmate Amy McIntire (Raymond) grabbed second spot at 10′ 6″ to put their team in good standing going forward. Dumas also placed third in the 55 meter hurdles for a solid showing.
Another valuable contributor was sophomore Morgan Beede (Augusta) who came in just behind Carl at 10:27 in the 3000 meters to finish third and took fourth in the mile with a performance of 5:23.
Senior Hannah Patterson (Londonderry, N.H.) made her presence known in the throwing events taking away a second-place finish in the weight throw with 53′ 8″ and a fifth in the shot put with 37′ 1″.
The Lady Huskies will look to continue their outstanding performances next week at the New England Division three Championships at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.