SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – A resounding all-around effort turned in by the Wesleyan women's track & field team proved enough for 40 team points and a sixth-place finish at the 2023 Division III New England Championships hosted by Springfield College on Saturday. That team finish is the highest recorded by the Cardinals at New England's since Wesleyan placed third back in 1995.
Wesleyan's crowning achievement came in the 4x100m relay, with the Cardinal team of
Gabby Harris '23,
Kenzie Kelly '25,
Augusta Burhans '23, and
Grace Devanny '23 placing first, taking home a D3 New England Championship, with a school record time of 47.54 seconds that led a field of 24 teams.
The 4x400m relay came close to making it a sweep of the two sprint relays, as the Cardinal grouping shattered a school record (3:52.90) which was good enough for second place out of 15 teams. Wesleyan's
Sophia Mack '26,
Maeve Hoffman '23, Kelly, and Devanny all earned All-New England honors with the runner-up finish.
Hoffman continued her stellar day with an unbelievable finish in the 800m. Racing against MIT's Julia Howarth, the two were neck-and-neck throughout only for there to be a photo finish with the respective times being separated by 0.01 seconds which is as close as two runners can get to one another in the final standings. Even though Hoffman (2:13.68) was 0.01 second behind Howarth (2:13.67), she still takes home All-New England honors with her runner-up finish.
Harris picked up her second All-New England honor of the day, racing to a sixth-place finish in the 100m with a personal-best time of 12.28 seconds in the preliminaries to earn one of eight spots in the final, racing against 31 competitors. In the final, Harris clocked in at 12.43 seconds to take sixth place overall.
Wesleyan saw two earn All-New England honors in the 10,000m, as
Stephanie Ager '26 raced to a third-place finish with a time of 36:27.82 while
Miranda Graves '23 placed fifth, clocking in at 37:44.43.
Kelly earned her team-best third All-New England honor of the day, as the sophomore posted a time of 58.58 seconds in the 400m that was good enough for eighth place.
Jane Hollander '23 was one spot and 0.06 seconds away from All-New England honors as she placed ninth overall out of 29 in the 800m with her time of 2:18.16.
Jordan Walter '25 nearly made All-New England as she placed 10
th out of 22 in the 1500m at 4:45.53.
Erika Kluge '23 posted a mark of 3.35m in the pole vault, finishing 11
th out of 19 in the event.
Wesleyan has a pair of meets left with the Open New England Championships slated for Saturday, May 13 as well as the Last Chance Meet on May 17-18.
