Irving breaks record, joins Longvall in qualifying for New England's

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - Sophomore Amy Irving (Bohemia, N.Y.) dominated the field in the 5000m at the Smith College Pioneer Invitational winning in a school record time of 18:36.89 on Saturday. Irving also qualifies for the New England Division III Championships to be held at MIT on Friday and Saturday, May 1-2. Irving unleashed a devastating kick with 1000m to go to which her Mt. Holyoke adversary could not respond. 

Also qualifying for the New Englands, for the fourth time in her career, was senior co-captain Rebecca Longvall (Boylston, Mass.) who uncorked a 35.18m (115'5") heave on her second throw in the javelin to garner fourth place.

Kelsey Davidson (Duxbury, Mass.) captured Salve Regina's only other first place finish, leaping 1.48m (4'10.25") to record a collegiate best. Davidson had three tries at a New England qualifying 1.53m, narrowly missing on all three. 

Second place was achieved by Samantha Whitaker (Smithfield, R.I.) in the pole vault, clearing the bar at 2.61m (8'6.75"), a collegiate best. Junior Shannon Holden (Hingham, Mass.) finished second in the 10,000m, establishing a personal record of 43:03.49 in her first 25 lapper and freshman Raquel Pouliot (Coventry, Conn.) continued to improve in the 800m, snatching a second place in 2:30.76, also a collegiate best.

Erin McCarthy (Walpole, Mass.) crossed the line in 28.17 in the 200m for a third place finish while Jackie Ofria (Manchester, Conn.) finished fourth in the 10,000m in 44:09.17 in her initial attempt at the grueling distance. Senior co-captain Kelsey Knight (Amherst, N.H.) recorded a fourth in the 100m hurdles in 17.86 as did Victoria Varone (Providence, R.I.) in the 5000m finishing in 19:08.74.

Coach Matt Hird was very pleased with the team's performance saying, "Finally getting some decent weather makes a big difference as everyone was fired up and ready to go. This was a non-scoring meet but we were solidly in the top four in terms of performances among the 15 teams who competed. We were also trying to get some of our team qualified for the Heptathlon which is a series of seven events contested over two days. In track and field we have a lot of events in which our athletes will compete and it will be really interesting as we try to figure out how best to assemble our talent for the conference meet coming in two weeks. Next week at Wesleyan we hope to be rounding into form."