The University of Connecticut women’s track and field team wrapped up four days of competition at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championship with a second-place finish on Sunday at the George J. Sherman Family-Sports Complex on the Storrs campus.
The Huskies finished the four-day stretch with 125 team points, trailing on the meet-winner SMU (131).
UConn picked up 18 total points in the 800-meter run final, led by a career-best 2:06.49 second performance from Dismuke en route to a second place overall finish.
Kat Vodopia (2:06.70), who set a personal best in Saturday’s prelims, and Trumbull’s Katie Foley (2:10.05) took third and fifth, respectively. Foley’s result marked a career-best for the freshman.
Senior captain Lauren Sara out of Bunnell High, who earned a second-place finish in Thursday’s 10,000-meter run, claimed the 5,000-meter run gold medal on Sunday, crossing the finish line in 16:35.08, just ahead of teammate Emily Durgin, who nabbed second with a 16:53.92 result.
It marked the second time in four days that the upperclassmen duo had combined for 18 points in a single event.
The Huskies’ 4x400m relay team that consisted of Nyanka Joseph, Faith Dismuke, Paris Taft and Deysha Smith-Jenkins ended the meet on a highlight, setting a new school record in the event when it claimed a gold medal with a 3:32.76 result.
Joseph put together a career-best performance in the 200m dash, taking second overall with a 23.33 second time. The result marked the second-best time in the conference this season and moved the Husky junior into the top-30 on the 2015 NCAA qualifying list.
The squad picked up five points in the 4x100m relay final when the Husky `A’ team that consisted of Smith-Jenkins, Taylor Anderson, Joseph and Sarah Bowens nabbed fourth with a 45.01 second result.
Odrine Belot’s personal-best 13.14 performance in the triple jump was good for a silver medal and earned the team eight points. The result marked the fourth-longest result in the conference this outdoor season.
Laura Williamson was the Huskies’ top finisher in the 1,500 run final, taking fifth overall with a 4:32.38 time. Maggie Christe picked up a pair of points with a seventh-place result (4:36.88).
Natasha McLaren rounded out action on the field with a 1.70m result in the high jump, taking three points. Teammate Saija
Bikanova took eighth (1.70m) and earned a point for the squad.
“I think we did a good job of competing hard until the end,” said head coach J.J. Clark. “While we may not have gotten the result we would have liked, I believe we competed with a championship-attitude. I’m proud of our team for fighting this weekend.”