By Eric Brod

Senior Writer

For the third straight year, the women’s track and field dominated the Bucknell Team Challenge en route to team victory in the six-team field.

In the field, Kat Folger ’12 earned her first victory of the season in the javelin with a throw of 144 feet, three inches.

“Winning the javelin throw for the first time this season was rewarding because I’ve worked very hard this year to improve my technique,” Folger said. “I had my best series of throws this year and was very happy with the outcome.”

Close behind in second was teammate Laura Rycek ’11 with a throw of 143 feet, 11 inches.

“Having a teammate like Laura is invaluable,” Folger said. “Laura is a great javelin thrower with an excellent work ethic, and she has helped me tremendously to raise my level of performance by pushing me to strive to work harder every day at practice and throw competitively in meets.”

The Orange and Blue continued their impressive season on the track, led by Emily Liggett ’12 in the 3,000 meter race. Liggett finished second in the event with a career-best time of 9:58.10.

“The whole race I just focused on staying with the leader, more so than getting a certain split time,” Liggett said. “As for pacing, the first half of the race felt very even and controlled, which probably allowed me to have more of a kick at the end.”

Teammates Sarah Moniz ’11 and Caroline Tolli ’13 finished first and second in the 1,500-meter race in 4:36.27 and 4:37.26, respectively.

Kelly Grosskurth ’12 kept the momentum going for the long-distance squad with her first place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11:08.2.

“I learned from the previous weekend’s race that I needed to push through the last 1,000 meters when the pace starts to slow,” Grosskurth said. “The steeplechase is a race where endurance is key and going out too fast can be detrimental and the last 1,000 meters is where you have to dig deep and just stay mentally strong. So that is what I did running faster splits the last 1,000 meters.”

In the 800-meter race, Hana Casalnova ’14, Beth Braunegg ’14, Erin Holbrook ’14 and Chelsea Lodato ’14 swept the top four places.

The team returns to action this weekend in both the Penn Relays and Bloomsburg’s Maroon and Gold Open.