ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – The Harper College women’s track and field team started its outdoor season on Saturday at the Augustana Invite in impressive fashion. Several athletes set PRs, and three Hawks qualified for nationals in their respective events.
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As a team, Harper scored 26 points and took 13th place. Leah Kloss (/Grayslake Central) was responsible for 18 of those 26 points. She captured first place in the 100-meter dash with a national-qualifying time of 12.90 seconds. Kloss then went on to take 2nd place in the 200-meter dash in a time of 25.97 seconds.
Making her college track and field debut, Joslyn Nicholson (/Cary-Grove) broke the school record in the triple jump and qualified for nationals in the process. Her jump of 11.03m (36’ 2 ¼”) was good for second place and eight points.
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Stephanie Chaires (Palatine, Ill./Christian Liberty) qualified for nationals in the 1500m with a PR time of 5:16.42. Cynthia Siddiqui (/Palatine) also ran her best time in the event (5:43.41).
Samantha Soriano (/Hoffman Estates) ran personal-bests in both the 100m (14.04 seconds) and 200m (29.38 seconds). The 4x400m relay team of Taylor LoCoco (/Prairie Ridge), Soriano, Chaires, and Kloss set a PR with a finishing time of 4:36.99. Finally, in the 5000-meter run, Lori Delfin (Wheeling, Ill./Wheeling) (20:39) and Itzel Sotelo (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) (21:20.76) ran personal-bests.
Olivet Nazarene University captured the team crown with 161.5 points, edging host Augustana College, who had 148.5 points. Winona State came in third with 113 points, followed by fourth place Luther College with 112 points.
The Hawks return to action on Thursday, April 2 at the Wheaton Early Invite beginning at 2 PM.
