women's track

April 11: Junior Alyssa Pirinelli won three individual titles in the throws, but the St. Lawrence University women's outdoor track and field team had to settle for a second place finish in the Liberty League Championships at Rensselaer on Saturday.

Host RPI denied the Saint women a second straight championship, winning the title by 7.5 points in a meet that was close throughout. RPI finished with 237.5 points with the Saints second with 230 while Vassar finished third with 71 and Union fourth with 58.5.

Pirinelli set the Liberty League record with a throw of 37.45 meters (122-10) to win the discus, won the shot with a 13.06 meter throw and the hammer with a 46.85 meter throw. She was named Liberty League and ECAC Field Event Athlete of the Week.

Sophomore Wendy Pavlus wa a double winner for the Saints in track events, winning the 5000 in 18;43.71 and the steeplechase in 11:20.57. Other winners for the Saints were Meaghan White in the 100 hurdles with a 16.41 clocking, Jenna Hulton in the 1500 in 4:52.92, Whitney Koch in the long jump with a 5.02 meter jump and Jessica Venezia in the triple jump with a 10.56 meter jump.

The Saints also won the 4x800 relay team with a team of Hulton, Chelsea McKenzie, Liz Atwood and Megan Derby running 10:10.98.

April 5: Junior Alyssa Pirinelli started her 2009 outdoor track and field season with a bang on Sunday, winning the hammer, shot put and discus as the St. Lawrence University women's team had seven individual champions and two relay wins in the Continental Invitational at Hamilton to being the outdoor season.

Pirinelli won the hammer with a throw of 46.80 meters, meeting NCAA provisional qualification standards and also met the NCAA provisional mark with a throw of 13.47 meters to win the shot put. She completed her day with a 35.30 meter throw to win the discus.

Other Saint champions were Wendy Pavlus who won the 1500 in 5:05.67, Meaghan White with a win in 15.89 in the 100 hurdles, Liz Schwennker with a win in 1:02.46 in the 400, and Jenna Hulton who won the 800 in 2:23.63. The Saints also won both the 4x400 (4:22.53) and 4x800 (10:03.80) relays. Cassie Dimarino, Whitney Koch, Jessica Venezia and Schwennker ran the 4x400 while Hulton and Pavlus were joined by Liz Atwood and Alexis Nuffer on the 4x800 team.

McKayla Nuffer was second in the 1500 while Kiersten LaPorte was second in the 100 hurdles with Emily Palmer fifth. Schwennker led a sweep of the top four spots in the 400 with Whitney Koch second, Alexis Nuffer third and Kelsey Rebehn fourth while Hulton also led a top-four sweep in the 800, Cassie Dimarino finishing second, Liz Atwood third and Megan Derby fourth. LaPorte finished fourth and Palmer sixth in the 400 hurdles.

March 26: St. Lawrence University athletes swept the Liberty League 2009 Indoor Track and Field Awards as voted on by the league's coaches.

Wendy Pavlus was named Runner of the Year, Alyssa Pirinelli was the Field Athlete of the Year and Jenna Hulton was the Rookie of the Year. First year head coach Kate Curran and her staff shared the Coach of the Year honors.

Pavlus was All America in the 5000 meters with a 6th place finish at the NCAA Championships. A six time Liberty League Track Performer of the Week, she was second in the mile and won the 5000 in the Liberty League Championships, won the 5000 and 3000 in the NYSCTC Championship and won the 5000 at the ECAC Championships. It is her third major Liberty League award.

The Atlantic Region Field Athlete of the Year for the second straight season, Pirinelli went into the NCAA Championships with the top throws in the country in both the shot and weight and earned All America in both events. She was the Liberty League champion in both events, setting records in each and was first in the NYSCTC Championships in both events in addition to winning the ECAC shot put title. She has been Field Athlete of the Year three times in her career and was also Rookie of the Year both indoor and outdoors in her first season.
Hulton was six-time Liberty League Rookie of the Week and won the Liberty League Championship in the mile. She was also NYSCTC Champion in the 1000 and second in the mile. She is the fourth straight Saint athlete to earn Rookie of the Year honors.

March 14: St. Lawrence University junior Alyssa Pirienelli earned All America status in the shot put for the fourth time in her career on Saturday, finishing third in the NCAA Division III Championships at the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. Sophomore distance runner Wendy Pavlus also came through with an All America performance on Saturday, finishing sixth in the 5000 meters.

Pirinelli, who finished seventh in the weight throw on Friday to earn All America status in that event for the first time in her career, threw the shot 14.04 meters (46-0.75) on her final throw of the trials and that throw stood up for third place through the finals.

Monique Riddick of Montclair State defended her 2007 championship with a 14.27 meter throw. Pirinelli had throws of 13.93, 13.91 and 13.75 meters in the championship round.

Pavlus earned All America status for the second time indoors and the fourth time in her career with her sixth place finish in the 5000. She ran 17:15.15 improving her own SLU record in the event. Elise Tropiano of Amherst led a 15-runner field in 16:58.84. Pavlus has now earned All America honors twice in the 5000 meters, in the steeplechase outdoors and was an All America in cross country last fall.

March 13: St. Lawrence University junior Alyssa Pirinelli finished seventh in the 2009 NCAA Division III weight throw championship at Rose Hulman on Friday.

St. Lawrence University's women's track team has two individual champions and is three points off the lead in the team scores after day one of the 2009 ECAC Division III Indoor Championships at Tufts on Friday.

Wendy Pavlus won the 5000 meters in 17:27.97, easily below NCAA provisional qualifying standards and among the top 12 times in the country thus far this season. Pavlus was the defending ECAC champion in that event.

Alyssa Pirinelli also won another ECAC title, winning the shot put with a throw of 13.85 meters (45-5.25) to account for the Saint scoring in the meet.

Lisa Baron finished 10th in the shot put with a 11.82 meter throw while Jessica Venezia was 19th in the triple jump with a 10.55 meter jump. Kiersten LaPorte ran 8.91 seconds in the 55 meter hurdles qualifying, but did not advance to Saturday's final.

Mar. 7: Junior Alyssa Pirinelli finished second in the weight throw and the 4x800 relay team finished fifth to score the only points of the day for the St. Lawrence women's indoor track team at the 2009 ECAC Indoor Championships at Tufts on Saturday.

The Saints finished ninth among 51 scoring teams in the meet which was won by Springfield with 62 points. SLU finished with 32 points, 18 of them from Pirinelli, who won the shot in addition to finishing second in the weight and another ten from Friday's 5000 meter champion Wendy Pavlus.

Feb . 28: Alyssa Pirinelli was named the Field Athlete of the Meet after winning the weight throw with a record-shattering performance and adding yet another shot put title to her impressive resume as the Saint women's track and field team finished third at the 2009 New York State CollegiateTrack Conference Championships at RIT.

Ithaca won the team title with 233.50 points with Rochester second with 158, the Saints third with 140.5 and RPI fourth with 105.5 in a nine team field.

Pirinelli throw the went 17.65 meters, (57-11.0) the best throw in the nation thus far this season and set championship, association and SLU records with the throw. She also won the shot put with a throw of 13.68 meters, (44-10.75) an NCAA provisional qualifying mark. She also has the top mark in the country in that event, set at the New Balance Games.

Sophomore Wendy Pavlus trimmed another four seconds off her own record in the 3000 meter run with a second place finish in 10:09.11 in a 48-runner field and Jessica Venezia had a third place finish in the triple jump among the top Saint performances at the Denault Invitational at Cornell on Saturday.

Pavlus had the top finish for a Saint athlete with her second place run, finishing just under six seconds behind Cornell senior Aeriel Emig, who won in 10:03.73. Pavlus established her earlier record of 10:13.77 on the same track a year ago. Venezia jumped 10.78 meters (35-4.5) to finish third in a 28-athlete field. It was her best jump of the season thus far.

Lisa Baron added a fifth in the shot put with a 11.56 meter (37-7.25) throw while Cassie DiMarino was sixth in 1:20.25, Alexis Nuffer was eighth in 1:22.92 and Kelsey Rebehn was ninth in 1:22.97 in the 500 meters. Jenna Hulton finished seventh in 3:06.07 in the 1000 meters and Kiersten LaPorte advanced to the finals in the 60 meter hurdles with a 9.72 preliminary run and finished seventh in the final with a 10.05 clocking.

Amanda Maynard finished sixth in the high jump with a 1.55 meter jump while Holly Irion was 11th in the weight with a 13.24 meter throw.

Feb. 14: St. Lawrence University's women's indoor track and field team opened up a cushion in the final four events of the meet and went on to win its fifth straight Liberty League Indoor Track and Field Championship at the Newell Field House Saturday afternoon.

The Saints led second place Rensselaer by a 15 point margin with four events to be scored and tacked an additional six points on that lead with a win by Wendy Pavlus in the 5000 meters and seconds by both the 4x400 and 4x200 meter relays to take the team title with 181.5 points to RPI's 160.5. Hamilton finished third with 77 points with Union fourth with 68.

Alyssa Pirinelli (left) continued her domination of the Liberty League throw championships as she won her fifth straight shot put title and second straight weight throw championship, improving her own Liberty League records in both events. Her throw of 16.64 meters (54-7.25) in the weight also improved her own St. Lawrence record and she won the shot with a 13.79 meter (45-3) throw which improved her own league record. Her throw in the weight is in the top five nationally.

Sophomore Lisa Baron also had a solid showing in the throws finishing second in the shot with a 12.02 meter (39-5.25) throw and adding a fifth in the weight. Holly Irion was third in the weight as the Saints picked up 36 points in the throws.

Feb. 6: St. Lawrence University junior Alyssa Pirinelli improvedher own St. Lawrence record in the shot put with a sixth place finish in the New Balance Games at the Armory in New York City on Friday afternoon.

Pirinelli threw 14.52 meters (47-7.75) to improve her own Saint record by .32 meters. She finished sixth in a 57-athlete field, which included primarily Division I competitors. Pirinelli was the top Division III finisher in the event which was won by Anne Alexander of Tennessee with a throw of 16.75 meters (54-11.25). Tynisha McMillan of Connecticut was second at 15.70 with Rebecca O'Brien of North Carolina third at 15.48 and Kristy Woods and Tina Villa of Buffalo finishing fourth and fifth. All of the top six finishers competed in the fourth flight of the event.

Pirinelli finished 13th in the weight throw on Saturday, throwing 16.19 meters (53-1.50). The event was won by Ronda Gullatet, who was competing unattached and threw 19.70 meters. A total of 39 athletes competed in the event.

Feb. 10: Three members of the St. Lawrence University women's indoor track and field teams earned recognition from the Liberty League on Monday following their performances at the New Balance Games over the weekend.

Sophomore Wendy Pavlus (Tupper Lake, NY/Tupper Lake), who was one of just five Division III athletes to finish in the top 15 in an event, finishing 15th in the 5000-meter run with a time of in 18:11.94, earning Liberty League Track Performer of the Week honors. Teammate Alyssa Pirinelli (North Tonawanda, NY/North Tonawanda) was named ‘Field Performer of the Week' after being the only Division III athlete to finish in the top 15 in two events at the New Balance Games. She improved her own St. Lawrence record and met NCAA automatic qualification with a sixth place in the shot with a throw of 14.52, an improvement of .32 on her school record. She also finished 13th in the weight throw with a 16.19 meter throw. First-year athlete Jenna Hulton (Aurora, NY/East Aurora) came within a second of the St. Lawrence record in the mile with a 5:09.09, finishing ninth in her section and 24th overall in a 51-runner field at the New Balance Games. She was the top Division III finisher in the event and one of only two non-Division I athletes in the top 30, earning Liberty League Co-Rookie of the Week accolades.