Improvement was the emphasis for the women's track team this weekend. Several runners set personal records as the team finished last in the Atlantic Coast Conference Track and Field Championships in Chapel Hill on Friday and Saturday. The team scored eight points in the meet. North Carolina won the championships with 198 points.
Christine Gregorski scored two points for the team by placing seventh in the heptathlon. She scored 4,094 points in the event to improve on her 10th-place performance in last year's ACC meet. Gregorski's performance was highlighted by a 5-1 high jump, a 16-5 long jump, an 87-foot javelin throw and a 26.85 second run in the 200 meters, all of which were personal records.
"I had some of the best performances I ever had in several events," Gregorski said. "It was beyond what I could have ever hoped for. I improved by 300 points over my previous best. Everything came together."
The 4 x 100 relay team placed sixth in the ACC in 50.77 seconds. The team of Renae Stahl, Jessica Garruto, Liz Lorscheider and Joanne Marlin scored three points in the event, as they finished 15 hundredths of a second ahead of the team from Wake Forest.
The team scored two more points in the 4 x 400 relay. Veronica Davi, Marlin, Lorscheider and Beth Gadkowski ran to a seventh-place finish in a time of 4:07.46.
Tracy Stevenson scored the team's other point with an eighth-place finish in the 10,000 meters. She completed the race in 38:23.53, outrunning her closest follower by over a minute.
Several runners other than Gregorski also set personal records. Stahl ran the 100 meters in 12.70 in her preliminary heat on Friday.
Three runners ran for their best times in the preliminaries of the 800 meters. Betsy Keever ran the race in 2:16.83 and Beth Berghausen and Joanna Boettinger finished in 2:17.72 and 2:18.81, respectively. Debbie Pilkey raced to her best times in both the 3,000 meters (10:35.10) and 5,000 meters (18:20.96).
"We asked our kids to do their best and I think 80 percent did their best ever," assistant coach Scott Yakola said. "That's all you can really ask for."
The team finished five points behind North Carolina State and 10 points behind Maryland. Clemson, led by Kim Graham who was named Most Outstanding Women's Performer, finished second behind North Carolina with 127 points. Clemson was followed by Virginia, Florida State and Wake Forest. Nelrae Pasha set an ACC record in the 400 meters to lead Georgia Tech to a sixth-place finish. Pasha also anchored Georgia Tech's victorious 4 x 400 relay team, which was in fifth place when she was handed the baton.
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