Lawrenceville, N.J. (May 6, 2007)? For only the second time over the past decade Manhattan Women's Track and Field did not finish atop the team standings at the MAAC Outdoor Championships. Despite record-breaking performances by freshman sprinter Diane Torsell and senior triple jumper Tiina Magi, the Lady Jaspers were forced to settle for a second place finish with 228 points.
Meet host Rider University, who is the only school to best Manhattan during the ten-year span, won the team title with a score of 243, but not before Torsell made a valiant effort to steal it for the Lady Jaspers.
Torsell held the top seed times in the 55m dash and 200m dash entering this past February's MAAC Indoor Championships, but the rookie was unable to compete due to injury. When she finally received her opportunity to compete with a conference championship hanging in the balance on Sunday, the sprinter from the Hoosier State put on a sprinting clinic. Not only did she capture the 100m and 200m titles as her seed times predicted, but she ran the 100m dash faster than any woman in meet history.
Showing no ill effects from the hamstring injury she incurred this winter, Torsell blitzed the rest of the field en route to setting the new 100m meet record at 11.94s. The former record of 12.20s was set by Manhattan's Stefanie Allen at the 2001 championships.
Although Torsell was unable to topple Allen's 200m meet record of 24.10s, also set in 2001, she proved more than a second better than the entire field. She claimed gold by clocking in at 25.52s, while Rider's Tricia Crotty clocked in at 26.53s to claim second place. The Lady Jaspers also picked up points in the event when junior Amy Colantuono (26.86s) placed fifth and junior Lauren Cervino (27.01s) took eighth. Colantuono also scored in the 100m dash by taking sixth place with a time of 12.98s.
Torsell's day did not end with her victories in the individual events; the freshman was also part of two winning relays.
With Colantuono leading off and Torsell, Cervino, and Malin Marmbrandt following, the 4x100 relay team successfully defended its title by posting a time of 49.66s.
Holding the same positions, Colantuono and Torsell later joined forces with Erin Gregorek and Shannon Radermacher for the 4x400m relay. The quartet easily won the title with a time of 3:58.13. Runner-up Rider finished more than five seconds off that pace.
Gregorek, a junior, just missed out on an individual crown, finishing second in the 400m hurdles.
Magi was also responsible for one of the four meet records that fell at the hands of a Lady Jasper during the two-day competition. After breaking the meet record in Saturday's long jump only to be surpassed by teammate Malin Marmbrandt later on in the competition, Magi made certain she was leaving Lawrenceville on Sunday with nothing less than the triple jump meet record. The senior, and two-time ECAC triple jump champ, won the triple jump crown by surpassing her own meet record from a year ago with a new mark of 12.21m.
Marmbrandt came closest to foiling her teammate's plans, but the rookie had to settle for second place in the triple jump with a mark of 11.77m. Junior Shanelle Lawrence (10.95m) was fourth in the event, while sophomore Paige McConney (10.54m) took seventh.
Both Magi and Marmbrandt put their versatility on display this weekend. Magi scored in six events, while Marmbrandt earned points in three individual events (triple jump, long jump, and 100m hurdles).
In addition to her triple jump crown and second place long jump finish, Magi was Manhattan's highest finisher in the javelin and also scored in the shot put, high jump, and 100m hurdles.
The only jumping event Magi failed to score in was the pole vault, where teammate Meredith Mante picked up the slack.
Mante won the title by clearing 3.33m.
Freshman Alexandra MacDougall was third overall with a height of 3.03m.
