New Record for Batu-Tiako as WPU Competes at Finals Week Competition

Davenport--The Statesmen women's track and field team closed out its pre-holiday slate with a solid showing at the St. Ambrose Finals Week Invitational Friday and Saturday.

William Penn placed sixth out of eight squads with 46 points, while Loras topped the standings with 174.5 points.

Abigaille Batu-Tiako (Sr., Plattsburgh, N.Y., Business Management) got things rolling by breaking her own school record in the pentathlon with 2,597 points.  Her previous mark was 2,486 points last year.

Headlining her fifth-place performance were third-places efforts in both the 60-meter hurdles and the long jump.  The senior was also fifth in the individual long jump at 17-2.

Michaela Kmiec (Sr., Centerville, Texas, Exercise Science) and Charlotte Hele (Apple Valley, Calif., Undecided) were WPU's best finishers at the meet, doing so in the one-mile run.  Kmiec took third in a time of 5:59.04, while Hele was next in fourth at 6:06.62.

Lilly Ostert (Fr., Madrid, Iowa, Exercise Science) placed fifth in the 60-meter dash in 7.94 seconds (7.90 in the prelims), while teammate A'luel Miller (Fr., Kansas City, Kan., Wellness and Recreation) was right behind her in sixth at 8.00 seconds (7.99 in the prelims).  Alexandra Rose (Jr., Quincy, Ill., Exercise Science) was also in the mix, taking ninth at 8.14.

Fellow sprinters De'Avae Adderley (So., Nassau, Bahamas, Engineering Technology) and Tabitha Rogers (So., Venice, Calif., Elementary Education) were high finishers in the 200-meter dash as well with Adderley ending up 10th (27.36) and Rogers taking 11th (27.47).

Phoebe Burt (Jr., Iowa City, Iowa, Sociology) was William Penn's top thrower, finishing eighth in the shot put at 37-7.75.

"With a good portion of our team competing in this meet, we really started to see us take form," Head Coach Victoria Vinokur said.  "For so many of our freshman and newcomers to be coming out and getting PRs in almost every event shows the amount of talent we have.  Abigaille Batu-Tiako broke her own school record in the pentathlon, including dropping nearly 25 seconds off of her 800 time.  That is an impressive feat in itself; she really dug deep and pushed herself to a massive PR.  Watching these athletes start to understand everything behind how they compete and how they are supposed to compete is really something.  They are coming into their own and pushing themselves day in and day out and it is obvious within their results."

Next Up: William Penn is off until the new year, traveling to Waverly on Saturday, January 13 as it competes in the Wartburg Chelsey Henkenius Open.