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Raising the bar

Renowned coach, exceptional freshmen send program to new heights

By on January 29, 2013

Men’s ice hockey and women’s basketball are not the only top teams on campus. The Quinnipiac women’s indoor track team is having a record-breaking season of its own, registering 13 broken program records after just five meets this season.

Not only have the women performed well on the track, but junior Sam Stabile broke the ninth record of the season on the high jump as well.

Quinnipiac Athletics

“So far Sam has done a great job despite a few setbacks with sicknesses and injuries,” Quinnipiac head coach Carolyn Martin said. “We are really excited to see how she does once we have her training and competing for a full spring season. She is a competitor and is very talented.”

Stabile has had a slow start with the team due to being a two-time transfer from Northeastern and UMass Lowell and having to sit out due to the NCAA transfer rule, but on Jan. 11 at the University of Rhode Island’s Go Rhody Invitational, Stabile recorded a new program record in the high jump with a height of 5’1” (1.55 meters).

Stabile is not the only Bobcat who is breaking records. Quinnipiac had its first record-breaking day of the season at the Jay Carisella Invitational at Boston University on Dec. 1, 2012. Leading the Bobcats were five freshmen: Shameal Samuels, Kristen Ulrich, Alea Simons, Ashley Niemiec and Nadia Jarvis.

Samuels broke the program record in the 400-meter, while Ulrich broke the 200-meter and Simons broke the 60-meter sprint.
The 4×400-meter relay team broke its own record set on Jan. 11. Niemiec, Jarvis, Samuels and sophomore Rebecca Stabile recorded a 3:56.40 relay time.

“The freshmen on the team are doing very well,” Martin said. “But we still have some even higher expectations for some of them, we have been able to break quite a few records this year and I expect that we will continue to do this for the next year as our team continues to improve.”

For Jarvis, the relay was not the only record she surpassed. She broke an individual record on Dec. 9 in the 60-meter hurdles, clocking in a time of 9.62 seconds.

“Running in college has been such a great experience so far,” Jarvis said. “I am happy with where I am at at the moment but of course there is always room for improvement. There are so many new learning opportunities that I’m hoping to take full advantage of. As the season continues, I would like to see a drop in my 400 time as well as in the 60m hurdles.”

Jarvis and her 4×400-meter relay team beat their own record on Saturday improving to a time of 3:56:40.

Samuels also downed her own record set on Saturday in the 400-meter clocking in at 52.77 seconds. Simons’ impressive time of 8.02 in the 60-meter now stands as a program best for the Quinnipiac women’s track team.

Adding freshmen to the roster is not the only thing helping this group of women succeed. Alongside Martin, there is a new face amongst the coaching staff, Wilton Wright.

Wright has more than 50 years of coaching experience in track and field. He has been a part of Southern Connecticut State, Southern Methodist and Springfield College’s teams.

“I cannot say how excited I am to add Wilton to our coaching staff,” Martin said. “He has seen and done everything in the sport and we are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to work alongside him for the upcoming season.”

While Martin’s cross country team is used to dominating the Northeast Conference, she hopes to bring that success inside this season it the teams last year in the NEC.

“We are very excited about the expansion of the program,” Martin said. “We got some great talents in so we expect to turn a few heads in the conference this year.”

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