MOUNT BERRY, Ga. – With the conference championships quickly approaching, the Centre women's track & field team hit the road to compete in the Berry Field Day and Multis against teams from every division. The Colonels put together an excellent team performance as they finished second.
 
The Colonels finished with a combined team score of 117 points to take second place, 14 points behind first place Berry. Montevallo, Emory and Shorter rounded out the top five teams on the leaderboard.
 
MULTIS
 
In the heptathlon, All-American sophomore Serena McNeilly had a brilliant meet as she ran away with first place in both the high jump and long jump to get the win with a school record 4,404 points. During the heptathlon, McNeilly cleared 5-7.75 (1.72m) in the high jump to break the school record mark of 5-7 set by Shan Cammack in 1990, the oldest record on the books for Centre women's track & field.
 
FRIDAY
 
The women's 400m hurdles saw Janea Bottinelli finish in third place overall as she posted a time of 1:05.72.
 
In the 1500m, Erin Haugh was the top finisher for the Colonels, crossing the finish line in 4:47.73 to take third place.
 
The first individual event win of the meet for the Centre women came in the 5k as Gracie West was a wire-to-wire winner, finishing first with a time of 18:10.42. Cara Taylor finished fourth in the same race to give Centre 15 total points in the 5k.
 
The lone throwing event of the Friday session was the hammer and Lindsey Browning posted the top Division III mark, finishing second overall with a throw of 145-2 (44.25m).
 
In the triple jump, Marie De Amour Manirakiza finished in eighth place with a mark of 32-3.5 (9.84m).
 
SATURDAY
 
The first event of the Saturday session was the women's 4x100m relay and the record-setting team of Bottinelli, Amari Robinson, Chloe Hein and Madjo Doumbia almost did it again as they finished second overall with a time of 47.95.
 
In the 100m hurdles it was Callie Gormley who paced the Colonels with a time of 16.24 for seventh place, followed 0.24 seconds later by Bottinelli in eighth.
 
In the 100m, Doumbia ran another excellent race as she finished fourth with a time of 12.19. Hein finished seventh in 12.27, giving Centre the only D3 runners in the scoring column.
 
Haugh continued her string of solid runs in middle distance races as she posted a time of 2:22.77 to finish second in the 800m, followed by Adelyn Shupert in seventh.
 
The 200m was more of the same for Doumbia as the indoor All-American again posted the fastest Division III time, clocking in at 24.96 to finish second overall.
 
In the 3000m steeplechase, Abbott Renfro had the fastest time among D3 runners in the field, finishing third with a time of 13:22.73, with Lauren Wright finishing 0.06 seconds later in fourth place to rack up 11 more points for Centre.
 
The women's javelin saw Dayanara Mendez finish seventh overall with a throw of 110-11 (33.81m).
 
Moving to the long jump, the Colonels had the top two finishers in the event. Hein was three inches away from her school record mark as she won with a mark of 19-2.25 (5.85), followed closely by Doumbia, who jumped an even 19 feet (5.79m) to finish in second.
 
In the high jump, Claire Ackerman came in seventh place with a clear of 4-9.5 (1.46m)
 
Finally, in the discus, Lindsay Jessie posted a sixth place finish with a throw of 120-4 (36.67m).
 
NEXT UP
 
The Colonels will host the Centre Twilight on Apr. 18 in their final meet before the conference finals the following week.