The Middlebury women's track and field team is set to defend its NESCAC Championship from a year ago, traveling to Connecticut College for the conference championship on Saturday, April 29.
 
ABOUT MIDDLEBURY

• The Panthers are seeking their fourth program title (1998, 2000, 2022) and second straight. 
• Middlebury has finished in the top-three spots at the last 17 championships.
• The Panthers won the two meets that had team scoring this spring, claiming the Carla Coffey Invitational at Smith in a field of 10 squads, while taking its home invitational over five other teams.

PANTHERS TO WATCH

• Middlebury's Jaxon Palmer will look to defend her javelin title from a year ago on Saturday. Palmer currently has the third-best toss of the spring among conference competitors, registering a personal-best mark of 36.71m.
• Three NESCAC runner-up athletes from a year ago also return to the field. Kate Kenny was second last year in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and is currently third in the conference with a time of 10:58.59. Mary Scott Robinson was second in 2022 in the shot put. Ciara Dale rounds out the second-place finishers from last spring, and currently has the fourth-fastest 400 time (1:02.84).
• Rookie Julia Tulimieri set a school record in the shot put this spring with her toss of 12.35m. The mark sits atop the conference rankings heading into the weekend. 
• The 4x100 relay quartet of Cady Barns, Eva Kaiden, Michelle Louie and Melissa White rewrote the record books for the event twice this season. The team's fastest time of 47.69 leads the entire NESCAC field.
• The 4x400 relay (Dale, Anna Krouse, Louie, and Elle Thompson) also currently holds the top time of the conference so far this spring, registering a clocking of 3:56.81.
• In the discus, Madeline Sauders owns the best conference mark of the season at 37.00m.
• Kenny registered the second-quickest time in the 1,500 this season (4:37.10), while Thompson ranks third in the 800 (2:15.13). 
• Other top-five ranks include Emily Rubio in the high jump (second at 1.65m) and the 100 hurdles (fourth at 14.93), Audrey Grimes in the steeple (fourth at 11:00.69), Barns in the long jump (fourth at 5.51m) and Lucy Pollitt in the triple jump (fifth at 11.16m). 

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

• The field of competition returns 12 individual champions from last year. Eliza Cardwell of Amherst (100 hurdles, 400 hurdles) and Malissa Lindsey from Connecticut College (100, 200) highlight the group having each won a pair of titles in 2022.
• Bowdoin has the most past champions from a year ago, as Emma Hargreaves (shot put), Charlotte Hodge (pole vault) and Jada Scotland (discus) are all set to defend their titles.
• Grace Devanny of Wesleyan claimed the 400 title a year ago, and was crowned the 2023 NCAA Indoor Champion in the same event.

CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION

• Host School: Connecticut College (New London, Conn.)
• Championship Central
• Schedule of Events
• Live Video
• Live Results