Four athletes set new records for Bates women at Open New Englands

Posted by: Andy Walter on February 24, 2006

(From top) Kathleen Nugent, Ashley Wentworth, Izzy Alexander and Keelin Godsey all set new records Friday night at Open New Englands.

BOSTON — One more school record fell for the Bates College women’s track and field team Saturday, adding to the three that were broken Friday at the Open New Englands track meet at Boston University.

As a team, the Bobcats finished 11th overall, third best among all Division III teams.

Bates’ 4×400-meter relay team of senior Kathleen Nugent (Buxton, Maine), senior Danielle Touhey (Franklin, Mass.), first-year Izzy Alexander (Harvard, Mass.) and senior Ashley Wentworth (North Andover, Mass.) set a Bates record at 4:00.19, shaving time off the quartet’s previous best performance earlier this season. The time gives the group provisional qualification to compete at the NCAA Division III championships.

The Bates quartet finished ninth in the event, which includes top track and field athletes from all divisions across New England.

Their feat followed the team’s banner day on Friday, when three school records, a meet record and a facility record all fell for Bates.

Nugent (Buxton, Maine) set a new school mark in the pentathlon with 3,220 points, surpassing the previous record of 3,201 owned by Jennifer Kettle since 1981. Nugent placed third overall in the event.

Wentworth (North Andover, Mass.) broke the old Bates record in the 800 meters by over three seconds, covering the distance in 2:15.22. The previous mark of 2:18.49 was set by Kelley Puglisi in 2003. Wentworth met the provisional qualifying standard for the NCAA Division III championships.

Alexander (Harvard, Mass.) ran the 500 meters in 1:19.09, shaving .33 seconds off of Kelly Frazier’s 15-year-old school record.

Already owning the lead in the 20-pound weight throw, Godsey threw the weight 19.77 meters on his final toss, setting a new Open New Englands meet record by over 28 inches.

Also for Bates, sophomore Laura Golitko (Hopkinton, Mass.) finished 10th overall in the pole vault with a personal-best 10 feet and 10 inches.

Additionally, Bates’ distance medley relay team ran the second fastest time in school history on Friday, and Godsey finished fourth overall in the shot put on Saturday.