Bison finish sixth at Salisbury Spring Classic in Gardner debut

SALISBURY, Md. – The Gallaudet University women’s track and field season got underway Saturday at the Salisbury University Spring Classic where the Bison placed sixth out of 10 teams. GU scored team points in seven of the 19 events as the Bison accumulated 48 points and was 13 points shy of fifth-place. The meet marked the first for new head coach Mikaela Gardner as she made her coaching debut.

The host Sea Gulls won the event with 172 points as Shenandoah University finished a distant second with 113 points and Mansfield posted 85 points to round out the top three.

Sophomore thrower Jessica Israel (Frederick, Md.) placed in three different events as she won the shot put with a toss of 10.62 meters to give the Bison 10 team points. She was fourth in the javelin with a throw of 27.36 meters for five additional points and placed eighth in the discus (25.90 meters) for one point.

Mariah Ransom had a strong debut for the Bison as she won the 100 meter hurdles with a fast time of 16.73 seconds to give the Buff and Blue 10 more points. Teammate Tiffany Bridgett was fifth in the same event as she crossed the finish line in 20.87 seconds. Ransom was second in the in the 400 meter hurdles (1:12.16) where she collected eight team points.

GU was second in the 4x100 meter relay with a time of just over a minute (1:00.97). The team consisted of Morgan Madeline, Yana Novikova (Dallas, Texas), Maggie Hoyt (Edgecomb, Maine) and Brittni McIvor.

Junior Leanha Lawson (Philadelphia, Pa.) was seventh in the 400 meter dash with a time of 1:08.69 to give Gallaudet two points.

GU will be off for several weeks before the Bison will next participate in the Goucher College Classic on Saturday, March 26, in Towson, Md.