Sophomore Elisabeth Plympton stole the show for the Plattsburgh State indoor track and field team at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Championship last weekend, qualifying for the 2018 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships in Alabama in the process.
She will run in both the 60 and 200-meter events at the two-day championships in Birmingham.
The women took fifth place out of 22 teams on the back of Plympton’s performance at regionals.
“She’s been a huge contributor to our success,” head coach Nicholas Jones said. “She’s scored close to 20 points for us each of the last two weekends.”
Plympton took the top spot in the 200-meters with a personal best time of 25.25 seconds, and second place in the 60-meters with a 7.79 second time. Her time in the 200 is good for fourth best in all of Division III.
“I was happy with the 200 and the 4×200, but I wasn’t too happy with my 60,” Plympton said. “My start in the finals was not what I wanted it to be.”
Plympton was also a member of the women’s 4×200-meter relay team that took second. Sophomore Marissa Jones, freshman Janyll Barber and senior Ashlee Estes rounded out the quartet that finished with a time of 1:45.68.
Marissa Jones and Barber also finished well individually, getting second and fourth in the 400-meters respectively.
Plympton took the fact that a lot of the success is coming from a younger part of the team’s core as encouragement for the future.
“It’s really cool to be doing so well,” Plympton said. “Last year I don’t think we were anywhere close to the top five. Just the fact that we’re going to keep building and bringing on more people means that this is just the bottom. We can only do better from here.”
The men saw limited success but still had some strong performers with sophomore Anthony Ciccarelli winning the heptathlon with 4477 points, freshman Michael Warchol taking second in the 800-meters and junior Brian Fabian running tenth in the 400-meters.
Ciccarelli had finished fourth in the heptathlon at SUNYACs the weekend prior.
Nicholas Jones remarked that he was impressed with the feat, but sees more potential in Ciccarelli.
“He’s still got room to improve, and he’s only a sophomore,” Nicholas Jones said. “I’m anxious to see how he progresses through the rest of this year and years to come.”
Tomorrow and Saturday, though, the focus will all be on Plympton.
It will be her first nationals, and she is excited for the event and setting goals for the new stage she’s about to set foot on.
“I don’t really have expectations, I more so have goals, I hope to place top eight, but it’s my first nationals so I don’t really know what to expect at all. We’re just going to have to see.”
