The University of Rhode Island women’s track and field team sent athletes to compete in North Carolina State University’s Raleigh Relays and Bryant University’s Black and Gold Invitational over the weekend, with athletes recording personal bests across both meets.

Fifth-year sprinter Sydney Federico and third-year Lily Saul were the Rams’ sole representatives at the Raleigh Relays, while the rest of the team stayed local with the Black and Gold Invitational, just a 45-minute drive from their home track.

With the wind chill in the high 20s in Smithfield, the coaching staff made the decision to scratch some athletes due to health and wellness concerns, but the team still received 13 top-10 finishes across the two days of the meet.

“We pulled some people from some events just because it wasn’t safe,” Rams Head Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick said. “It was very cold. We’re looking forward to some warmer weather, definitely excited for the outdoor season.”

Some athletes competed at the University of Central Florida on March 21 and 22, but due to the favorable conditions in Orlando, Feit-Melnick considered this as the first “real outdoor meet” of the season for the team.

The Black and Gold Invitational was highlighted by fourth-year Sofia Piccone’s second-place finish in the 5,000-meter, URI’s highest placement between the two meets. Her time of 17:33.00 was her second-best outdoor performance and third-best time overall.

“Sofia is an outstanding student-athlete and leader,” Feit-Melnick said. “She’s one of these tough kids. She had a hamstring injury in the winter, and she’s just been training so hard, going to [physical therapy], rehabbing. She has worked her butt off. This meet on Saturday was just a huge breakthrough for her.”

Piccone injured her hamstring in mid-December. As someone who worked every day to get back to a healthy place, Piccone said this made the performance that much more special for her.

“It’s just exciting to start the season like that coming off the injury,” Piccone said. “It solidified the fact that the work I’ve been doing… has been working and [provided] good momentum going into the rest of the season.”

Other standout performances at Bryant included second-year Alyssa Yankee’s two bronze medal finishes in the shot put and discus. The Coventry native recorded throws of 12.46 meters and 43.31 meters, respectively. First-year Mae Gall placed fifth in the discus with a personal-best mark of 41.13 meters.

First-year Charlotte Moscovici and second-year Olivia Priest tied for a fourth-place finish in the pole vault. The underclassmen each jumped 3.41 meters, an outdoor best for Moscovici.

First-year Kelsey Wolff’s time of 2:16.09 was good enough for fifth place in the 800-meter.

Overall, URI finished with 45 total points during its visit to Bryant, earning the team a sixth-place finish out of 16 teams.

Meanwhile in the Raleigh Relays, Federico doubled in the 400-meter and 200-meter, while Saul ran both the 1500-meter and 800-meter.

Federico’s 400-meter time of 55.44 on Friday was her second-best all-time and the team’s fourth-best individual performance in program history. She followed it up with an outdoor-best time of 24.82 seconds in the 200-meter on Saturday.

Saul ran the 1500-meter in a personal-best time of 4:22.82 on Friday, marking an 11-second improvement over her previous personal best. It’s the second-best individual performance in the 1500-meter in program history and has Saul ranked third in the Atlantic 10 Conference this year. She finished seventh overall in the 800-meter the next day with an outdoor-best time of 2:05.73. This time is also second-best in program history and leads the A-10 so far this year.

Coming up, the team will head back up the road to Bryant to compete in the Ocean State Cup beginning on Saturday.

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