The University of Rhode Island women’s track and field team traveled up the road to Bryant University to compete in the Ocean State Cup over the weekend and came home as first-place finishers.

With questionable weather conditions plaguing Bryant for the second straight weekend, the meet, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, was moved to Friday. The team was able to avoid the cold and rain of Saturday and instead enjoyed temperatures that reached as high as 70 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday.

The men’s and women’s teams combined to lead the competition with 406 overall points on the day. The women’s team contributed 231 of those points, which also topped the competition.

“It was great to see both teams win together,” URI Head Coach Laurie Feit-Melnick said. “They ran really well. We had a really great meet [and] some very, very outstanding performances.”

Leading the way for Rhode Island was fifth-year thrower Megan Wood and first-year sprinter Odette van Wyk, who each earned first-place honors in two different individual events.

This was just the latest in a string of strong performances for Wood, who continues to lead the team both on and off the track, as the team’s leading thrower and sole member of the Atlantic 10 Conference All-Academic Team this past winter. Her throws of 13.89 meters in the shot put and 49.66 meters in the discus led both events. She also finished second in the hammer throw with a distance of 52.28 meters.

Van Wyk led all runners in the 100-meter and 200-meter with times of 12.06 and 24.52, respectively. Van Wyk also anchored URI’s first-place 4×100-meter relay team, whose final time of 46.00 was just enough to hold off second-place Bryant by .86 seconds.

“That was huge,” Feit-Melnick said. “This was a really good meet for [van Wyk], and we’re just so blessed to have her.”

The native of South Africa etched her name in the URI record books as well. With the results of the Ocean State Cup, van Wyk recorded the 10th-best 100-meter time in program history, while her 200-meter has her at fifth in the Rhody record books. The 4×100-meter relay also finished with the third-best time in URI history.

Some other highlights from a successful afternoon in Smithfield were second-year Abigail Colella’s first-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles and third-year Madeline Till’s 800-meter victory. First-years Macy Daigle and Kelsey Wolff finished atop the standings in the high jump and 1500-meter, respectively.

Across the board, including relays, the women’s team received 34 top-10 finishes, 29 top-five finishes and 21 podium spots en route to the top spot in the competition.

Coming up, the team will send athletes to Providence College for the Friar Invitational on Friday. The Rams will also send throwers to the Wilton Wright Invitational hosted by St. Cloud State University in New Haven, Connecticut on the same day.

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