Dec. 10, 2001

LANDOVER, MD - The Johns Hopkins men's and women's indoor track and field teams opened the 2001-02 season at the University of Maryland Invitational this past Saturday. The Blue Jays competed against mostly Division I competition, including Maryland, Wake Forest, Temple, South Carolina, East Carolina, UMBC, Coppin State, Morgan State, Richmond, Loyola, and Delaware State. There was no team scoring.

Several Blue Jays performed well led by junior Brian Nichols, who finished tied for second in the pole vault with a mark of 13'05.75". Nichols vault was only about seven inches under his indoor school-record. Junior Quinlan Amos also performed well for the men with a 14th-place finish in the 200-meter run with a time of 22.95. Amos just missed his career-best indoor time of 22.75 he recorded as a freshman at the ECAC Championships. He also set a Hopkins mark with a time of 7.13 in the 60 meters.

Junior Rajeev Mahajan finished tied for sixth in the high jump with a mark of 6'2", while freshman Mike Shumski took 29th in the 200 meter run with a time of 24.67.

On the women's side, three Blue Jays finished among the top 14 in the mile run. Sophomore Laura Bauer took 11th-place with a time of 5:52.28, sophomore Anna Stirgwolt was 12th at a 5:54.52 pace, and sophomore Claire Gaden finished 14th with a time of 5:59.42. The women's distance medley relay team finished a strong sixth with a time of 12:39.33, less than a second behind Temple for fifth-place.

In the field events, sophomore Megan Carr recorded a top-10 finish in the pole vault, taking eighth-place with a mark of 8'6". Carr's mark tied the school-record for indoor pole vaults. In the shot put, freshman Andrea King finished 13th with a freshman-best throw of 36'0.25", just four inches short of the school-record set by junior Jackie Evans. Evans took 22nd-place with a mark of 33'1".

The Blue Jays return to action this Friday against Haverford College in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, where about 15 team members will compete.