Lucia Garcia-Beltran broke a New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) record that had stood for more than two decades during a weekend of competitions for the TCNJ women’s track and field team. Competing at the ECAC/IC4A Championships, Garcia-Beltran set a new conference mark in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.48 seconds, surpassing the previous record of 7.54 seconds set by Diana Lawson of NJCU in 2004. Her performance is currently the fastest in NCAA Division III this year and ranks as the fifth-fastest all-time in that division.
Garcia-Beltran also established a new program record in the 200 meters, initially clocking 24.37 seconds to break Miriam Khan’s previous school best from 2011. She then improved her own mark to 24.30 seconds during the finals, which stands as the tenth-fastest time ever recorded in Division III.
Other notable performances at the championships included Kelly O’Grady and Alex Grivas achieving season-best times in the 800 meters, finishing with times of 2:15.33 and 2:17.82 respectively. O’Grady’s result places her among the top-25 Division III runners this season, while Grivas ranks within the top-60 nationally. Rukky Daranijo also posted a season-best time of 58.93 seconds in the 400 meters.
At Saturday’s Big Apple Invitational, Ava Biemuller finished eighth in the mile with a time of 5:17.46. In other events, Breanna Casais and Casey Noonan competed in the 400 meters while Taylor Rooney led TCNJ athletes in the 800 meters.
Field event highlights included freshman Emily Donise placing sixth in high jump and Isabella Mraz securing fourth place in pole vault competition. In long jump, Lia Malave, Larissa Itondo, and Erin McGauley all earned spots within the top ten finishers. Allison Lavin achieved third place finishes both in shot put and weight throw events.
The weekend began with Alissa Stumpf and Mia Zicchinella participating at Friday’s Fastrack National Invite where they placed fifteenth and sixteenth respectively in the women’s five-kilometer race.
