Laura Pumphrey of East Hampton, Conn., Earns Invitation to NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships

2015 May 18

Laura Pumphrey is one of five WPI women's track and field student-athletes headed to St. Lawrence to compete in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships later this week.

Laura Pumphrey, a three-time All-America in the high jump, enters her final NCAA Championship third on the performance list with a PR of 5-8.75. The senior's NEICAAA All-New England All-Divisions winning height was nearly two inches better than the runner up from Boston College.

Stevens Institute of Technology's Gladys Njoku, this year's NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Champion, headlined the list until this past weekend with a 5-9.75 from the Lions Invitational on April 24. Pumphrey and Njoku finished with the same height (5-7) on Saturday; however, Njoku won the jump off to claim the title. Ripon's Jenna Breaker, meanwhile, soared 5-10 at the UW-La Crosse Qualifier this past weekend to take over the top spot.

Last year's winner and runner up (Julie Eagle), as well as the sixth-place finisher were seniors or grad students and exhausted their eligibility. The remaining five All-Americans are in the field as are all eight 2015 indoor All-Americans. Cortland's Taylor Hudson and Amherst's Kiana Herold were the only two to earn the honor last year and earlier this season.

Individually, Liz Pellegrini will contest the 400-meter hurdles for the second consecutive year and will add the 100-meter hurdles to her busy schedule. Last year she finished 14th the 400 hurdles in a time of 1:02.28. The junior will also contest the 4x100-meter relay along with teammates Maya Rhinehart (Springfield, MA), Alex Price (Franklin, MA) and Sara Velleca (Woodbury, CT).

Pellegrini clocked a 20th-ranked time of 14.53 in the 100 hurdles at the NEICAAA meet a week after posting a 21st-ranked time of 1:02.54 in the 400 hurdles at the New England Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Per the accepted entries list, Pellegrini will be seeded 18th in both events.

Price and Pellegrini are returning members of the 4x100-meter relay team that finished 13th (48.10) a year ago at Ohio Wesleyan. This year's foursome broke the school record and achieved the 16th-seeded qualifying time of 47.65 at the ECAC Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Friday. The effort would have been .21 seconds shy of All-America honors a year ago.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI is one of the nation's first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. WPI's talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Perspective Program. There are more than 40 WPI project centers throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.