Bates College Women's track entering five athletes at NCAA Indoor Championships

Lewiston, ME (03/05/2019) — Mar 04, 2019

LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates women's track and field team will have five athletes competing in a combined three events at this week's NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by UMass-Boston and taking place at the Reggie Lewis Center.

Senior Katie Barker (Burlington, Vt.) will compete in the 3,000-meter run and senior Ayden Eickhoff (Corvallis, Mont.) will race for the second straight year in the 800 meters.

Bates will also run the distance medley relay, with sophomore Vanessa Paoella (Dingmans Ferry, Pa.), sophomore Amanda Kaufman (Somers, Conn.), first-year Elise Lambert (Amherst, N.H.) and Eickhoff comprising Bates' sixth DMR team to compete at NCAAs in the past eight years.

Eickhoff, a three-time All-American, is the seventh seed in the 800, based on a qualifying time of 2:11.97 from the BU Terrier Classic on Jan. 25. She placed fourth in the 800 at NCAAs one year ago, after she took eighth place in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2017. She also ran the 800-meter leg of Bates' fourth-place DMR in 2017. Eickhoff also qualified to compete at NCAAs in the mile as the sixth seed -- the same distance she'll run as the anchor leg in the distace medley relay.

Barker, a 2018 All-American in cross country, is the ninth seed out of 20 runners in the 3,000, based on her qualifying time of 9:51.88 from the New England Division III Championships. New to the meet this year is the addition of preliminary trials for the 3,000, with the top 12 advancing to the final a day later.

Paolella, Kaufman and Lambert are all making their NCAA Championship debuts. Lambert also qualified to compete in the 800 meters and would potentially have been the eighth seed in that event. She runs the 800-meter leg of the DMR, as Eickhoff did in 2016 and 2017. Paolella will run the leadoff 1,200-meter leg, followed by Kaufman in the 400.

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From left to right, Katie Barker, Ayden Eickhoff, Amanda Kaufman, Elise Lambert and Vanessa Paolella will represent Bates the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships, March 8-9, 2019 in Boston. (Photos by Brewster Burns for Bates College)