EAGLE ROCK, Calif. - Antonia Hekster defended her SCIAC Championship in the hammer throw, and Sophia Laudi won the javelin with a new CMS record, to help the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's track and field team out to a lead after the first day of the SCIAC Championships on Saturday at Occidental College.

CMS ended Saturday with 64 points, giving it a solid margin going into the second day, with Pomona-Pitzer in second with 33, Redlands in third with 30, and Chapman (29) and Caltech (25) close behind.

Olivia Backholm was second in the steeplechase, Madeline Seifert was third in the long jump, and Quinn Smith was third in the javelin to earn All-SCIAC honors among events that had their finals on Saturday. In prelims, Josephine Jett had the top time in three different events (100 meters, 100 hurdles, 200 meters) to advance through to Sunday's finals.

Hekster threw 157'7" to defend her league crown by a margin of just over 10 feet over second place Cheyanne Rodriguez of Cal Lutheran. Gizelle Herrera was also fourth to add to the CMS opening-day point total.

In the javelin, Laudi was sitting in second place before her final attempt, when she uncorked a throw of 135 feet, six inches, adding almost three feet to her previous best of 132'10" set earlier this season.  Smith also had her All-SCIAC throw on her final attempt, reaching 124'4" to move into a tie for seventh in CMS history, breaking her previous PR of 120'6" and adding over 10 feet to her best throw in her first five attempts at SCIAC (112'9"). Hekster also came in seventh and Georgia Arnold eighth to score for the Athenas.  

Olivia Backholm earned All-SCIAC honors in the steeplechase with a second-place finish, breaking 11 minutes in 10:59.81, which places her sixth all-time in CMS history. Revere Schmidt earned fourth with an 11:08.18, a new PR which places eighth at CMS, while Olivia DeBoer (seventh) and Emily Kendrick (eighth) both scored.  

Seifert was the SCIAC Champion in the pole vault last year, and earned her way onto the podium in the long jump with a distance of 17'7.5". It was only the third time she had competed in the long jump in her career, after reaching 17 feet in her debut just under a month ago at the SCIAC Quad Cup at Redlands on March 29.

In the final event of the day, Sara Wexler (fifth), Talia Green (sixth) and Phoebe Wolfe Lyons (eighth) all scored to help CMS extend its lead going into the second day of competition.

In prelims, Jett was the top finisher in the 100-meter hurdles by almost a full second, clocking a 14.39, with Khrya Stiner of Chapman placing second in 15.37. Jett will be joined in tomorrow's hurdles finals by Georgia Rogers and Kaitlyn Creighton, who were third (15.44) and fourth (15.68), respectively. Jett then had a 12.14 in the 100 meters, which was the top time by .05 over Katriona Kirkpatrick of Pomona-Pitzer, and capped off her day with a 24.94 in the 200 meters, which was the top time by .08.

Jamie Habib was the top finisher in prelims in the 1500 meters with a 4:40.65, and will be joined in the finals by Brannan Rosenfeld and Olivia Smith in ninth and 12th, respectively. Rosemary McManus (third), Mia Voce (fifth) and Alyssa Ruiz (seventh) earned their way into the finals of the 800 meters.

Shriya Velichala won her heat in the 400-meter hurdles with 1:05.02 to advance through to the finals, with Creighton and Olivia Schleifer also earning their way through to Sunday by finishing sixth and seventh.

The second day of the SCIAC Championships gets underway tomorrow at 11 a.m. with the heptathlon, while field events will begin at 3 p.m. with the discus and high jump, followed by track events starting at 4:30 p.m. with the 4x100 relay.