By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University women's track & field team opened the outdoor season at a pair of meets on Friday.

The majority of the team competed at the Jonathan Tymann Invitational hosted by Gordon College while a pair of Bears ran at the Emory Thrills in the Hills in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sophomore Grace Inacio (Taunton, Mass.) placed fifth in the 200-meter dash at Emory with a career-best time of 24.62 seconds. Inacio was just 2/100 of a second off Kiara Abrantes wind-aided school record time of 24.60 seconds.

Senior Naomi Cass (Westport, Mass.) finished seventh in the 5,000-meter run at Emory with a time of 17;58.31.

Freshman Savana Malo (Milford, Mass.) had an impressive debut to her women's outdoors track & field career.

Malo finished in the top four in a pair of events at the Jonathan Tymann Invitational, hosted by Gordon College, on Friday.

Malo was second in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, one-quarter inch. She was also four in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.23 seconds.

Sophomore Bella Grover (Warren, Mass.) finished third for the Bears in the high jump with a height of four feet, 9 3/4 inches.

Three Bears placed in the 10,000-meter race, led by sophomore Rhiannon Vos (Marstons Mills, Mass.), who was fourth in 43:40.47.

Junior Janelle Murphy (Brockton, Mass.) was fifth in 44:20.97 while graduate student Lisa Jaeger (Halle, Germany) was sixth in 45:03.15.

In the discus, freshman Madison Campbell (Weymouth, Mass.) was fourth (102'10"/31.35m) with teammate Jane Sitek Shaver (Burlington, Vt.), a sophomore, placing fifth
(101'9"/31.02m).

Sophomore Olivia Downin (Hudson, Mass.) took eighth in the 1,500 with a time of 5:22.39 while freshman Sophia Morin (Centerville, Mass.) was eighth in the shot put (29'4"/8.94m).

BSU will take part in the Amherst Spring Fling on April 4 at 10 a.m.