ROCHESTER, NY – The Alfred University women's track & field team is fourth out of the seven teams competing in the Empire 8 Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday.
 
The Saxons are beating Houghton College, Hartwick College and Russell Sage College with 24 points after the first day of competition at Nazareth College. 10 of those points were earned by first-year Anne Spila (Mechanicsburg, PA/Trinity) as she won the javelin, making her the first ever Saxon on the women's side to win the Empire 8 crown in that event and only the second Saxon in history to win the E8 title, joining Alfred University NCAA-qualifier, Sean Locker '15. Locker was a two-time champion in the javelin on the men's side.
 
With the win, Spila is automatically All-Empire 8 First Team. She finished preliminaries with a throw of 25.80m (84'-8") but was bumped to fifth after another thrower in finals threw 25.90m (85'-0"). Spila reclaimed fourth with her fifth throw, reaching 26.31m (86'-4") before rocketing out a massive personal record throw of 30.39m (99'-8") on her sixth and final throw on Friday. She came into the meet with a PR of 25.86m (84'-10"). Her fifth and sixth throws both surpassed that previous mark.
 
Spila was joined on the podium in the javelin by Ana Ion (Bucharest, Romania/Episcopal School of Jacksonville). Ion earned six points with her throw of 27.89m (91'-6") to finish third. Her and Spila were also joined in the finals by Bianca Durso (Utica, NY/New Hartford Senior) and Madison Palmer (East Aurora, NY/East Aurora) making it the most athletes from a single school in the finals of a women's throwing event and tying with Nazareth in the women's long jump for most in the finals during a field event. Durso and Palmer just missed the podium with finishes of seventh and eighth, throwing marks of 25.22m (82'-9") and 24.32m (79'-9"), respectively.
 
"Anne's last throw was just absolutely incredible, putting together everything we've worked on and giving it her all just goes to show how determined she is and we couldn't be happier for her and the fact that we have an Empire 8 Champion after the first day," Head Coach Dr. Angie Taylor said. "All of our women who competed in javelin had so much positive energy and I think that's what led them to make the finals in the first place. We also want to give a big shout out to Madison who earned more team points in the hammer throw and our 4x800 relay team for doing the same. We're in a fantastic standing right now to really show everyone what we can accomplish and what our program is about so we're looking forward to tomorrow."
 
Palmer went on to add another four points to the Saxon total as she threw 41.96m (137'-8") in the hammer throw, finishing fourth in the event.
 
On the track, the 4x800-meter relay team of Morgan Brothers (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia), McKenzie Hall (Hornell, NY/Hornell), Sarah Lutkins (Union Springs, NY/Union Springs) and Olivia Gilbert (Ontario, NY/Wayne Central) also scored four team points, running a combined time of 10:38.04 for fourth place on Friday.
 
Day Two of the Empire 8 Outdoor Track & Field Championships will begin with field events starting at 11:00am on Saturday.