The St. Thomas women’s track and field’s 4-x-100 meter relay team hit its stride to win the event with a 47.32 at Wednesday’s Tommie Twilight meet in O’Shaughnessy Stadium.

The 4-x-100 meter relay was one of 10 top-three finishes for the Tommies, and sophomore Mallory Burnham said her relay team’s success was partly due to improved technique.

“The past few meets we haven’t had the best handoffs, and so we really wanted to make this meet count. All of our handoffs went amazing,” Burnham said.

Burnham also won the 100 hurdles in 15.35 seconds.

“I was a lot more concentrated during finals, and I knew I had to give it my all,” Burnham said. “I was totally focusing on my race and putting everything out of my mind.”

Coach Joe Sweeney said he was happy with how the entire team did, especially since the meet was on the Tommies’ home track.

“Our theme for the night was ‘fire on the track,’ and we saw a lot of it. We smoked it,” Sweeney said.

Senior Larissa Peyton also posted a strong performance on the track in the 800-meter run. Peyton took second and clocked in with a career best 2:11.66. Peyton and teammate freshman Kayla Goeman, who placed sixth with a time of 2:14.86 in the 800, ran in a field of Division I and Division II athletes from the University of Minnesota and St. Cloud State University.

Peyton said she was initially intimidated by the pace of the race, but she gained ground in the last lap.

“We came through at the 400 and suddenly… I’m gaining on them,” Peyton said. “I just kept saying work it, work it.”

Junior Taylor Berg posted a career-best 4:34.32 in the 1,500-meter run, placing fifth in a strong field of runners.

Freshman sprinter Angela Tipp (12.44) and sophomore sprinter Christina Rozeske (12.54) took the three and four spots respectively in the 100-meter dash. In the 200-meter dash, sophomores Emily Van Heel (25.18) and Rozeske (25.75) claimed second and third place.

The Tommies also had success in the field events. Senior Traci Pastoors was victorious in the javelin with her season’s best throw (35.91 meters), and senior Amy Maas threw 40.74 meters in the discus to land third-place honors.

Sweeney said the 4-x-400 meter relay ended the meet on a high note because the team was able to break the four-minute mark to clock in at 3:49.87.

The 4-x-400 meter relay ran a season best and now ranks in the top five in the nation.

“It was an awesome night. You like to have a night like on our home track, and they really came through and rose to the occasion,” Sweeney said.

The women’s track team will compete this weekend at Hamline and then participate in the MIAC championships May 11 and 12 at Concordia-Moorhead.

Heidi Enninga can be reached at enni5264@stthomas.edu.