Track & Field
By Zak Kerr
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February 19, 2013
Imagine running a race, and just after you take off, an opponent spikes you in the back of the ankle, causing you to lose your stride and your heel to pop out of your shoe.
Junior Alyson McGonigle and her teammates not only won this race, but helped set a record in it, despite having half a foot in her shoe.
McGonigle, seniors Stephanie Paradis and Lydia Morton and sophomore Taylor Clevinger composed one of two successful Richmond women's track relay teams at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Track and Field Championships Friday and Saturday at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, R.I.
McGonigle, Paradis, Morton and Clevinger ran the women's 4-x-800-meter relay in an A-10 record time of 9 minutes, 3.71 seconds on Saturday, beating the former record holder and the second-place Rhode Island team by about four seconds.
And if McGonigle had run with both shoes fully on, the Spiders might have won by even more time.
When McGonigle was stepped on, she said: "I was trying to get my shoe back on for the first two laps but was unable to, so I had to change my gait and try to just keep it on and keep running."
As McGonigle passed her baton to Paradis, the Spiders relay team was in second place, just a few seconds behind the Rhode Island team.
"I was able to come back a lot in my last lap," McGonigle said.