By Jim Fenton
GENEVA, Ohio -- Three members of the Bridgewater State University outdoor women's track & field team received second-team All-American honors on Friday afternoon.
Seniors Serenity Sands (East Bridgewater, Mass.) and Kiara Abrantes (Somerset, Mass.) plus graduate student Alison McDonough (Halifax, Mass.) participated in races at the NCAA Division III Championships at the Spire Institute & Academy.
The top eight finishers in each event make the All-American first team while the next eight are on the second team.
Sands placed 13th in the high jump while Abrantes (400-meter) and McDonough (100-meter hurdles) were both 16th in their events.
Sands, a two-time first-team indoor All-American, was making her sixth overall appearance in the NCAAs (two indoors, four in a row outdoors).
Seeded No. 3, Sands cleared the first two heights of five feet, three inches and five feet, five inches (1.65m) on her second attempts. But she missed on three attempts at five feet, six inches (1.68m).
Sands was second out of five New Englanders in the 22-women field. Junior Allie Wildsmith of the Coast Guard Academy was the national champion with a jump of five feet, 10 3/4 (1,80m) inches.
Sands will be attending graduate school at Springfield College in the fall and hopes to be part of the track & field team there for the indoor season.
A Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference and Division III New England champion, Sands leaves BSU as the school record-holder in the indoor high jump (5'8.5"/1.74m).
Abrantes finished the 400 preliminary race in 55.98 seconds. The eighth and final qualifying time was 55.30 seconds.
Seeded 17th in the 22-woman field, Abrantes was third among New England runners. She was also a second-team All-American during the indoor season.
Abrantes, who owns five individual records at BSU, also took part in the NCAAs during the indoor season in Rochester, N.Y.
She established new Bears' records indoors in the 200, 400 and 500 and the 200 and 400 this outdoor season.
McDonough finished her last 100 hurdles race in 14.47 seconds. The final qualifying time was 14.12 seconds.
She was also a second-team All-American during the indoor championships in March.
Seeded No. 17 in the 22-woman field, McDonough was the second New England hurdler to finish. Junior Aryianna Garceau of UMass Boston was third in 13.91.
McDonough was in the NCAAs for a sixth time (three indoors, three outdoors).
She won multiple MASCAC titles during her career and earned All-Division III and All-New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Conference honors since arriving at BSU in the 2019-20 season.
McDonough exits with indoor records in the long jump and 60-meter dash and outdoor marks in the long jump and 100-meter dash.
The final event of the season for the BSU women's track & field team takes place Saturday afternoon.
The Bears 4x100 relay team will be in the NCAA championship race starting at 1:15 p.m.
The BSU relay group consists of McDonough, Abrantes, freshman Grace Inacio (Taunton, Mass.) and graduate student Jailene Escalera (Rockland, Mass.).
They broke their own school record in the national qualifying race Thursday with a time of 46.30. The Bears were fourth out of 16 teams.
It marked the third straight race that the foursome broke the BSU mark.
McDonough, Abrantes, Inacio and Escalera are the first BSU women's relay team to reach the NCAAs.
