Allison Hill won the New England Division III championship in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.86 seconds. (File photo by Tom Leonard '78)

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- Bates College placed sixth out of 31 point-scoring teams Saturday at the New England Division III Women's Indoor Championships, the Bobcats' best result at the meet since also placing sixth in 2010. 

Bates scored 48 points, trailing Southern Maine and Tufts, who tied for fourth place, by four points each. Rhode Island College was seventh with 37 points. MIT won the meet with 123.5.

Junior Allison Hill (Brunswick, Maine) captured the New England title in the 60-meter hurdles and shattered her own team record in the event, in Bates' headlining performance.

Hill (Brunswick, Maine), whose previous team record in the 60 hurdles was 9.01 at the start of the day, finished her preliminary heat in 8.93 seconds, the second-fastest in the field behind rival Peyton Dostie of Southern Maine. In the event final, Hill blazed to an 8.86-second finish, defeating runner-up Marilyn Allen of Tufts by 0.14 seconds. Dostie was fifth at 9.21. Hill's time would rank fourth in the country at the start of the day. The 60 hurdles replaced the 55-meter hurdles at most meets in 2011.

Hill also placed fourth overall in the 200 meters despite running in the second-fastest heat with a career-best time of 25.94 seconds. Hill leaped from fifth to fourth place on Bates' all-time performance list in the event.

Bates' other point-scoring and standout performances included:

• Senior captain Isabelle Unger (Charlotte, Vt.) placed third in the 1,000 meters in a career-best 2:58.35, jumping from No.5 on Bates' all-time performance list to No. 2, trailing only Kelley Puglisi's record of 2:57.68 from 2003.
• Sophomore Sally Ceesay (Bronx, N.Y.) placed third in the triple jump with a top effort of 36-9, her season-best by two inches. 
• First-year Ayden Eickhoff (Corvallis, Mont.) placed fourth in the 800 meters, finishing in 2:17.95.
• Bates placed fifth in the 4x200 relay, with Dickinson, junior Claire Markonic (Millerton, N.Y.), Hill and first-year Yeymi Rivas (Richmond, Calif.) finishing in 1:45.83, 0.22 behind fourth-place UMass-Boston. Bates' time made the quartet the second-fastest 4x200 unit in program history.
• Junior Jessica Wilson (Cumberland, Maine) placed sixth in the mile in 5:03.77, one of eight runners to beat the fieldhouse record.
• Sophomore Katherine Cook (South Burlington, Vt.) placed sixth in the 3,000 meters in a personal-best 10:22.06, moving into Bates' top-10 all-time performance list at No. 9.
• Bates finished sixth in the distance medley relay, with first-year Sarah Rothmann (Andover, Mass.), first-year Sarah Shoulta (Waterville, Maine), sophomore Julia Nemy (San Francisco, Calif.) and first-year Wendy Memishian (Medway, Mass.) finishing in 12:40.31.
• Bates ended the meet with a sixth-place performance in the 4x800 relay, with the ninth-best time in team history at 9:45.09. Unger, Eickhoff, first-year Katie Barker (Burlington, Vt.) and Wilson earned three last team points with the performance.
• Senior captain Alexis Dickinson (Brunswick, Maine) also broke a team record broke the team 60-meter dash record in the event trials, running a 7.96 race to qualify for finals, where she placed ninth in 7.99, matching her previous career best. Dickinson breaks the former team record of 7.98, set by Angeleque Hartt in 2014. The event replaced the 55-meter dash at most meets in 2011.
• Sophomore Srishti Sunil (Bangalore, India) recorded a personal-best in the triple jump, finishing ninth overall in 34-11.75.
• Nemy ran a personal-best 600 meters at 1:40.53, finishing 11th.

Bates competes next at Open New Englands, held at Boston University Feb. 26-27.