Cara Laverty takes bronze and Big East honours via new Donegal record

Cara Laverty bagged gold and bronze medals at the Big East Championships in the United States at the weekend.

The Finn Valley AC athlete won individual bronze in the women’s 1 mile while she was part of the victorious Providence College 4x800m relay team.

At the Dr. Conrad Worrill Track and Field Facility in Chicago on Saturday, Laverty set a new Donegal record for an indoor mile when going 4:39.48.

Charlotte Tomkinson of Georgetown won in 4:34.77 with Nicole Vanasse from Vilanova second in 4:36.77.

Laverty earned All-Big East honors for her third-place finish.

Laverty, a senior at Providence, was joined by Gemma Galvin, Kiera Hall and Maeve O’Neill as they won the 4x800m relay in 8:38.58.

Providence will return to action at the New England Indoor Championship on March 6-7 in Boston.    

Lifford-Strabane AC athlete Ashleigh McArdle, now at DePaul University in Chicago, was sixth in the women’s pentathlon.

Read next: Silver linings and broken records for Donegal athletes at National Indoors

McArdle was third in the shot put when going out to 10.68m.

She was fifth in the long jump, leaping to 5.14m and she was sixth in both the 60m hurdles (9.28 seconds) and high jump (1.55m).

McArdle, who was seventh in the 800m in 2:39.34 ended with 3,282 points.